The Town of Okotoks viewed the development of several new Town buildings as a fantastic opportunity to set a ‘green’ building precedent in our community and create an incentive / rebate program for the construction of environmentally sustainable commercial and institutional buildings. From our research of other green building incentive/ rebate programs, the most economically efficient way for a municipality to proceed is through a third party certification / audit program. The most widely accepted third party certification program for commercial, light industrial and institutional buildings in North America is the LEED® Green Building Certification Program.
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System has continuously grown in popularity over the past fifteen years with continual revisions made to the program to streamline the administration process and set standards for a greater variety of building systems. In 2003, when the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) was formed, they adopted and launched Canadian specific LEED® Guidelines.