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Builder Jayman commits to energy-efficient, net-zero home options

3 years ago

Calgary-based homebuilder Jayman BUILT has launched a new product line in Alberta, the Quantum Performance Ultra E-Home concept, built to net-zero certification standards. Homebuyers can now choose a home that can produce as much energy on-site as it consumes annually.

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TMX Group Ltd. is launching a trading platform for sustainable bonds, giving retail investors the rare chance to buy and sell ESG-friendly debt while offering issuers a new source of capital to help Canada transition to a low-carbon economy.

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Aviva announced it intends to reach net-zero emissions across its operations, supply chain and investments by 2040, unveiling a number of new exclusion policies that will see the firm distance itself from the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel companies.

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According to DBRS Morningstar, the world’s fourth-largest credit ratings agency, large institutions are facing greater pressure from external shareholders to better manage their exposures to environmental risks, particularly property & casualty insurers after several years of heightened natural catastrophe losses.

Energy Profiles

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A report by environmental groups including Sierra Club and Rainforest Action Network documenting banks’ role in the climate crisis notes Canada’s major banks – RBC, TD Bank and Scotiabank – were among the world’s top-10 largest lenders to oil and gas firms.

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Pension industry veterans Wendy Mayall, ex-CIO of Unilever pension fund, and David Hunter, ex-CIO of Unilever pension fund, have founded a multi-manager platform that aims to open access for pension funds and institutional investors to deploy assets into renewable energy.

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Mark Carney, a leading figure behind this year’s global climate talks, has sparked concern among green advocates with recent remarks claiming Brookfield Asset Management zeroed out pollution across its portfolio calling into question what it takes to attain net-zero status.

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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says his government’s move to launch a co-ordinated, cross-department secretariat to promote the environmental, social and governance measures increasingly emphasized by global investors, will help attract much-needed dollars to the province.

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Delivery vans rumbling down the street have become an increasingly common sight over the past 12 months. The vans have become something of a lifeline, bringing food and other necessities, regrettable fashion purchases and, unfortunately, an increasing amount of climate-change-causing pollution.

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Conservationists were quick to suspect ioneer Ltd, an Australian firm that wants to mine the lithium that lies beneath an endangered species of flowers for use in electric vehicle batteries, alleging the flowers were “dug up and destroyed.”

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OPINION: Oil and coal are set for output declines in the next decades as global warming threatens to turn Earth into toast. Their carbon outputs are too high for comfort and society wants them squeezed out of the energy mix.

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Concrete is not glamorous. It is the workhorse of building materials: versatile, durable and almost universally ubiquitous, with 30 billion tons of concrete produced every year. Cement, a component of concrete, produces eight per cent of the world’s carbon footprint.

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A billion or two years ago, corals, brachiopods and other sea creatures took carbon dioxide and calcium out of the seawater to build shells out of calcium carbonate, little biological factories capable of building giant structures such as coral reefs.

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Plans for one of Canada’s largest ‘green hydrogen’ projects for injection into a natural gas distribution network in Quebec are underway. Evolugen and Gazifère, an Enbridge company, have teamed up to develop an approximately 20MW water electrolysis hydrogen production plant.

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The Region of Waterloo is reducing its environmental footprint with the installation of three cogeneration units at its three largest wastewater treatment plants that will produce about 12,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, the amount used by 1,200 houses a year.

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Orcas Power & Light Cooperative has set up a 500-kW solar microgrid on Decatur Island, that started operating in February, which includes a 1-MW, 2.6-MWh lithium iron phosphate battery storage system, one of several microgrids planned for the San Juan Islands.

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About 60 miles east of New York’s Montauk Point, a 128,000-acre expanse of the Atlantic Ocean is expected to produce enough electricity to power around 850,000 homes when it’s populated with wind turbines and connected to the onshore grid in the next few years.

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Hershey announced new commitments to advance its environmental progress and contribute to global climate action. Hershey has set new goals to reduce its global emissions in line with the global best practice of the Paris Climate Agreement.

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A new study points to a stunning loss of topsoil in the U.S. corn belt, the result of soil depleting farming practices. Beyond diminished agricultural productivity and more carbon in the atmosphere, it’s a catastrophic loss of an irreplaceable resource.

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The ReefLine will be a new seven-mile-long underwater public sculpture park, snorkel trail and artificial reef located off Miami Beach’s shoreline. OMA is collaborating with a team of marine biologists, researchers, architects and coastal engineers to design the project.

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