That's One Smart Building

Passive House Corporate Headquarters

That’s One Smart Building!

We have officially moved into our new Passive House head office and we are so excited to announce that we have successfully completed all our Passive House testing! We are now waiting for the final review of our results and official Passive House certification from the International Passive House Institute. On our previous blog post we discussed encapsulating the value Charter provides to clients through our smart building. In this blog we will share some of our building’s smart capabilities that we are proud of.

Effective Communication:

  • Plumbing: Our hot water tank thinks and learns the building- creating hot water on demand quicker to those places where it is used most and reducing running water waste by having to wait for it to heat up.
  • Lighting: The lighting in our building is censored, if there is no activity our lights turn themselves off. We also utilize daylight harvesting, as the sun shines into our building, our lights react and dim to our pre-sets, reducing our power usage and ensuring a consistent lighting environment for our team.
  • HRV System: Rather than using a traditional HVAC system, we utilize Heat Recovery Ventilation systems. With the controlled climate of our Passive House design we use the HRV’s to harness heat from inside our building and transfer it to incoming fresh air from outside. With sensor monitor space utilization we ensure active areas are consistently furnished with fresh air warmed (or cooled) to consistent internal temperatures. This allows us to maintain a very comfortable and stable environment without the constant power up and turn off noise you get from a traditional HVAC system.
  • Charter HQ fun fact – with our building’s internal temperature set at 20 degrees Celsius, the weather could change between -15 to +32 and in that swing will only affect our internal temperature by +/- 1 degree without any additional heating!
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Better Space Utilization

We have aligned our layout with staff groupings that we believe to be most efficient. Our sensors feed this information into our buildings network for space analysis to ensure we are utilizing our spaces in the most effective ways. In the centre of our building is our gathering stairwell, open to our upper floor allowing staff to communicate and visibly see both floors (stay tuned for pictures after our Grand Opening).
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Increased efficiencies to the overall business

Our building is fitted with the latest technologies, one being our High Definition video systems, allowing us to spend less time traveling and more time face to face with our other offices and customers out of town – better on the environment and better on the business. Our wireless network not only delivers us with connectivity but also gives us additional censoring and asset tracking throughout our building, providing location services within a meter. Finally, after three years we have consolidated our fast-growing head office into one office location, increasing our collaboration among our various departments and executive.

We are proud to lead the charge on sustainable, energy efficient buildings that utilize technology to advance our corporate goals and ensure we do our part in reducing our energy consumption and CO2 emissions. This building aligns with what we want for our future, our clients and represents Charter’s values in a physical form.

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