Canada’s First Zero-Carbon Fire Hall Opens in Vancouver

By Mat Loup

On September 6, the City of Vancouver officially opened the doors at Fire Hall #17, the first Zero Carbon Building design (ZCB) certified fire hall in Canada and the first ZCB-certified project in British Columbia.

Our team provided a wide range of services for this state-of-the-art facility for Vancouver firefighters, including mechanical, electrical, fire protection, lighting design, and communication/security. Fire Hall #17 is a trailblazer; it was designed toreduce greenhouse gas emissions by 97% compared with the previous existing facility. This will be achieved via a high-performance building envelope, geo-exchange heat pumps, and an on-site solar PV array.The new fire hall is well on the way to achieving Passive House certification, which puts it in good company with 10 other City of Vancouver buildings either under development or recently completed that have attained that internationally recognized stamp of approval. These include childcare facilities in the city’s Gastown area.

“It is a demonstration we can make near zero-emissions buildings the new normal, while also helping to reduce energy and water consumption costs,” said Ken Sim, Mayor of Vancouver, in a news release.

Fire Hall 17 has already achieved LEED Gold certification and Net Zero Energy, as defined by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Other Canadian communities have studied this project to learn lessons on boosting the energy efficiency of their service buildings.

The project also garnered wide media coverage, including: