Westbank Projects Corp on Friday marked the grand opening of Telus Garden’s office component, the first “substantial” office tower in Canada built to new LEED Platinum standards, the telecommunications firm pointed out. Amazon, Accenture, Capstone Mining and law firm Bull Housser & Tupper have moved into the 450k SF office building, part of a 1M SF, $750M project that Telus says will transform an underutilized block of prime downtown real estate into a “showcase of architecture, design, environmental stewardship and advanced technology.”

What makes Telus Garden a green leader? It has a district energy system that'll reduce demand from conventional energy sources by 80% and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1 million kg a year. It also has Vancouver’s largest solar panel array on the office tower’s rooftop (above), plus rainwater capture systems to irrigate gardens throughout the development, and 10k SF outdoor meeting space and garden terraces on six levels. Telus Garden includes a 53-storey residential building (opening next year), 65k SF of retail and a Glowbal group restaurant.