Earth Rangers Centre: Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Earthly Education
The design team for the Earth Rangers Centre outside of Toronto approached the project with some lofty goals: to make the facility one of the most efficient buildings of its size in North America and to create a building that furthers the nonprofit organization’s efforts to educate children about biodiversity and adopting sustainable behaviors. The 63,000 ft2 building includes an animal habitat area and was toured by approximately 8,600 students and others in 2012. Thermal mass, a geothermal system coupled to radiant heating and cooling, building automation system and a reduced-size data center contribute to the building’s annual energy use intensity of 31.8 kBtu/ft2 • yr and 95 ENERGY STAR rating.
