Our Business
We are a group of nearly 500 passionate team members dedicated to building, developing, and managing homes for more than 13,000 Canadian households.
As community builders, we provide high quality homes and customer care to a diverse resident base ranging from students to families, to young professionals and seniors. We take great pride in catering to our tenants’ evolving needs and strive to have a positive impact in our communities.
OUR APPROACH TO
Sustainability
- Social
Our objective is to offer an unsurpassed resident experience in a culture where we value our differences and where everyone feels included and heard, creating a strong sense of belonging. We strive to offer a learning environment that supports our team members in their professional and personal development. We believe that dealing with people is the heart of any business, especially in the multi-family sector since our business impacts someone’s home.
- Environment
We are passionate about implementing sustainable projects and our objective is to pursue initiatives to reduce our environmental impacts. These initiatives benefit our residents, provide development opportunities for our teams and help to safeguard our environment through lower energy consumption, enhanced water and waste management, and reduced GHG emissions.
- Governance
At InterRent, our commitment to sustainability is driven by our belief to act responsibly for our future generations and treating each other fairly. This commitment, outlined in our Sustainability Policy is built on strong corporate ethics, transparency, compliance and discipline, overseen by our Board, and upheld by each team member across the entire company.
SUSTAINABILITY WITHIN
Our Communities
Energy management
We continually search for ways to reduce energy consumption in our portfolio and increase the share of renewables in our energy mix. For example, almost 100% of our communities have high efficiency boilers and the majority of our suites are equipped with Energy Star® appliances.
Waste management
In 2022, our waste data coverage improved to 34.2% from 16.4% from the previous year, corresponding to 2,444 tons of non-hazardous waste. It is a challenge to collect waste and recycling data in multi-family communities; however, this topic continues to be a focus for us.
Management of resident sustainability impacts
Our environmental management approach extends to resident sustainability impacts. Electrical submetering remains one of our largest conservation measures.
Emissions
As a REIT with 100% Canadian exposure, we believe it is imperative to track our emissions and take action to drive GHG reduction in support of Canada’s climate goals.
Water management
Water is a precious resource that must be managed, and we do so by installing many water-saving measures in our buildings. For example, more than 90% of our suites have low-flow toilets and the majority of our portfolio has water-saving fixtures.
34.2% waste disclosure coverage compared to 16.4% in 2021
83% of our portfolio has submetering capabilities
1.2% LFL energy consumption. Despite heating requirement being up 12%
What is Adaptive Reuse
and why is it important?
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous office buildings in downtown areas across the country have been left with high vacancies. According to Colliers Canada, the national office vacancy rate stands at 13.3%, with downtown areas being particularly affected at 14.7% as of the first quarter of 2023. This is a significant increase from the pre-pandemic vacancy rate of roughly 8% three years ago.
By repurposing existing structures, adaptive reuse projects breathe new life into underutilized buildings and transforms the building itself, and the surrounding community into vibrant spaces. At InterRent, we recognize the significance of these projects as a unique and sustainable solution to reinvigorate communities, while providing much needed additional housing for Canadians.
Spotlight
The Slayte
Our latest development, The Slayte, is a prime example of adaptive reuse in action. This project provided an opportunity to repurpose an aging government office building into additional homes, exceeding today’s energy efficiency and waste diversion standards.
By reusing the structure, it is estimated that 4,575 metric tons of carbon was diverted, translating to a 55% savings in carbon compared to a typical new build.
This is equivalent to:
-
- GHG emissions from driving an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle 1,750 times around the earth. Or,
- GHG emissions from 3,733 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year. Or,
- CO2 emissions from the electricity use of all the houses in Niagara-on-the-Lake for almost 6 months.
Construction Highlights
The community scored in all three criteria of the MLI Select Program: 1 energy efficiency, 2 accessibility and 3 affordability to qualify for MLI Select level 1.
- Saved 15.6 million kg of concrete, equivalent to 722 truckloads.
- Reused of reinforced steel, the weight of 100 fully-grown elephants.
- 25.7% better energy consumption than building code.
- 28.4% better greenhouse gas consumptions than building code.
- Donated flooring to Habitat for Humanity.
- Donated lighting fixtures and electrical components to Algonquin College for students to use as practice.
Innovating for Tomorrow
Here are some specific initiatives that we’re implementing to not only improve the sustainability profile of our communities; but to also improve the experience of our residents.
Past Reports
Access 2022 Report
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