by Brianna Crandall — June 17, 2015—The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) recently announced the winner and runners-up for the inaugural CaGBC Green Building Product of the Year Award at its Building Lasting Change conference, naming DIRTT Environmental Solutions as the inaugural winner for its prefabricated modular interior wall system, Enzo.
Product submissions were assessed based on four key areas: sustainability, transparency and verification, innovation, and application. The jury of experts from across Canada chose DIRTT’s Enzo line (see company video) of prefabricated modular building interiors due to its ingenuity and application, particularly as a benefit to healthcare facilities. Healthcare facilities have unique design challenges due to the regular need for space adaptations; acoustical issues associated with privacy; infection control requirements; limited budgets and other factors, points out CaGBC. DIRTT developed the Enzo line (see CaGBC video) to meet these design challenges, and has also managed to reduce the environmental impacts of the product.
The product is modular and flexible, reducing the burden and waste of regularly reconstructing healthcare interiors. Among its sustainability features, DIRTT completed a life-cycle assessment (LCA) for the product, created a global Product Category Rule (PCR) and had a third-party verified Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) completed. This information provides consumers with an extended degree of comfort that sustainable design claims are realistic and accurate.
Runners-up for the 2015 Green Building Product of the Year Award are:
- GlasCurtain Inc. for the creation of a fiberglass framing product for glass curtains that reportedly offers better energy performance than conventional aluminum framing, while increasing the lifespan of assemblies by reducing expansion and contraction; and
- MSL Fibre for its SONOclimat eco4, a rigid insulation panel that provides a continuous insulation sheathing layer for wood frame construction, made from 100% recycled wood fibers that are 100% recyclable at the end of its life.
