Hilton, Whole Foods take part in SWAP

Hilton, Whole Foods take part in SWAP

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through its Better Buildings Challenge program, is about to officially release the results of its first Better Buildings Challenge SWAP. The SWAP was a three-day event in December that saw Hilton Worldwide and Whole Foods Market swap energy teams in order to uncover new energy efficiency strategies and further accelerate energy efficiency goals.

Green Lodging News

How green is online shopping?

New study suggests the knock-on effects of delivery trucks may worsen traffic congestion and transport-related carbon emissions, reports Conservation magazine On the surface, shopping online seems good for the environment: it eliminates car trips and associated carbon emissions.

The Guardian

Green building employs more than oil, gas extraction: Study

The Canadian green building industry has experienced exponential growth and now employs more people than oil and gas extraction, mining, and forestry industries combined. Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) president and chief executive officer Thomas Mueller would like to see the industry double in size in the next decade.

Read more

Building industry poised to double green certifications by 2018

Demand for green certified buildings is continuing to soar with the market doubling every three years.  That is the central conclusion of a major new report backed by the World Green Building Council (WGBC), which found that a sharp increase in interest in green buildings in emerging markets such as China, India and the Middle East will see demand for green certification double as early as 2018.

Green Biz – Green Lodging News – Environmental Leader

Ontario targets big carbon emitters

Ontario industries can apply for $100 million in aid to cut greenhouse gas emissions as the province gets set to unveil its “cap and trade” program she announced at a west-end solar panel plant. Th province expects the program to raise $300 million in its first auction of emissions permits early in 2017.

Toronto Star

Ottawa hydroponic tomato farm becomes a massive LED lab

Talk about your unintended consequences.  To stretch the growing season of its tomatoes, Suntech Greenhouses Ltd. has installed red, blue and bright light emitting diode (LED) lights to warm up the cold grey light of winter at its four-acre indoor farm, located just north of the intersection of River Road and Roger Stevens Drive.

The Province

Agriculture goes vertical as buildings become farms

Aerofarming, also known as vertical or ‘skyscraper’ farming, is a futuristic model of indoor farming taking off in warehouses in cities in Japan, the United States and Singapore. In Japan, electronics giant Toshiba moved into high-tech farming last year when it converted one of its old warehouses into a high-tech lettuce factory.

Financial Review

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BRE Innovation Park to accelerate sustainability

At the Living City Campus at Kortright in Woodbridge, Ontario, roughly 15 kilometres north of Toronto, an innovation park will soon rise to become a ground-breaking environmental demonstration, research and education centre for the Canadian construction industry.

REMI Network

CaGBC is looking for the 2016 Greenest School in Canada

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and the Canada Coalition for Green Schools are looking for the 2016 Greenest School in Canada. Now in its third year, this annual competition seeks to highlight kindergarten to Grade 12 schools across the country that exemplify how sustainability can be woven into the infrastructure, culture and curriculum of a school.

Canada Green Building Council

Vancouver urban planner brings lessons back from Russia

Vancouver could learn a thing or two from how Russians manage their cities, says an architect who just returned from speaking at a Moscow conference.  Over the past two years, Michael Geller has been invited to speak at conferences and jury urban planning design competitions in Russia.

CBC

Push to declare Toronto a ‘Bee City’

One councillor is all abuzz about declaring Toronto as a “Bee City.”  Michelle Holland wants the parks and environment committee to pursue the designation — essentially a public commitment to “creating sustainable pollinator habitats.” If approved by city council, it would make Toronto the first Canadian Bee City.

Toronto Sun

Why community solar is becoming big business

What is community solar?  At the most basic level, the term refers to a renewably powered energy system that benefits multiple members of a community — a middle ground between individual rooftop installations and utility-scale solar arrays. But who owns the panels, who can claim the financial or environmental benefits of the project?

Green Biz

Tenfold increase in London, U.K. solar capacity possible

London could deliver a tenfold increase in solar power over the next 10 years, closing the gap which has seen the capital become the worst performing major city and region in the UK for solar adoption.  That is the conclusion of a new report released today by campaign group Greenpeace.

The Guardian

Sweden to go ‘carbon neutral’ by 2045

From carbon-negative data centers to impressive bike superhighways, many good green things have emanated from Sweden.  Recently this Nordic country suggested it was ready to make even bigger waves, declaring it was aiming to be one of the first countries in the world to go fossil fuel-free.

TreeHugger

How the Paris Agreement sparked green-building progress

You can’t talk about fighting climate change without talking about commercial properties and energy use. COP21 took place two months ago, but the conversations that started there are once again making waves, from the now-stalled Clean Power Plan to the recent announcement that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is stepping down as head of the climate forum. 

Green Biz

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Market Trends and Research

UMass Amherst research creating tool for sustainable cities

Green building expert Simi Hoque at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently received a five-year, $508,714 National Science Foundation CAREER award to develop an integrated planning tool that will measure, evaluate and predict the impacts of energy, water and land use, waste management and transportation systems at an urban scale.

University of Massachusetts

The five best green building ideas this century

The building industry is notoriously slow to change, but when the global recession hit a few years ago, smart builders carved a green niche to save their companies. Eco-friendly construction tends to continue, even when times are relatively bad, motivated by the idea of saving money on energy, water, and so on.

Energy Manager Today

8 ways to inspire innovation in the business of architecture

In architecture, as with almost every business, innovation is the most valuable ingredient for success over time.  When designing for clients — whether it is a university facility or a workplace — it is important to nurture a culture of innovation. Excerpt from Peter Busby book.

Green Biz

Commercial Real Estate

Does a pretty office make a productive workforce?

The view from office windows is rarely the stuff of picture postcards. Yet the scenic quality of our daily environments has a direct correlation on our personal wellbeing, researchers say. The team from Warwick Business School used results from an online game called Scenic-Or-Not, which features 217,000 images from around Britain and asks people to rate them.

The Guardian

Creating a 25-story energy-generating globe for Expo 2017

Take a sheet of copy paper and grip it flat in your hands. Next, gently push down evenly on both sides to form a smooth curve. Now, twist your left thumb up and your right thumb down. Ta-da! You have created a double-curved surface. Easy with paper not so with glass, especially if you want to integrate photovoltaics.

BDC Network

Residential Real Estate

8 homes that generate more energy than they consume

Your future home could make electric bills a thing of the past, and even help you earn money in the process. Plus-energy homes are popping up around the world, generating more energy than they use, and can even be set up to sell excess energy back to the grid. Beautiful, energy efficient, and increasingly affordable, these dwellings are proving the viability of renewable energy over fossil fuel sources. 

Inhabitat

Cities and Towns

N.W.T. village intends to go solar, but only in summer

While the rest of Canada talks and talks about reducing reliance on fossil fuels, one tiny northern town is leading the way in actually doing it.  Colville Lake, high in a corner of the Northwest Territories, has successfully tested a system of batteries and solar panels that should allow the community to run entirely on the sun’s energy — at least in the summer.

Times Colonist

Is urban farming only for rich hipsters?

pending on ethical food and drink products – including organic, Fairtrade, free range and freedom foods – hit £8.4bn in the UK in 2013, making up 8.5% of all household food sales.   By leveraging environmental credentials, such as local, sustainable and transparent production, a new wave of urban agriculture enterprises are justifying a premium price.

The Guardian

Masdar City’s dreams of being the first net-zero city

Utopia. A word used to describe a place where everything is perfect. And, from an environmental standpoint, Masdar City, located just outside of the United Arab Emirates’ capital city of Abu Dhabi, was billed as a futuristic, green city that was supposed to be an environmentalist’s utopia.

BDC Network

Australia’s greenest city Adelaide pulls ahead

The rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne stretches back through history. So too does the tug-of-war between Queensland and, well, just about all the other states. While these contests haven’t always been friendly, the race to be Australia’s greenest city will see the whole country benefitting.

The Guardian

Transit, bikes and transportation

UBC Broadway subway not the greenest idea

Building a subway line along Broadway is the wrong way to spend infrastructure funding from the federal government if Vancouver is serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions says one UBC professor.  Of the $60 billion infrastructure expenditures planned over the next decade $2 billion will come Vancouver’s way every year, predicts Patrick Condon, an architecture professor at UBC.

CBC

Government Programs and Incentives

Federal funds designated for green projects

VIDEO: The environment minister says $31.5 million in federal money will help fund environmental projects in cities and towns across the country. Catherine McKenna says cities have direct control over 40 per cent of the country’s emissions.

Globe and Mail

Greening Alberta’s building sector can stimulate economy

Alberta has done great work on the climate file. Phasing out coal, cleaning up the emissions profile of the oil sands and a carbon tax are all the right things to do.  But there is a big chunk of the emissions pie that hasn’t been addressed yet. Buildings. 

Huffington Post

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New United Technologies goals advance sustainable urbanization

New sustainability goals encompass UTC business operations, products and suppliers. UTC is on track for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Over 20 years, UTC has cut water use in half and lowered GHG emissions by a third while growing sales more than 200 percent.

PR Newswire

Waste Management

Decision on Lake Huron nuclear waste burial site delayed

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has dealt a setback to Ontario Power Generation’s plan for a nuclear waste burial site on the shores of Lake Huron.  In a letter to the provincially-owned utility Thursday, Ms. McKenna delayed a decision on whether to approve its proposed deep repository for low– and medium-level radioactive waste.

Globe and Mail