The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that since its inception in 2011, Toronto's Race to Reduce has encouraged office landlords and tenants to work together to cut energy use. The Globe's Paul Attfield writes three years into the program and participants have reduced their energy consumption by 9 per cent, nearing the 10-per-cent target two years ahead of schedule. The 175 buildings taking part represent 67 million square feet of commercial space -- about one-third of all the commercial office buildings in the greater Toronto-Hamilton area. The reduction is about the same as taking 3,598 cars off the road. Royal Bank of Canada has vacated much of the Front Street corridor and moved into new, purpose-built buildings. Most prominent among those is the RBC Centre at Simcoe and Wellington, which has been certified LEED gold, and the new Waterpark Place III on Queen's Quay, which opens later this year and will be Toronto's first new LEED platinum office. In addition, RBC stripped down and rebuilt its old office at 180 Wellington St., replacing the building's facade, energy systems, generators and electromechanical systems to build what one RBC staffer calls a "state of the art, Class A building."