GO Transit in Toronto recently attained LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Canada Gold certification for new construction and major renovations for its Pickering Station building—a first for a passenger rail station building in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.

The building underwent substantial rehabilitation and now features new passenger amenities and eco-friendly features, providing 60 percent savings in annual energy consumption.

“GO Transit is making a conscious effort to go green,” said GO Transit President Gary McNeil. “We are pushing ourselves to reach higher levels in environmental sustainability when it comes to the design, construction, and operation of our new station buildings and facilities.”

The Pickering Station is the latest in GO Transit’s use of environmentally conscious technologies at its maintenance and operational facilities. GO’s Brampton and Oshawa bus facilities are also LEED Gold certified, while the Halton Hills and Streetsville bus facilities received LEED Silver certification. The East Gwillimbury Bus Facility and Burlington GO Station, both now under construction, are designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.

“This project is just one example of how we’re making progress on transit and realizing ‘The Big Move,’ [which is] Metrolinx’s Regional Transportation Plan,” McNeil said. “While growing to meet customer demand, we’re also decreasing our carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions.”

The Pickering Station building’s eco-friendly features include:

• A ground-source heat pump that uses heat from the ground to warm the building in cooler weather and offset warmer temperatures;

• A heat recovery unit that extracts heat from the air leaving the building and uses it to heat the air entering the building;

• Low-flow plumbing fixtures that conserve 45 percent more potable water, equal to more than 400,000 liters of water per year; and

• A waste management plan implemented during construction that resulted in diverting 80 percent of construction waste from landfills.

GO Transit recently received LEED Gold certification for its Pickering Station.