Greg Rogers of Minto at the construction site of 180 Kent Street. (Photo by Darren Brown, OBJ)

Canada's commercial building industry association honoured the Minto Group Tuesday with its highest level of environmental certification for existing commercial buildings.

Minto Place was awarded the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Canada's Go Green certification for adopting industry best practices as well as the more comprehensive Go Green Plus certification, which involves a 1,000-point rating system and inspection based on components such as energy, water, waste reduction and emissions.

In accepting the certification, Minto Commercial Properties executive vice-president Greg Rogers highlighted how Minto Place recently reduced its annual energy use by 20 per cent and has cut its water consumption by 250,000 gallons annually.

Mr. Rogers also said Minto's 380,000-square foot office tower under construction at 180 Kent St. would use half the water and energy of a typical Ottawa office building and is the first Ottawa commercial multi-tenant office building to apply for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certification.

"We're recognizing not only their achievements, but their corporate philosophy," said Bob Perkins, the president of BOMA's Ottawa chapter, in presenting the certification.

Also on hand for the ceremony at Minto Place were Ontario's chief conservation officer, Peter Love, and federal Environment Minister John Baird, who praised Minto's leadership for voluntarily taking the lead in the ongoing challenge of creating ecologically-friendly buildings.