Certified spaces, real impact
Earth Day from the view of CREW
April 22, 2026
By: Michelle J. Landon, VP, Global Corporate Real Estate and Workspace (CREW)
This Earth Day, OMERS and Oxford Corporate Real Estate and Workspace (CREW) is spotlighting how our global offices are using internationally recognized certification frameworks to turn sustainability and well-being ambitions into measurable outcomes.
Our goal is to create offices that are efficient to run, better for the planet and healthier for our people. From Toronto to New York to London, we are targeting global standards, including LEED Platinum, WELL Platinum, and BREEAM Excellent, showcasing that OMERS and Oxford offices can be both high performing and people-centric.
Here are some key certification highlights for 2026:
Toronto: Our Toronto head office is pursuing LEED Gold Certification under LEED v4.1 Building Operations and Maintenance (O+M) - Interiors, driven by high-efficiency systems and strong operational performance. This represents a major step towards the turning of a busy, high-use office into a more efficient, future-ready workplace.
New York: Our 50 Hudson Yards office has achieved LEED Platinum under v4 ID+C: Commercial Interiors certification due to material selection to improve indoor air quality for our employees, integrated smart building systems to monitor and optimize energy usage, and leveraged the building's rain harvesting system to support cooling and irrigation needs. The office is also submitting an application for WELL Platinum under V2 Q1-Q2 2024 addenda: Commercial Interiors, an internationally recognized standard focused on enhancing the well-being of building occupants.
London: London is targeting BREEAM Excellent against the BREEAM Refurbishment and Fit-out 2014 Scheme and WELL Platinum under v2 (Q3-Q4 2024 Addenda), transforming sustainability and well-being targets into tangible design and operational features. From a design perspective, we prioritized facade-facing desks to maximize daylight and reduce reliance on artificial lighting, guided our sourcing of materials based on responsible procurement practices, and have embedded energy sub-metering across key systems to continue the monitoring when in operations. This space supports environmental performance as well as workplace experience.
Other global offices: Across our other locations, our teams are applying the same informed best practices designed to upgrade day-to-day operations, enhance health and well-being, and embed sustainability into how each office runs.
Turning certified spaces into everyday impact:
These benchmarks help us design and operate better spaces, however we believe their full value can be unlocked when paired with how our employees use those spaces every day.
CREW is proud to once again support our internal program encouraging employees to do their 1 Green Thing, taking place this week for Earth Week. The initiative invites colleagues to complete one simple, purpose-driven green action each day to help our workplaces and communities be more environmentally conscious. This includes:
Green commutes: walk, bike, transit or carpool
Going reusable: coffee cups and meal containers
Going paperless
Enjoying a meatless meal
Volunteering
We are excited to see this year’s impact of our collective action and the total amount of estimated emissions saved from these small but meaningful choices.