The White Towers go green: Riverwind Strata Co-op's story of change

I’m sure we’ve all seen them - two stunningly white towers nestled among several other high-rises on the south side of the Edmonton River Valley. Riverwind Strata Co-op isn’t just a pretty face - behind those curved balconies and recognizable glass bricks lies a strong community that is working together to reduce their carbon emissions through energy efficiency.

Erik deJong, Riverwind Co-op’s president, agreed to sit down with me to talk about how Riverwind is leading the way in multi-residential building energy efficiency.

What is a strata co-op compared to a condo?

“The difference between a condo and a co-op, 99 percent of the time is just the ownership and the legal structure.” says Erik. “The not boring version of it is that in a condo there’s a single legal entity that owns the condos and the common areas and everything around it. Whereas in a co-op, members have a share in that ownership.” This allows the members of Riverwind Strata Co-op to have more control over the building’s policies.

A strata is the legal term for a space in the middle of the air. So, rather than owning land, in Riverwind you own a strata - a section of the condo building in vertical space.

How did Riverwind get started on energy efficiency upgrades?

Riverwind is one of the first multi-unit residential buildings that joined the City of Edmonton’s Building Energy Benchmarking Program and was awarded the most efficient in its class in their first year with additional efficiencies achieved in Year 2. Now starting its fourth year of benchmarking, the program assists building owners in monitoring their energy use and target areas that can improve the building’s energy efficiency.

“We were involved right from the outset,” says Erik. “It’s always a question that you have… with residential buildings there’s really nothing out there to compare yourself to.” By benchmarking their energy use, Riverwind Co-op was able to identify projects that could most reduce energy consumption.

What improvements have been made to the buildings?

One of the first changes made was the lighting. The on-site building manager replaced all the incandescent lighting with new LED bulbs. “Funny story about that,” says Erik. “He made the mistake that so many people make when they buy LED lights. Everybody buys the ‘daylight’ style lights thinking ‘oh that’s what I want!’ Turns out you actually want the warm style lights.” The cold blue lighting didn’t quite suit the warm interior of the Riverwind buildings, so they were used in the parkade instead. Warm white LED bulbs were bought for use in the hallways and common areas.

Individual residents were also encouraged to change their lighting to LED bulbs. Riverwind residents jumped on the Residential No-Charge Energy Savings Program from Energy Efficiency Alberta before registration was closed. “We got contacted by them and told you can do a whole building at a time and we absolutely jumped on it,” says Erik. “We probably had 50-60% uptake on that, and I was a little disappointed with that at first. But as it turned out a lot of the people had already made the changes to LED themselves.”

When the water heater in one of the towers had reached the end of its lifespan, Erik and the co-op jumped on the opportunity to make a change. “We made the decision to go with something that was a lot more efficient - a tankless system,” says Erik. “We did that in one tower, and when we saw how efficient is was we said, ‘let’s not even wait till the other one gets too old!’”

To determine what else they could focus their efforts on, the cooperative arranged an Energy Audit of the buildings. Through the Building Energy Benchmarking Program, Riverwind received an Energy Audit rebate to assist with the cost. “They told us where and why we were so efficient, so we knew where to focus our energy - pun intended,” says Erik.

A result of that audit led Riverwind to replace the front doors with a newer design that is much more energy efficient as the doors themselves are not only better insulators of heat but are also designed to be open for less time to keep the existing heat in. Additionally, a heater in the towers’ shared parkade was marked for replacement after it was found to be a major source of inefficient energy use.

Are there any future projects Riverwind has lined up?

Prompted by the announcement of the new Building Energy Retrofit Accelerator (BERA) rebate program, Riverwind recently decided to replace the aging rooftop make-up air units with newer, more efficient units.

Riverwind is also investigating how to retrofit the parkade for electric vehicle charging. They had an engineering company come in to determine how many electric cars the electrical system could handle, and were ecstatic to find that a charging install for 10 cars is a viable option without any major upgrades.

What advice can you give to other condo/co-op owners who want to reduce their energy consumption?

“It doesn’t seem like it, but one of the best ways to encourage energy efficiency in a building like this is to harness the power of community,” says Erik. A few years ago the co-op had a pergola with seating installed in the outside courtyard, and it has since become a community hub. “It’s where a lot of the conversations start for what we can do together,” says Erik. “If you wait for annual general meetings, you’re getting them once a year at best. If you have a community forum of sorts where people can meet regularly, you can throw those ideas around with each other and see what sticks and what misses without having to wait that year each time.”

Learn more about the Building Energy Benchmarking Program.

This post was written by our 2019 summer student, Sarah, and updated in 2020. If you live in Edmonton and have a climate change story to tell, let us know! Your story could be shared here too.