Montreal, Vancouver enter Reinventing Cities competition

Montreal, Vancouver join Reinventing Cities competition

Montreal and Vancouver are among 16 cities worldwide participating in Reinventing Cities, a global competition aimed at redeveloping underused publicly-owned sites and transforming them into sustainable, carbon-neutral urban renewal projects. Winning bids from developers, architects and neighbourhood groups will have to demonstrate how they can develop carbon-neutral projects which combine noteworthy architecture with local community benefits.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Montreal developer embraces timber-based construction

Montreal’s trendy Griffintown neighbourhood has experienced a flurry of new condominium construction over the past few years. Amid all those developments there is a new kid on the block: the eight-storey Arbora condominium-apartment complex. Arbora on closer inspection turns out to be quite special. The three buildings making up the complex are built with wood skeletons instead of the standard steel or concrete.

Globe and Mail

China joins the World Green Building Council community

China’s Green Building Council has officially partnered with the World Green Building Council in a major boost to international efforts to curb the environmental impact of the building and construction sectors, the two organizations announced. The partnership was hailed as “hugely significant” by the World GBC, given China’s position as the largest building construction market in the world.

GreenBiz – World Green Building Council

Apple facilities now run 100% renewable world-wide

Apple has built a massive solar farm here in North Carolina, and as early as 2013 was powering most of its facilities through renewables. The company has now finally announced that it is fully, 100% renewable at all retail stores, offices, data centers and co-located facilities in 43 countries around the world.

TreeHugger.com

Looking beyond the horizon of zero-net-energy buildings

Thanks to the emergence of the U.S. Green Building Council, founded in 1993, we’ve witnessed an incredibly fast transformation of building design and construction—probably the most rapid market transformation since the industrial revolution. Designers and builders have adapted their processes and delivery models—but the goal post has consistently and rapidly moved further downfield.

BDC Network

This isn’t a Passive House, it’s a power station

Most of the time we think of houses as consumers of energy. Lately we have been seeing Passive House Plus designs that are Net Zero, producing in a year as much energy as they consume. Now Justin Bere has designed Lark Rise, which raises the bar to a whole new level; It is not a house but a power station, generating twice as much power as it needs.

TreeHugger

Retooling the suburbs

A discussion with urbanist Markus Moos about suburban ways of living in 21st century Canada: When people think of the biggest cities in Canada, they often think of the iconic features of their downtowns – the CN Tower in Toronto, the Farine Five Roses sign in Montréal, Stanley Park in Vancouver. But the vast majority of population growth in Canada’s large urban areas is still occurring in their suburbs.

Corporate Knights

	Atlas shows projected impact of climate change
	Toronto is expected to have more than 100 searing-hot days a year in the coming decades if it doesn’t reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new mapping project released by the University of Winnipeg’s Prairie Climate Centre.
	Globe and Mail, April 4, 2018

 

Will Halifax be ready for future floods and storms?

The storm seemed mild by Nova Scotia’s standards: winds reaching only about 70 kilometres an hour. But the tides on the Halifax waterfront were higher than usual on Jan. 4, and harbour levels rose further, pushed by the accompanying low-pressure system. People who manage or own properties and businesses near the water understood it was a recipe for flooding.

Globe and Mail

Energy storage charges forward

Use it or lose it. Few products in the world have a shorter shelf life than electricity. That’s why pretty much everyone involved in the power sector — from utilities to buyers to startups to state regulators — is putting more energy than ever behind ways to extend it. That’s fueling a boom in projects and investments centered on advanced battery chemistries and alternative energy storage approaches, such as hydrogen fuel cells and thermal options that use hot water or ice to conserve power. 

GreenBiz

Rising seas could turn Acadian farms into marshes

Sackville, N.B. is ringed by more than 30 kilometres of grassy, earthen berms that hold back the Bay of Fundy. They cannot be seen from town, making them invisible to visitors and out of mind for residents, yet life here depends on them. Immediately east lies the floodplain of the Tantramar River, much of which would revert to tidal salt marshes if seawater pushed inland and the dikes failed.

Globe and Mail

Waterfront Toronto rushing to sign Don River flood protection deal

Waterfront Toronto and officials from the city, provincial and federal governments are scurrying to finalize a deal on the promised $1.25-billion Don River flood-protection project before the writ drops for the next Ontario election, which could see Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford made premier.

Globe and Mail

	Rising seas and climate change
	In a Globe and Mail series, Matthew McClearn examines how Canada’s most vulnerable coastal communities are preparing for potential catastrophe on their future shores. Here’s a primer on the science behind it.
	Globe and Mail, April 9, 2018

 

‘Carbon pricing works,’ Canadian economists say

A group of prominent Canadian economists has endorsed carbon pricing as a “powerful tool” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as conservative politicians from across the country ratchet up criticism of federal and provincial climate policies. In a report, the Ecofiscal Commission argued there is clear evidence that a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system is the most cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

Globe and Mail

Security regulators eye rules for company’s disclosure of risk

The Canadian Securities Administrators, an umbrella organization for the country’s 13 provincial and territorial capital markets watchdogs are considering new rules that would require companies to disclose more about how they identify and manage “material” risks from a variety of factors including climate change, cybersecurity, potential free trade barriers, and disruptive technology.

Financial Post – CBC – Securities Administrators Report on Carbon Disclosure – CBC

How to infuse distributed generation with institutional capital

Last month, I spoke at the 17th Annual Wall Street Green Summit, an event focused on exploring the latest developments in clean energy finance. The summit included industry experts who discussed an array of exciting developments throughout the renewable energy sector. My presentation focused on capital market strategies in distributed generation and wanted to share some highlights.

GreenBiz

BHP to quit global coal lobby group over climate change

Global miner BHP Billiton said on Thursday it had made a final decision to leave the World Coal Association (WCA) over differences on climate change but would remain a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. BHP has largely quit mining coal for power plants, but is the world’s largest exporter of coal for steel making. It said in December it had taken a preliminary decision to withdraw from the WCA, pending a full review.

Globe and Mail

Products, Technology and Design

Canadian compete with captured carbon technology

A $20 million international competition to make profitable products from a gas that otherwise would contribute to global warming has entered its final stretch. A group of Canadian oil sands producers have shown in a lab they can use carbon dioxide from power plants to potentially turn a profit making everything from concrete to methanol, an alcohol used in a range of products.

CBC

Market trends and research

Are Canadian companies ready for clean energy?

Change happens, with or without us. Just as social media upended communications, the transition to clean energy is rapidly undoing century-old expectations around electricity, transportation and oil – and it’s happening in market-shifting, often surprising ways. But while some Canadian companies are finding success in clean solutions, others –notably in Canada’s oil patch – are at risk of falling behind.

Globe and Mail

Tumbling costs for wind, solar, batteries challenge fossil fuels

Coal and gas are facing a mounting threat to their position in the world’s electricity generation mix, as a result of the spectacular reductions in cost not just for wind and solar technologies, but also for batteries – according to research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Globe-net.com

Canada’s environmental agenda is on the verge of collapse

There is no issue dividing us more than the environment. The debate around climate change has, at times, devolved into one big shouting match. And, today it’s louder than it’s ever been. Most people believe human-caused climate change is real, but far fewer agree on how to fix the problem. A new poll says a majority of Canadians favour setting emissions targets but aren’t sure carbon taxes are the way to reach these goals.

Globe and Mail

Renewable Energy

North Kent 100 MW wind power facility in Ontario starts up

Samsung Renewable Energy Inc. (Samsung) and Pattern Energy Group LP (Pattern Development) today announced that North Kent Wind, a 100 megawatt (MW) wind power facility located in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, has completed construction and is fully operational.

PR Newswire

Alberta opens bidding for more renewable power generation

The province is taking more bids from companies interested in producing renewable electricity as part of a plan to shift 30 per cent of Alberta’s grid to green sources by 2030. The competition seeks proposals to generate a total of 700 megawatts of solar, wind, biomass or other sustainable energy, enough to supply nearly 300,000 homes, Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd said Wednesday.

Calgary Herald

Residential Real Estate

$100 million for energy efficient home retrofits in Ontario

The governments of Canada and Ontario recently announced up to $100 million in funding to support energy efficient retrofit projects for homeowners. Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario, announced the funding earlier this week.

New in Homes – Globe and Mail

Homeowners want environmental assessment for Halifax project

Some homeowners in Upper Tantallon, N.S., want an environmental assessment done of a proposed development for the area. W.M. Fares Group hopes to build a residential and commercial development on an 8.6-acre site located at the corner of St. Margaret’s Bay Road and the Peggy’s Cove Road. The plan includes two apartment buildings, 18 townhouses and retail and office space with a 60-car parking lot.

CBC

Government Programs and Incentives

Triggering sustainability transformations

In December 2016, Canada’s First Ministers met to discuss, among other issues, the proposed Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. Introduced by the Trudeau government several weeks prior, a cornerstone of the action plan was a price on carbon: starting at $10/tonne in 2018 and rising to $50/tonne by 2022.

Corporate Knights

Canada mum on plans to cut shipping emissions

The United Nations group that regulates the international shipping industry is being asked to cut emissions from the cargo ships, oil tankers and other vessels that crisscross the world’s oceans, as they threaten to become the single-largest source of planet-warming greenhouse gases. Canada, however, is being secretive about what it wants to see done ahead of a meeting in the United Kingdom next week.

Toronto Star

Ontario’s energy plan ignores provincial climate law, watchdog says

Ontario’s environmental watchdog says the Liberal government’s long-term energy plan ignores its own climate change law and more must be done to shift the province from fossil fuels to low-carbon sources. Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe says that Ontario’s climate laws would require a drop in fossil fuel use by 40 to 50 percent in the next 13 years to meet that goal.

CBC

Manitoba NDP plans to delay carbon-tax law

Manitoba’s Opposition New Democrats said Thursday they plan to delay the province’s proposed carbon tax law which will add just over five cents a litre to the cost of gasoline and drive up the cost other fuels. The Progressive Conservative government has introduced a bill to enact the tax on Sept. 1, and NDP Leader Wab Kinew said his party will not let the bill become law until sometime after the fall sitting of the legislature begins Oct. 3.

Globe and Mail

Corporate Sustainability

A new age of corporate responsibility is upon us

Only a quarter into 2018 and it’s already been an incredible year for corporate responsibility across many fronts. Protests, boycotts and calls-to-action from the grassroots to the C-Suite level indicate that a new playing field is being built: In the workplace: Equal pay and human rights protections are being vehemently fought for across industries and professional settings, as most recently represented by the #MeToo movement.

Environmental Leader

Cadillac Fairview releases 2017 Corporate Responsibility Report

Cadillac Fairview announced today the release of its annual Corporate Responsibility Report, which outlines the company’s environmental performance as well as support for community organizations and youth-oriented initiatives. Prepared in accordance with the internationally recognized Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, the report covers activities between September 1, 2016 and August 31, 2017.

Canada Newsire

Sun Life Financial releases its 2017 Sustainability Report

Sun Life Financial Inc. released its 2017 Sustainability Report and its 2017 Public Accountability Statement. Sustainability has been central to Sun Life for over 150 years and to the Company’s progress in creating long-term value for clients, shareholders, employees and communities. The Sustainability Report highlights achievements in Sun Life’s four key sustainability areas of focus and reaffirms its commitment to building sustainable, healthier communities for life.

Canada Newswire

Cities and Towns

$1.3B cleanup of Port Hope finally underway

Saturday was moving day for the Canadian Fire Fighters Museum in Port Hope. The 34-year-old museum, which houses firefighting artifacts and apparatus from across the country, had to be out of its city-owned building by the end of the day. Will Lambert, chair of the museum’s board of directors, says moving the museum’s 10 antique fire trucks was the trickiest part.

CBC

Waste Management

Contaminated recyclables to cost Toronto millions

Changes in the market for recycled materials could cost the City of Toronto $9.2-million by the end of the year, a report to city council’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee says. The city’s rate of contamination in recyclables is expected to rise from 25 percent of all material in 2017 to 27 percent in 2018.

Globe and Mail – CBC

Vancouver targets straws, bags to reduce plastic garbage

Plastic straws are among the items in the crosshairs as Vancouver develops a strategy to cut down on plastic and Styrofoam waste by placing restrictions on single-use disposable cups, bags, takeout containers and utensils. The city says it costs about $2.5-million a year to collect single-use items from public green spaces and waste bins, and its strategy contains proposals to reduce, reuse or recycle the offending items.

Globe and Mail – CBC

City’s hands tied as committee OK’s new waste facility

City of Ottawa committee reluctantly approved a new landfill and recycling plant in rural east Ottawa Thursday, despite demands from nearby residents that a health impact study be conducted first. The Taggart Miller facility on Boundary Road will process waste from the commercial, industrial, institutional, construction and demolition sectors.

CBC

Other

Opinion: The environment needs your action

The Arctic is melting, coral reefs are dying, storms are raging across the globe, animal habitats are being wiped out and an island of garbage four times the size of France is drifting in the Pacific Ocean.  And yet, amid this environmental chaos, we trudge along in our insulated routines, expecting to see another day.

Montreal Gazette

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