By Ted McIntyre
Winner: Tridel
Tridel goes back-to-back
It’s a lovely motto: “Built Green Built for Life.” But Tridel continues to live by those words—a key reason the Toronto-based developer has earned back-to-back Builder of the Year titles at the OHBA’s annual Awards of Distinction.
The architecture and design is there for all to see, including Tridel at The Well, a Best High-Rise nominee this year, as well as the company’s winning effort for Best Model Home Up to 2,500 SF for its Ten York condo. But its level of service, right through to its post-occupancy warranty, also continues to impress, with an astonishing 99.7% of customers reporting they’d refer friends/family.
Innovation remains a core value for Tridel, where smart-home technology extends right down to licence plate recognition and automated parcel delivery systems. Its Innovation Showcase Suite monitors circuit consumption and the state of each circuit breaker, with plumbing fixtures that conserve water, energy-efficient appliances and hardwood that helps purify air within the suite—all controlled by voice or a smartphone app. Tridel’s NetZED suite, meanwhile, is designed to produce as much energy as it consumes.
Further innovation is featured with the Deep Lake Water Cooling cistern at The Well, which harnesses cold water from Lake Ontario to be used for air conditioning, while the heating loop uses waste heat from an existing heating plant to deliver more efficient and lower carbon heating. This system uses up to 90% less electricity, eliminates ozone-depleting emissions and primarily uses renewable lake water, resulting in lower building maintenance costs.
Further, with Carbon Cure Technology, post-industrial carbon is injected back into concrete, making the building a permanent depository for carbon that otherwise would have been released into the atmosphere.
Tridel says quality is at the forefront, and the stats back it up: 91% of its homes are delivered with no deficiencies, and they have never had a chargeable Tarion conciliation. And as pioneers of green building, Tridel leads Canada’s sustainable condominium development, with most of its communities complying with Toronto Green Standard Tier 2, voluntarily exceeding the mandated Tier 1.
Tridel may shine most, however, when it comes to supporting its communities and industry, examples being: recent support of the Toronto Community Housing Corp’s ‘Investing in Our Diversity’ scholarship program; supporting the Angelo DelZotto School of Construction Management at George Brown (Ontario’s only four-year degree program in construction management), its WISE Corporate Social Responsibility vision (Workforce, Industry, Society, Environment); and its charitable foundation, Building Opportunities for Life Today (BOLT), which connects under-resourced youth to education and careers in construction through training and financial awards. 
Take Action, an employee-driven team, exemplifies Tridel’s passion, values and social impact, recycling hundreds of pounds of e-waste and donating thousands of food cans to the Daily Bread Food Bank. But Tridel stepped it up to another level during COVID-19, raising funds for Feed the Frontlines TO, feeding frontline workers while supporting local restaurants.
With active representation on a number of committees, boards and associations, Tridel continues to evolve the industry, hosting government officials, engineers and other developers in sharing knowledge and experience of smart-home automation, design excellence and energy-efficient dwellings to help GTA condo buyers get the best, most sustainable product, no matter where they call home.
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