Minto Dominates at the 2014 EQ Awards!

The Minto Group team with the Green Builder of the Year award, featuring: Alison Minato, VP, Sustainability; Derek Hickson, Manager, Sustainable Developments; Wells Baker, Director, Conservation and Sustainable Design; Roya Khaleeli, Sustainable Design Professional; Also with Tex Mcleod, Mcleod & Associates

At the EnerQuality 2014 EQ Awards, Minto Group emerged as the big winners of the night, snagging three prestigious awards for their energy efficient practices and promotions.

Minto took home the coveted Ontario Green Builder of the Year Award, which recognizes the builder that lead the new home industry in energy efficient building and development over the last year. Minto also received the ENERGY STAR for New Homes Builder of the Year (Large Volume) and Best Green Marketing Campaign for their Longbranch community near the lake in Toronto.

“We are extremely proud to honour The Minto Group and their industry peers for their commitment to building a greener Ontario,” said Corey McBurney, President of EnerQuality. “Year after year Ontario’s residential construction industry finds innovative ways to build increasingly energy efficient homes, and they deserve recognition for their hard work.”

At the awards ceremony, Peter Gilgan, founder and CEO of Mattamy Homes, was inducted into the EnerQuality Hall of Fame for the lasting impact he and his company have made with regards to energy efficiency in the industry. Mattamy has built over 11,000 ENERGY STAR certified homes and they were one of the first builders to adopt the ENERGY STAR for New Homes program back in 2005.

“All Mattamy communities are thoughtfully planned and for us that extends to ensuring the homes we build are as energy efficient as possible, meeting the needs of all our stakeholders,” said Gilgan. “Sustainability is an important consideration for our purchasers, the communities where we build and for Canada as a whole. I’m proud of the leadership our family at Mattamy has shown in helping green building become more the standard, and hope the industry remains committed to building high-quality energy-efficient homes through progressive programs such as ENERGY STAR.”

Mr. Peter Gilgan, founder and CEO, Mattamy Homes with Corey McBurney, President, EnerQuality

It was also a big night for the ENERGY STAR program, as EnerQuality was celebrating its 10th anniversary! In 2014, 32% of the new homes built in Ontario were ENERGY STAR qualified, which means that they were 20% more efficient than the Ontario Building Code requires. With builders like Mattamy and Minto planning many new communities for 2015, we’re confident that there will be even more sustainable homes developed this year, and hopefully more builders take it upon themselves to follow in the green footsteps of these industry leaders.

There were also two other ENERGY STAR for New Homes Builder of the Year Awards handed out. Tamarack Homes won for the medium volume category and Midhaven Homes won for the small volume category.

The ENERGY STAR Champion of the Year Award went to Al Schmidt of A&J Energy Consultants for the tremendous work he has done collaborating with builders to increase the energy efficiency of their construction methods.

Other awards include the Building Innovation Award, which was taken by Doug Tarry Homes for their Optimum Basement Wall. The Evaluator of the Year Award went to Andrew Oding of Building Knowledge Canada, who was one of the speakers at the recent Green Homes Summit. Green Renovation Project of the Year went to Sloot Construction, Enbridge’s Savings by Design Award was won by Brookfield Residential, and Leader of the Year was presented to Shannon Bertuzzi of Enbridge Gas Distribution.

The whole team at Newinhomes.com sends our cognratulations to all the winners of the 2014 EQ Awards. We can’t wait to see which innovations emerge this year.