Winners of the 2019 EQ Awards Announced EnerQuality’s Awards celebrates the lasting and positive impact Canadian builders are making through their commitment to constructing energy-efficient homes

Toronto, Ontario (September 22, 2020) The leaders of the Ontario building industry gathered via a reimagined virtual event to celebrate, connect and share their successes at the EQ Awards. The Hon. Jeff Yurek MPP, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks provided welcome remarks and was on hand for EnerQuality’s announcement that together, its community of builders had achieved 90,000th ENERGY STAR certified homes. This represents $222M in energy savings to Ontario home builders, and 1,110,851 tonnes of CO2e. This astounding feat is the equivalent of a 2014 Ford 150 driving between British Columbia and Newfoundland 596,000 times!

“We are proud to bring together our family of high-performance homebuilders again this year and share our community’s transformational results,” says Rose Benedetto, Managing Director of EnerQuality. “Despite the pressures of our time, the industry reaffirmed their intention to continue to build better and certify new homes. These homes deliver substantial energy and cost savings to Ontario homeowners and climate benefits for Ontario communities.”

This year’s EQ Awards also served as a catalyst for the industry to collectively take action. Together, attendees of the EQ Awards raised $4,925 for Second Harvest -- enough to provide nearly 10,000 meals to their agencies.

Lori Nikkel, CEO of Second Harvest, the EQ Awards’ new Charitable Partner, provided remarks on how Canada’s largest food rescue organization is working to expand services to the country’s most vulnerable -- a situation made worse by COVID-19. Toronto-based developer Times Group Corporation took the virtual stage to share why they provided support to Second Harvest earlier this year. EnerQuality challenged builders to support Second Harvest through a donation campaign. The campaign will formally end Monday, October 12, 2020 which happens to be Thanksgiving.

Other special guests included Ruth Talbot, Director of the Buildings and Industry Division within the Office of Energy Efficiency, Natural Resources Canada, who congratulated members of the ENERGY STAR® Multifamily Steering Committee for their input and support of the ENERGY STAR Multifamily High-Rise (New Construction) pilot program. EnerQuality has enrolled 16 buildings and 2,583 units in the program with more to come.

Together, more than 250 building professionals logged on to enjoy the Awards following a virtual networking lounge that took place just before the show. Hosted by Strategic Change leader Connie Carras, President of CEC Enterprises Consulting, and facilitated by John Amardeil, Marketing Consultant, Larry Brydon, Vice-President, Business Development and Regulatory Affairs at Cricket Energy, Katherine Sparkes, Director at EnerQuality, and Sarah Margolius, EnerQuality’s Director of Partnerships, the session enabled participants to explore various provocative topics related to housing sparked by the pandemic, including:

● With the rapid transition to work from home, will our cities continue to intensify or will technology,
work from home and school from home grow the demand for larger and more remote dwellings?
● As transportation changes vehicles from fuel to battery to driverless to “as a service”, how long
will every home need a garage and what will we do with the extra space?
● Will technology adoption and innovation improve the ways the new home industry works together and collaborates in designing, selling and constructing new homes and improve the speed of delivery of new housing supply? Several new awards were added to the categories this year including the Green Renovation Project of the Year, Licensed Professional of the Year, HBA of the Year, Product Innovation - Mid and High Rise.

“Innovation drives our industry,” says Shannon Bertuzzi, Vice President, Market Development. “We have the solution providers to help accelerate housing of the future, and now is the time to showcase them and drive energy efficient and zero carbon options.” Special designations selected by EnerQuality included the EQ Industry Partner, Hall of Fame winner, Impact Award and Leader of the Year: 2019 EQ Award Winners:

For a full list of winners, click here.

EnerQuality Impact Award
Lakeview Homes

Stefanie Coleman - 2019 Leader of the Year
The 2019 EQ Leader of the Year was awarded to Stefanie Coleman. This award recognizes an individual or company for their commitment, advocacy and leadership in driving the growth of energy efficient housing in Ontario in 2019. Stefanie joined the residential construction industry 15 years ago as a renovation contractor. She studied building science extensively and has joined Building Knowledge Canada in delivering training, marketing and working with builders and renovators to construct exceptional homes for their clients. Stefanie has also been a vital member of the home builders association, serving as National President of CHBA in 2019/2020.

Lakeview Homes - 2019 Impact Award Winner
Lakeview Homes is the 2019 recipient of the Impact Award. This EnerQuality-selected award is given to a
builder that has made significant long-term voluntary progress in reducing carbon emissions and showed
outstanding achievements through energy efficiency and sustainable practices.

Doug Tarry 2019 - Hall of Fame Winner
EnerQuality is proud to name Doug Tarry as the recipient of the 2019 Hall of Fame Award. As the Vice President of Operations for Doug Tarry Homes, a second-generation builder of Net Zero and the CHBA Net Zero Home labelling program, Doug has helped to raise awareness and propel energy-saving initiatives within the company and is committed to building only homes to the CHBA Net Zero Home Labelling Program and ENERGY STAR standards. He initiated Project HOPE, a three-day Net Zero “home build” fundraising effort to help a family in need in his community. In addition, he is the founder of HOPE AGUA VITA, a fundraising effort taking volunteers to Puerto Rico to rebuild homes after Hurricane Maria. Dedicated to innovation, Doug is also the co-owner of Graphenstone Canada, an ecological paint and specialty coating company with zero VOCs and with the ability to absorb CO2. Doug is the Past
President of the Ontario Home Builder Association (OHBA), a two-time Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) National Grand SAM Award Winner, the current Technical Chair of the OHBA, and is part of the CHBA’s Net Zero and Technical Research Councils.

EnerQuality concluded the event by announcing a number of new training initiatives, including its Better Built Homes Online Workshop Series for New Construction and Renovation, which includes a pilot with CHBA on the Net Zero Renovations, the Better Built Buildings Online Workshop for Part 3 OBC focused on Energy Modelling and Building Enclosures supporting the ENERGY STAR Multifamily High-Rise program, and a number of other new initiatives to support the future of building.