FEDDEV Ontario supports the George Brown College Green Building Centre

On Friday, the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, on behalf of the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology and Minister of the Federal Economic Development Agency of Southern Donation (FEDDEV), announced a $6.6M contribution to the George Brown College Green Building Centre. The College is matching the Federal Government contribution with $6.8M to build the Green Building Centre, which is located at the Centre for Construction and Engineering Technologies (CCET) on the Casa Loma campus. This Centre will be used to conduct applied research in partnership with local businesses while training students in advanced construction systems, green energy and computer-enabled, efficient buildings. In particular, this centre will focus on construction practices that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition.

The Green Building Centre will offer the following services to industry partners:

• The Advanced Prototyping Lab, which will be used to rapidly develop new products for advanced building technology and energy management; 
• The Building Science Lab, which will provide a test site and demonstration lab for technology companies who want to refine prototypes and test innovative green building systems, materials and technologies in a realistic setting; 
• The Business Accelerator and Entrepreneurship Centre, which will pair industry partners with applied research experts, including faculty and students from the College, to work on project in the appropriate lab environments. The Centre will help these companies perform activities ranging from information gathering and analysis, product prototype development and testing to market development and commercialization, all with a view to bring products to market efficiently; and 
• The International Business Office, which will work to find new international markets for green technologies and to keep track of emerging trends around the world.

At the announcement on Friday, Rick Huijbregts, VP, Industry and Business Transformation for Cisco Canada and Executive-in-Residence at George Brown College for the Center for Construction and Engineering Technologies, spoke about the intersection of building an information technology as the new frontier in smart, connected buildings. Nancy Sherman, Dean of the Centre for Construction and Engineering Technologies, welcomed the news as being part of our ongoing ability to work with our industry partners in linking applied research to education in this important area of the economy.