Twenty-five years ago, Joanne McCallum and Greg Sather co-founded their own firm with a strong focus on sustainable design. Today, CaGBC released news that mcCallumSather is the recipient of the Green Building Pioneer national award for 25 years of sustainable design leadership.
“Since the beginning we have challenged ourselves to think differently – do things differently, demonstrate sustainability,” says Joanne McCallum, Executive Director. “We have walked the walk and we been fortunate to work with visionary clients, who share our values. We have shown that sustainable design is so much more than a service we offer, it is engrained in how we think. That is what makes this award so meaningful.”
In our firm’s history, we have been apart of amazing teams who have helped to challenge conventional thinking. This includes the design of 77 Governor’s Road in 1999, recognized widely as the most sustainable residential facility of its kind and a project that sparked our participation in a national speaking tour exploring the benefits of an integrated design approach in sustainable design. In 2003, we began offering LEED Facilitation Services, one of the first architectural firms to integrate this into their offerings. In 2004, we completed the design of the EMS Headquarters & Fleet Service Centre, the first project to achieve LEED Gold Certification under the newly formed CaGBC. This was followed by a series of first, projects that pushed our clients’ aspirational goals. In 2018, we achieved another important milestone. Working with B+H, RDH and other sustainable design leaders, our firm completed the first Net Zero Certified institutional facility in Canada, The Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation with Mohawk College. This has sparked a new wave of Net Zero opportunities, including the soon to be finished Endress+Hauser Customer Experience Centre in Burlington, Ontario, set to be the first private company to seek LEED Gold/Net Zero targets simultaneously in Canada and a new benchmark for the international privately-owned company.
In addition, Joanne has taken leadership positions with the CaGBC, members of our team are on the Board of Sustainable Labs Canada and we are frequent speakers on the topic of sustainable design, always guided by the firm’s mission of advancing sustainable design intelligence and sharing our lessons learned with others in the industry.
“Thank you to everyone, past and present, who contributed to this recognition for mcCallumSather. And to our future designers who inherit this responsibility, which will be more important than ever,” says Joanne.
