Photos courtesy Erik Missio

Last month, GO Transit unveiled its new bus garage facility, built to Silver levels under Canada Green Building Council's (CaGBC's) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED Canada) program. Once certified, the project will be the first LEED-rated transit building in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

The 20,264-m² (218,122-sf) building marks the inter-regional public transit service's largest design/build project. Led by Buttcon Ltd., the project team also included Strasman Architects, Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. (structural), MCW (mechanical/electrical), and Provident Energy Management (LEED consultant). They employed a comprehensive construction waste management plan to recycle most construction waste and maximized use of local materials to reduce the environmental impact of transportation.

The resulting building is designed to save more than 40 per cent over standard energy codes. Its design features include:
• light concrete and in-slab radiant heating;
• highly insulated roofs and windows;
• occupancy-based lighting;
• low-irrigation green roof over administration areas (subsequently filtered rainwater will be used for irrigation of exterior landscaping);
• reflective white roof for bus storage area;
• low-flow plumbing fixtures;
• finishes with reduced levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs);
• high-speed automatic doors to curtail heating loss;
• bicycle storage facilities to reduce employee automobile use; and
• ventilation systems for high levels of outdoor air to ensure excellent indoor air quality (IAQ).

Even the facility's location can be considered green—it occupies a 6.3-ha (15.6-acre) former brownfield site. Further, by situating the facility in Mississauga's Streetsville neighbourhood, GO is now able to store and service hundreds of buses in the west region without having them travel to a north Toronto garage daily. This not only saves fuel and fleet mileage, but also minimizes maintenance requirements.

Left: GO Transit's Streetsville facility can house more than 100 buses (including a fleet of double-deckers) and easily service twice that number. However, the building was designed with flexibility in mind—its precast concrete walls can be easily knocked out for future expansion.

Right: The facility's co-generation unit produces 1 MW of power—enough energy for 800 homes. It allows the GO facility to minimize peak electrical demand from the local grid, lowering reliance on coal-fired power and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The waste heat produced by the gas generator is captured and used by the facility for hot water. GO is expected to be able to sell hydro to the grid.