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The staff was amalgamated from five different ���߲ݴ�ýlocations and many people live in nearby cities. “We’ve got approximately 1,200 people that are assigned to the building, a compilation of those five different locations, but we do have a flexible work model environment,” Fitzgerald said.

He said they refer to it as hybrid first, but they are seeing the number of people increase in the office as a result of the move to the new building. “It tends to go up and down depending on the day of the week,” Fitzgerald said.

Paul Hanna, executive vice-president of member relations, governance and corporate services at Co-operators, said there is also room for growth.

“We have significantly changed the work environment from our previous and what you would consider more traditional-style offices. There are dozens of collaborative workspaces; it almost feels like family rooms and rec rooms in certain instances, to provide much more comfort for groups of various sizes to get together and collaborate and innovate and brainstorm in addition to having the traditional offices and workstations,” Hanna said.

He said it is already helping the team to have everyone in one spot. “We’ve seen this already with the networking, the collaboration and the coaching and mentoring of our staff,” he said. “The new building provides features and attributes and benefits because of the new modern design that none of the old locations could offer.”

Fitzgerald said the evolving work culture has to do with the options. “We delivered on providing choice and variety and flexible working environments,” he said.

Though the pandemic proved you can accomplish “head-down solo work,” at home, people come to the office to achieve different things. “It has shifted to be more about team-based settings, collaborative environments and building on innovation,” Fitzgerald said.

Providing several options in one building is an opportunity for staff to make choices to suit the tasks at hand.

The team is also aiming to meet all standards for both the building and wellness of people going forward. Fitzgerald said one of the big advantages to building from the ground up and owning the land was they could make the building everything they wanted it to be.

Hanna said this includes striving for , and . “We have achieved zero-carbon building design standard certification,” he said. “It’s the first building of its kind that we could achieve all of these certifications at once.”

He said Boma Best, North American’s largest environmental assessment and certification program, provides standards for existing buildings. “It’s a voluntary program designed by industry for industry and it provides a framework for assessing the environmental performance and management of buildings of all sizes. So, it gets into smart and sustainable solutions for promoting health efficiency, cost effectiveness and low-carbon performance, so that’s another certification that we’re hoping to hold up as well,” Hanna said.

Fitzgerald said they are confident they have achieved the standards, based on a robust process and a scorecard they put together.

Fitzgerald said they partnered with Kitchener-based NEO Architecture Inc., and Hamilton’s Cooper Construction Ltd., to support and reinforce their commitment to the region.

“From my perspective, the Co-operators has delivered a facility that has proven you can build compelling workspaces while also holding true to your sustainability values. I’m hopeful that other organizations will follow soon down that path,” said Fitzgerald. “The hope is that we can be a catalyst for further sustainable construction developments.”

For more information about zero-carbon building from the Canada Green Building Council, visit .

Co-operators are an all-Canadian financial service that offer insurance and investment products and services. Their goals are to be client driven and future focused. For more about the Co-operators, visit .