Endress+Hauser to build $28M green customer centre in Burlington

Aerial view of Endress+Hauser Canada’s planned Customer Experience Centre in Burlington. Ont.
Photo: Endress+Hauser

BURLINGTON, Ont. — Endress+Hauser Canada is building a new $28 million green Customer Experience Centre in Burlington, Ont. that aims to function on a net zero carbon and net zero energy basis.

The new building, near the companies current location, will be two-stories and approximately 47,000 square-feet. The company’s intention is to achieve the LEED Gold certification standard.

“Our goal is to create an exceptional facility in all respects that will not only be sustainable on the day it opens, but will still be considered as such decades from now,” says Anthony Varga, CEO and general manager, Endress+Hauser Canada Ltd., the Canadian office of the manufacturer of measurement instrumentation based  in Reinach, Switzerland.

The company’s current 27,000 square-foot headquarters is primarily an administration building, with few customer services except for one classroom used for training purposes. The new building, planned for occupancy in the third quarter of 2020, will feature the company’s second Process Training Unit (PTU) in Canada plus a calibration laboratory, an expanded workshop and a large training centre.

The PTU concept, featured in Endress+Hauser facilities globally and most recently in Edmonton, is a full-sized pilot plant with a wide range of the company’s instrumentation installed.

“All of our customers and partners will be able to come in and simulate process conditions that they would find in their own plants,” says Varga. “They can try out various products in real world conditions to gain confidence in performance once installed at their own sites. That, in turn, will help them make proper instrumentation choices.”

For employees, the new headquarters will feature two cafes, a fully equipped health and fitness room, a wellness room for private time, as well as a multi-faith prayer room and an outdoor terrace for employees and guests to enjoy. And a live full-sized tree will add oxygenation.

The new facility will be built on a four-acre site about 400 metres from the current one that offers an additional benefit: no additional emissions resulting from changed commuting patterns.

Plans to achieve net zero energy and emissions include using a reflective roof with double-sided solar panels to generate electricity during the day. At night, most electrically powered systems like video monitors will be turned off rather than drawing even standby power and the building environment will be maintained by heat pumps supplemented by a geothermal system.

Throughout the facility, Endress+Hauser products will be used – and showcased – as part of the building’s environmental control and monitoring systems.