December 22, 2021

Manulife Investment Management announces that it has secured Zero Carbon Building Performance v2 certification at 980 Howe Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. This achievement is a prime example of the local sustainability efforts within the company’s real estate portfolio and the commitment to the ongoing focus on the health and wellbeing of its tenants, employees, and partners.

“Congratulations to the team who collectively worked with our partners in order to successfully achieve this certification and proudly pave the path as the company’s first building in the portfolio to attain the certification,” said Steve Smith, managing director, Western Canada at Manulife Investment Management. “980 Howe is now operating as carbon-free, with offsets. We will continue to implement our approved transition strategy into future capital planning as we work towards meeting our GHG reduction target of 80% by 2050¹.”

The Zero Carbon Building Program in Canada was initiated by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) to meet the needs of the low-carbon economy by making carbon reductions the key indicator of building performance. Taking a carbon centric approach is crucial because the most important factor in the emissions footprint of a building is often not energy performance, but rather the carbon intensity of the local grid and the fossil fuels and building materials used. This project was evaluated according to CaGBC's Zero Carbon Building - Performance Standard v2. The Zero Carbon Building – Performance (ZCB-Performance) Standard is an annual verification of the performance of zero carbon buildings. Certification is awarded based on 12 months of operations, and applicants are awarded certification once all requisite documentation is received, and a review by CaGBC confirms the requirements of the ZCB-Performance Standard have been met.

980 Howe has also achieved BOMA BEST^® Platinum, LEED Gold^® Core & Shell, and ENERGY STAR^® certified. In addition, it was awarded the following:

• BOMA BC Earth Award (2020)
• "Best in Class" for BOMA Canada Net Zero Challenge (2018)
• BOMA TOBY International Award Winner in the category Office Building 100,000 – 249,999 SF (2018)

This property also offers on-site electric vehicle charging and ample bicycle parking. 

1. Target is an intensity-based reduction of Scope 1 and 2 emissions for the properties that are within our operational control.