Tim Hortons Celebrates Earth Day With Its 1st Green Certified Restaurant

To celebrate Earth Day, Tim Hortons executives cut the ribbon today on the company’s first LEED® Certified restaurant, located at 969 Upper Ottawa Street in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The location, which was a parking lot two years ago, is now a learning environment for potential sustainable building and green design innovations that Tim Hortons plans to use in other restaurants. By the end of 2016, the restaurant brand hopes to build at least 30 LEED® certified projects.

LEED® Certified buildings meet one of the highest environmental performance standards in the world, assessed by site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, material selection, indoor air quality and innovation in design. The upper Ottawa Street restaurant was newly-constructed two years ago on a former parking lot near downtown Hamilton.

As part of the green design, 40% of construction materials used were either manufactured within an 800 km radius of the restaurant, or recycled from the original site. The parking lot surface itself was crushed and reused as granular fill. And, a total of 99 percent of construction waste materials were diverted from landfill through recycling and innovative salvage efforts.

Additionally, the new restaurant features a white roof to help keep the interior temperature cooler in the summer, LED exterior signage lighting to reduce energy consumption by more than 18 percent, and special glazed windows throughout the building to increase insulation. These new features can help a LEED® Certified restaurant to reduce energy costs by 23 percent, which translates to thousands of dollars in annual savings in operating costs.

“This certification is significant not only because one of Canada’s most well recognized brands is demonstrating its commitment to sustainability, but for the excellent example it sets for other national companies and restaurant chains,” said Thomas Mueller, President and CEO of the Canada Green Building Council.  “Sustainability can only be achieved through tangible efforts like these, and we look forward to working with Tim Hortons as they roll out their sustainability initiatives.”