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SusGlobal’s Ont. HQ to convert waste to $2M of fertilizer

3 years ago

A Hamilton warehouse is being redeveloped to become SusGlobal Energy’s new headquarters and home to the company’s modern production facility, which will have the capacity to produce about $2 million worth of organic fertilizer daily.

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Commercial developers across Canada are determined to meet the challenges of climate change. Jonathan Gitlin, president of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, says there is more responsibility among developers than ever to use renewable resources and build in climate-friendly ways.

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While the British Columbia government offers rebates of up to $8,000 to encourage EV purchases, prices remain high. An even bigger hurdle for consumers is that many condominium parkades do not include charging outlets.

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As the Javits Center reopens post-pandemic, the convention center will boast a 1-acre rooftop working farm, among other sustainability features. The project includes 3,000 solar panels installed on the rooftop and storm water design which will reduce runoff by 25 per cent.

Energy Profiles

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Canadian fintech company, Mogo, is launching “Code Red Mode” in response to the UN’s 2021 report on climate change. Every transaction on the MogoCard will result in a new tree being planted, making the card a literal carbon-sucking machine.

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A green investment wave is washing over Canada. Cleantech and renewable energy companies secured $3.09 billion in equity financings during the first six months of 2021, a 335 per cent increase over the same period last year.

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Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, is about to work with the Canadian oil and gas sector — in a roundabout way. Several developments around oil and gas and climate policy in Canada illuminate the change that is taking place.

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An industrial facility in Iceland will join several projects removing CO2 from the air and putting it underground. But hurdles including high costs remain before this technology can be widely deployed and play a key role in tackling climate change.

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Methane escapes from Romania’s oil fields and gas pipes; however, a special infrared camera is capable of detecting the odorless gas, which has 80 times more warming power than carbon dioxide in the short term.

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Canadian environmental and emissions policy has focused on carbon dioxide (CO2) reductions with increasingly ambitious targets. But the recent IPCC report on emissions could inspire the country to turn its attention to a more harmful molecule: CH4.

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Duke Energy is working with Accenture and Microsoft on developing a first-of-its-kind technology platform designed to measure baseline methane emissions from natural gas distribution systems. The platform will enable Duke Energy’s teams to more rapidly identify and repair methane leaks.

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Air to Earth has launched a service offering permanent carbon removal subscription plans delivering measurable emission reduction results and advancing the removal of legacy emissions. Direct air capture removes carbon dioxide from the air for use or storage on Earth.

Canada Green Building Council

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Author Jason Hickel defines degrowth as “a planned downscaling of energy and resource use to bring the economy back into balance.” Meanwhile “decoupling” occurs when growth is separated from carbon emissions by switching to zero-carbon sources of energy.

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Seaweed could soon be harvested to make packaging, with the fiber having been earmarked as a potential sustainable alternative to conventional wood and paper material by global packaging company DS Smith.

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Doconomy — which provides banks and their customers with carbon and water footprint calculations — and environmental NGO Parley for the Oceans have partnered to boost solutions to the climate and plastic crises, focusing initially on carbon, water and plastic.

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As corporate demand for recycled content — particularly plastics — skyrockets, Keurig Dr Pepper, a founding member of The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, is addressing the problem. The Coalition will distribute $1.8 million to six U.S. Materials Recovery Facilities to recycle polypropylene.

Real Estate Forums

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Vancouver Community College (VCC) has taken a major step forward in providing technician training for hydrogen fuel, having joined Hydrogen B.C., a regional branch of the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association in British Columbia.

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Households Declare! is demanding that UK housing stock be fixed. Its mission: “We need a fair transition to limiting our emissions in a way that doesn’t exclude households unable to pay or push even more people into fuel poverty.”

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San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to reverse its decision to waive a key component of standby charges for microgrids, saying it creates an illegal cost shift between customer groups.

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A proposed European Union standard for green bonds, which is designed to align investment with the bloc’s climate goals, will probably fall flat without additional incentives for issuers, according to Stockholm-based SEB, which pioneered the instruments.

Industry Events