Mayor Recognizes Leading Ottawa Buildings for Energy Conservation

Mayor Recognizes Leading Ottawa Buildings for Energy Conservation

On October 17th, join us at City Hall for a special breakfast celebrating innovation in building performance and sustainable design. His Worship Mark Sutcliffe, Mayor of Ottawa, will present awards to top-performing building owners, managers, and operators for their outstanding achievements in reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Opening remarks will be delivered by Brent Gilmour of the Canada Green Building Council and Dan Dicaire of Ottawa Community Housing, setting the stage for a morning of inspiration, leadership, and collaboration.

All award recipients are active participants in the City’s Better Buildings Benchmarking Program, which promotes public disclosure of building performance. Under the City’s Climate Change Master Plan and Energy Evolution Strategy, buildings over 10,000 sq. ft. are encouraged to share their energy data in exchange for expert guidance, energy-saving opportunities, and peer-to-peer learning across the industry.

This year’s program also features Hydro Ottawa’s Retrofit Accelerator, recognizing organizations and individuals driving deep retrofits in commercial, institutional, and multi-unit residential buildings. Learn about available funding, expert advice, and training opportunities at www.hydroottawa.com/ora.

Don’t miss your chance to connect with Ottawa’s building innovators and celebrate the people and projects shaping a net-zero future.

Before entering politics, Mark was an award-winning journalist, entrepreneur, volunteer and grassroots activist.

For more than 30 years, he covered politics and current events as a host at CFRA, CityNews, TV Rogers and CPAC, and as an editor and columnist at the Ottawa Citizen .

Mark started his first business at 19 years old. He co-founded the Ottawa Business Journal in 1995 and founded and managed several other small and medium-sized businesses. He has played the role of coach, mentor and advisor to more than a hundred general managers, entrepreneurs, small business owners and leaders of non-profit organizations.

Mark is a passionate volunteer and fundraiser. He has chaired the board of directors of United Way Ottawa, the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce, OrKidstra, the Great Canadian Theater Company, the Ottawa Community Housing Foundation and Run Ottawa, and has served on the board of directors of Algonquin College, Invest Ottawa, Kind Ottawa, the Ottawa International Writers Festival and the Royal Ottawa Hospital Foundation. His contribution to the city was recognized in 2016 by his induction into the Order of Ottawa and his appointment as United Way Ambassador of the Year. In 2018, Mark presented a widely reported TEDx talk on the place of luck in one's life.

An accomplished marathon runner, Mark has raised over $250,000 for Ottawa charities through his fundraising runs. He is the author of four books, including Long Road to Boston , in which he chronicles his journey to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which he completed in 2015 and 2018. Mark and his wife Ginny have three children.

As the Chief Commercial Officer for the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC), Brent provides strategic direction for market-facing programs and groundbreaking initiatives that drive green building growth. With 20 years of leadership experience, Brent plays a vital role in CAGBC’s mission, overseeing and directing all business lines.

Before joining CAGBC, Brent was the executive director of QUEST, the voice for the Smart Energy Communities marketplace. Brent was responsible for overall corporate strategy, operational direction, and stakeholder engagement, helping guide QUEST from a concept to an established non-profit organization.

A passionate champion for sustainable development, Brent has also worked with the Canadian Urban Institute, the University of Toronto’s Sustainability Office, and as an independent research consultant. Brent continues to remain involved in community development as a registered professional planner and, in 2018, was a recipient of the Clean50 Outstanding Contribution to Clean Capitalism for Cities.

Dan Dicaire is a Professional Engineer and a Certified Energy Manager working in GHG reduction planning, high-performance building development and sustainability. Over his 15 years at Ottawa Community Housing, he coordinated the installation of over 1MW of solar arrays and managed multi-million-dollar lighting, mechanical, and plumbing retrofits that have cumulatively saved over $68 million. He led Canada’s first Net-Zero Panelized Deep Energy Retrofit at 197 Presland, and he is currently working with OCH’s development team on hundreds of high-performance, low-carbon units in planning and construction, including Mosaiq 2 at 820 Gladstone which has 112 geothermal boreholes.

Host or Publisher Kuleana Events Ltd.