WATERLOO - It's a modern, sleek building, from its bright three-storey atrium to its amenity-laden workspaces.

But the features that truly set the Evolv1 building apart aren't as readily apparent.

"You've got leading-edge, class A office space that doesn't immediately look sustainable," Adrian Conrad, of developer The Cora Group, told an audience at the building's grand opening Thursday.

The three-storey living wall, consisting of about 4,500 individual plants, and the vast solar array sheltering cars in the parking lot are a bit of a giveaway. But many of its most environmentally-friendly attributes - a geothermal well, rainwater cistern, solar wall technology and high-performance glass - aren't as prominent.

They all add up to make Evolv1 Canada's first net-positive, zero-carbon office building.

"This building will produce more energy than it consumes," Conrad said.

It was designed and engineered by Stantec, with its principal James Arvai as architect of record.

Evolv1 was a collaboration between Cora, Sustainable Waterloo Region, the David Johnston Research & Technology Park and anchor tenant EY, a professional services firm.

Progress on the high-tech building was charted in a charmingly low-key way, with project partners meeting every three weeks for breakfast at Angie's in Waterloo, said Sustainable Waterloo Region executive director Tova Davidson.

It's 95 per cent full on opening day, with tenants including EY, telecommunications tech company TextNow, and EvolvGreen, a partnership between Sustainable Waterloo Region, the Accelerator Centre, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

"The power is in our work together," Davidson said. "The momentum we've built can't stop here."

The building will welcome a new research and development lab for Borealis AI in the new year. Borealis AI, RBC's research arm, is already a partner in UW's Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute. UW professor Pascal Poupart will lead the Borealis AI lab here.

"We are all here today because we share a deep commitment to innovation," said Sandra Banks, UW's vice-president, university relations. "In Waterloo, we are making innovation a destination."

Plans are well underway for Evolv2, expected to take shape across the road from Evolv1 next year. It will be slightly larger than its 110,000-square foot sibling, "and maybe will have a new twist," Conrad said.

"We want to see other buildings do what we're doing," he said. "There's no excuse to build without a high level of sustainability."

bdavis@therecord.com

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Twitter: @DavisRecord