Sudbury, Ontario, located at the edge of a large geological structure known as the Sudbury Basin (a 1.85-billion-year-old meteorite impact crater), is home to Canada’s largest mining and smelting complex. By the 1970s, decades of mining and smelting nickel, copper and iron had reduced some 10,000 hectares of the surrounding area to desolation and had damaged watercourses for miles around. Sudbury is still a rich mining centre, but, as a result of a 90 % reduction in emissions and aggressive land reclamation, it has become a world centre for environmental science issues related to mining.
Working for years from four cabins, the Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit – a research joint venture involving Laurentian University, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources – needed a new home to expand its specialized research into the protection, remediation, and restoration of freshwater lakes and ecosystems.
The resulting Vale Living with Lakes Centre for Freshwater Restoration vastly increases the Cooperative’s research capabilities. The major funders of the project included Industry Canada (Knowledge and Infrastructure Program), Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities, Vale – a global mining company, FedNor, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Research Fund, and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.
The Centre provides researchers and technicians access to laboratories, classrooms, offices, environmental bays and a watershed restoration facility. At the Centre, researchers examine long-term effectiveness of pollution reduction, and how a damaged lake ecosystem is able to dynamically heal itself over time.
As well as being a centre of excellence for critically important ecological research, the Vale Living with Lakes Centre is an extraordinary building with an exceptionally low environmental footprint. The project makes extensive use of wood products harvested and manufactured close to Sudbury, including structural, framing and decorative wood products.
