Endress+Hauser Canada celebrates “green” building

Endress+Hauser Canada has erected one of the country’s “greenest” commercial buildings for 20 million euros. The recently-opened customer experience and process training center in Burlington, Ontario, roughly 50 kilometers southwest of Toronto, is energy-autonomous and CO₂ neutral.

The 4,400-square-meter facility – twice the size of the current location – houses a process training center, a large calibration lab, repair facility, training center and state-of-the-art office and recreational space for around 120 people.

Endress+Hauser has maintained a presence in Canada since 1990 with its own sales center, which manages customers from Manitoba, to the Atlantic provinces. The employees at the headquarters in Burlington, in addition to locations in Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton, are supported by various sales representatives. Whether primaries, metals & mining, oil & gas, food, chemicals, life sciences, water & wastewater, and power & energy, the resource-rich country is home to virtually all industries.

The new building in Burlington reflects the solid growth of the past years. “The Customer Experience Center is an impressive example of Endress+Hauser’s global strategy of cultivating and managing customer partnerships. This is how we grow – in Canada and worldwide,” says Matthias Altendorf, CEO of the Endress+Hauser Group. The building also represents the brand values of the Group. “It demonstrates our dedication to customers and our commitment to sustainability.”

“The new building is designed to express our standards as a company, not only to our customers but the public as a whole,” emphasizes Managing Director, Anthony Varga. In planning the project, Endress+Hauser Canada focused on the needs of the customers. “We can provide the best possible support to our customers over the entire lifecycle of their systems. We offer an inviting environment while setting standards for ecological building design.”

At the heart of the new building is a process training center, the second of its kind in Canada. Such process training units (PTU) can be found at Endress+Hauser locations around the world. Customers can use these pilot plant systems to practice hands-on how to operate a wide range of measurement instruments and profit from a long partnership with Rockwell Automation and other manufacturers. This allows customers to simulate conditions similar to their own operating environments.

Endress+Hauser places a high value on sustainability and energy efficiency in construction projects all around the world. The new building in Canada covers its electricity needs with more than 800 solar modules installed on the roof.

These panels can generate around 408,000 kilowatt hours of electricity on an annual basis, exceeding the needs of the building so that electricity can be fed into the grid. A geothermal system draws heat from 50 wells at a depth of 180 meters and distributes it across the entire building via 63 heat pumps.

The south-facing windows in the upper floor capture sunlight, while the triple-glazed façade prevents heat loss. A four-meter-high Ficus tree in the atrium improves the air quality and symbolizes the “green” mindset.

Thanks to all of these measures, the building is one of the greenest structures in the country. Endress+Hauser is the first private company to strive for all three certificates from the Canada Green Building Council: Net Zero Energy, Zero Carbon Building Standards and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) in Gold.