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Diamond Schmitt designs two net-zero Ontario projects

3 years ago

One of Canada’s leading green architecture firms is doubling down on its sustainability commitment in its two most recent projects. Diamond Schmitt designed Toronto’s first net-zero energy and zero-carbon paramedic station, as well as Gladstone Village Passive House in Ottawa.

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Greybrook, a Toronto-based real estate and health care private equity firm, joined forces with two Canadian private investment firms to invest and partner with Delos. New York-based Delos intends to establish a national presence with the formation of Delos Canada.

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Earth Day provides an opportunity to reflect on what we as individuals can do to restore and care for our planet. To no surprise, at the Canada Green Building Council, it is something we think about each and every day.

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Vancouver’s Damon Motors, specializing in electric motorcycles has grown from a team of 13 to 50 over the past eight months. With 1,000 pre-orders for its electric motorcycles, Damon is establishing a manufacturing facility in Surrey that could produce up to 50,000 vehicles annually.

Yardi Pulse

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An ambitious nationwide goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require a rethink of new and existing buildings. Innovative technologies that turn buildings into clean power generators would help reduce reliance on electricity from the high-carbon grid.

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Halifax-based company CarbonCure — whose breakthrough technology can be used to retrofit existing concrete plants so they consume carbon dioxide as part of their normal production process — will take home one of two $7.5-million grand prize purses from Carbon XPRISE.

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Prologis, a leader in logistics real estate, is adopting LEED v4 for Core and Shell Volume Program for its U.S. assets. Prologis was the first logistics CRE developer to use the LEED volume program when it was originally offered in 2014.

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At a climate summit convened by U.S. President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Trudeau pledged that Canada would aggressively curb greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, a lower goal than Canada set in 2015.

Energy Profiles

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Banks, insurers and fund managers that control $70 trillion US of assets have banded together in efforts to speed up the global transition to a net-zero emissions economy with the aim of preventing the worst effects of climate change

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CleanCapital, one of the largest owner-operators of distributed solar assets in the U.S., announced a corporate investment from Manulife Investment Management to grow its clean energy assets initially with two portfolios of operating solar and energy storage projects totaling 63 MW.

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CIBC Capital Markets energy, infrastructure, and transition or EIT group include 100 employees from the bank’s global energy team and its global infrastructure and power team co-headed by Mike Freeborn and David Williams, from the energy, infrastructure and power teams.

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CDPQ sold most of its $782 million Exxon Mobil Corp. shares last year as part of a drive to reduce its exposure to carbon-intensive companies, reducing its investment to 1.9 million Exxon Mobil shares by Dec. 31, 2020 from 8.6 million a year earlier.

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In January, New York City announced its public service retirement fund would jettison $4 billion of fossil fuel-related investments followed by New York State announcing it would rebalance its $225 billion Common Retirement Fund for a goal of zero carbon emissions by 2040.

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Next month, shareholders of Canada’s largest railways companies will vote on bold climate-change resolutions that could compel both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific to publicize their carbon footprints and give shareholders a say in how they can improve them.

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As corporate sustainability goes mainstream, ESG reporting is being embraced beyond early adopters exuding good citizenship. Investors, markets and regulators are picking up on the value of environmental, social and governance data, which is being integrated more often into financial disclosures.

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Progressive thinkers have argued that a more sustainable form of capitalism would arise if companies reported on their environmental, social, and governance performance. Although such reporting has become widespread, environmental damage and social inequality are still growing.

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CEO Grant Strem and his team at Proton Technologies see depleted oilfields, considered by many to be a cleanup problem, as a way to create hydrogen gas using its game-changing technology, providing a huge opportunity to produce clean, low-cost energy.

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What do beer, banking and the world’s biggest online retailer have in common? Companies involved in these diverse businesses are making major renewable energy investments in Alberta, most recently Amazon, the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world.

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Tesla, which uses many “clean” metals produced by mining companies as well as some dirty ones, trades at 70 times partly because it’s seen as a solution to a warming planet whereas mining companies are seen as part of the problem.

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Hop off Toronto’s second-busiest subway line at Old Mill station, walk a few minutes down the adjacent ravine, wade into the Humber River and start casting a fly for salmon. Rob Cesta fishes every few weeks during the season.

Industry Events