Greengate plans $1B in Alberta green energy projects

Greengate plans $1B in Alberta green energy projects

Calgary-based renewable and clean energy developer Greengate Power Corporation has major plans for the Alberta market and beyond after securing a multi-year $100-million equity commitment from Fengate Real Asset Investments. Dan Balaban, president and chief executive officer of Greengate Power, said the company plans to develop $1 billion in projects in Alberta.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Ontario Teachers part of new GFL Environmental investor group

GFL Environmental Inc. is getting new investors including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and private equity firm BC Partners in a deal that values the waste-management company at about $5.125 billion. Under the agreement, GFL founder and chief executive Patrick Dovigi will maintain his role and leadership of the Toronto-based private company as well as a significant ownership stake.

Financial Post

BOMA Canada’s Net Zero Challenge deadline is July 16th

The Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada (BOMA Canada) has announced the Net Zero Challenge a program the association is offering with the support of Natural Resources Canada. The BOMA Net Zero Challenge recognizes buildings that have achieved outstanding energy performance, have drastically improved their performance, or have demonstrated leadership through the implementation of replicable and innovative strategies that support efficiency and clean energy production.

Sustainable Biz Canada

ILFI launches new Zero Carbon Certification

The International Living Future Institute has unveiled a new Zero Carbon Certification. The Zero Carbon Certification provides greater flexibility around project fuel types (for existing projects) and placement and ownership of offsetting renewables than ILFI’s Reveal and the Zero Energy Certifications, the Institute said in a news release. The new certification is the first worldwide Zero Carbon third-party certified standard, ILFI says.

BDC Network

Esquimalt apartments to be constructed with timber modules

A 12-storey, 83-unit prefabricated residential building at Constance Avenue and Admirals Road was given the green light by Esquimalt council after a public hearing this week. The Corvette Landing project will be the second-highest tall-timber building in the province next to the 18-storey Brock Commons student housing at the University of British Columbia.

Times Colonist

Walmart plan for ‘zero food waste’ in Canadian stores

A little green manual has been slowly making its way into the hands of Walmart store workers. Titled Would I Buy It? the manual is a visual guide that helps employees decide whether fruits and vegetables are still good for sale and when they should be “culled.” For example, the sapota, a tropical fruit common in India, is supposed to soften as it ripens – slightly wrinkled skin is completely normal.

Globe and Mail

Why retailers are adding more EV charging infrastructure

It’s not just Walmart that’s adding electric vehicle chargers. Electrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, announced Monday that it’s building out electric car chargers at more than 100 locations including at retail giant Target, shopping center developer Brixmor and fueling outlet Sheetz.

GreenBiz

4 net-zero energy lessons from Colorado

Many developers cite first-cost as a barrier to pursuing net-zero energy in their new and existing building projects. But one leading developer in Colorado is flipping the script on this assumption, showing that prioritizing energy performance can open up new cash flows. John Madden Company (JMC) just closed on an energy efficiency project that will result in 30 percent energy savings for two buildings at no cost to JMC.

GreenBiz

Extreme weather poses new challenges for developers

When Ted Moore looks at the low-slung Spanish-style buildings now used as the local school board’s headquarters in this picture-perfect mountain town, he sees a different future — perhaps a hotel, offices, stores, homes and a park. But he’s going to have to do something about the water first. “Water is everything here,” says Mr. Moore, a regional developer who also owns a company that looks for new sources of water in other parts of California.

Globe and Mail

The data on green data centers is still pretty cloudy

The cloud is coming back to Earth with a bump. That ethereal place where we store our data, stream our movies and email the world has a physical presence — in hundreds of giant data centers that are taking a growing toll on the planet. Data centers are the factories of the digital age. They run the planet’s digital services. Their construction alone costs around $20 billion a year worldwide.

GreenBiz

Real estate prices restrained in flood-prone areas

New research shows that real estate properties in areas affected by extreme weather and sea level rise are losing value relative to less exposed properties. The effects are already substantial, but they may point to a looming collapse as climate change makes coastal communities untenable. Work by Harvard researchers published last week shows home prices have appreciated more slowly in lower-lying areas of Miami-Dade County, particularly Miami Beach.

Fortune

	WorldGBC, CaGBC partner in 2018 conferences
	The World Green Building Council Congress 2018 will be held in Toronto, Canada, in June, in partnership with the Canada Green Building Council’s Building Lasting Change conference.
	World GBC, April 24, 2018

 

Toolkit offers governments energy-saving buildings strategies

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy is offering a new resource to inform local officials to boost energy savings in buildings. “The Toolkit on Local Government Strategies for Achieving Energy Savings in Buildings” provides an overview of high-impact strategies for energy savings. The toolkit contains local government policy options for new and existing buildings.

BDC Network

New York aims for new, ambitious energy goals

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recently announced an ambitious acceleration of energy efficiency in New York, including a comprehensive plan to achieve a new target for significant greenhouse gas emission reductions, decrease consumer energy costs and create job opportunities. Meeting the new energy efficiency target will deliver nearly one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to meet New York’s climate goal of 40% reduction by 2030.

Energy Manager Today

The U.K. just went 55 hours without using coal

Coal, which fueled the world’s biggest economies for more than a century, is increasingly losing out to renewables. The latest example of how one of the dirtiest fossil fuels is being squeezed out of the market came this week in Britain, which went for a record 55 hours without its any of its power plants producing electricity by burning coal.

Bloomberg

HSBC to stop funding most new fossil fuel developments

Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, said on Friday it would mostly stop funding new coal power plants, oil sands, and Arctic drilling, becoming the latest in a long line of investors to shun the fossil fuels. Other large banks such as ING and BNP Paribas have made similar pledges in recent months as investors have mounted pressure to make sure bank’s actions align with the Paris agreement, a global pact to limit greenhouse gas emissions and curb rising temperatures.

Globe and Mail – Globe and Mail

	Conflux Canada, May 10, 2018, Ottawa CEC
	Getting the Conflux Canada conference off the ground nerve-wracking wracking. But as founder James McNeil prepares for year two he’s already looking for ways to grow the event, which focuses on sustainability, clean tech, and green buildings.
	Sustainable Biz Canada, March 21, 2018

 

Products, Technology and Design

LUUMI helps unplastic the World

A recent study estimates the world has produced 8,300 million metric tons of plastic¹, most of which is used once, then discarded ending up in landfills and oceans. Plastic is the number one source of pollution in our oceans², which causes devastating destruction to marine life and shorelines around the world.  A Canadian start-up is determined to change this global culture of unconscious waste, and switch people to a convenient, sustainable alternative: LUUMI.

Canada Newswire

BDC to invest in four leading Canadian cleantech scale-ups

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) has concluded financing agreements totaling $40-million with four high-potential cleantech companies, enabling them to accelerate their growth and further consolidate their footprint as innovators in their respective markets. These investments are the first of BDC’s $700-million, five-year commitment to the cleantech industry announced earlier this year further to Budget 2017.

Canada Newswire

Market Trends and Research

Morguard’s 2017 sustainability highlights

Sustainability is a strategic priority for Morguard. Our approach to Responsible Property Investment (RPI) is a best practice in the Canadian real estate industry. Incorporating environmental, social and governance indicators into property business and capital plans provide investors with critical insights and allow Morguard to manage and operate efficient buildings.

Morguard

Eco-anxiety affecting more people, inspiring change

For Penny Summers, the tipping point was plastic. “I think a lot of people, myself included, you start looking at ‘Where do I start making changes?’ And for me specifically, it was plastics,” said the Winnipeg resident. “Plastic is everywhere now. And it’s so commonplace, that you don’t even pay attention to it. And when you start really paying attention to it, it’s like, ‘Oh my god,'” she said.

CBC

Millennials want proof of sustainability

Consumers, and Millennials specifically, have clearly set a precedent: they want sustainability to be top-of-mind for brands when it comes to achieving their business goals, according to social media software provider Digimind Inc. They’re willing to pay more for sustainable products, but first, they expect to see proof of a sustainability mindset, Digimind CEO Mohammed El Haddar told Environmental Leader.

Environmental Leader

Market trends and research

How the blockchain could transform sustainability reporting

Forget Bitcoin. I’ll let the get-rich-quick crowd focus on this and its cryptocurrency cousins. I’m excited about the hard-working underlying technology that makes Bitcoin possible — the blockchain ledger system — and its potential to revolutionize corporate sustainability and social impact.

GreenBiz

Commercial real estate

New Disney solar farm to power two theme parks

The Walt Disney World Resort has partnered with Origis Energy USA and the Reedy Creek Improvement District to develop a new 50-megawatt solar project that will power two of its theme parks in Central Florida. The company, in partnership with Duke Energy and Reedy Creek Improvement District, has already launched a Mickey Mouse-shaped five-megawatt solar farm near Epcot Center.

CP Executive

Renewable Energy

Solar panel rebate program debated at Efficiency Manitoba

A pilot project that has helped drive the expansion of solar energy in Manitoba over the past couple of years winds down at the end of April with no clear indication of what will replace it. April 30 is the last day for people to apply to Manitoba Hydro’s Solar Energy Program, a two-year pilot project to help people pay to install solar panels.

CBC

A ‘greening’ strategy for Ottawa’s Centennial Flame

Will the Centennial Flame monument on Parliament Hill, with its dancing fires lit by natural gas, become the Centennial LED? The federal government has launched a study of options to cut the flow of natural gas from Western Canada to the popular monument and replace it with a more eco-friendly energy source.

CBC

Residential Real Estate

Mass timber design for multifamily housing

San Francisco is currently experiencing a housing crisis that threatens its vitality. By 2030, the city’s population is estimated to increase by 150,000 people while adding only 16,000 new dwelling units. The gap between the amount of housing needed and housing provided for residents has widened for decades, due to both limited developable land and hesitance to densify the city.

BDC Network

Corporate Sustainability

Ottawa Valley pot firm betting on outdoor growing

A would-be cannabis producer is eyeing 225 acres outside Burnstown in the Ottawa Valley for an outdoor grow-op, a production method that’s not yet legal in Canada but that could have a substantial impact on the industry’s carbon footprint. Burnstown Farms it’s raising $2.88 million to purchase and fit-up a plot of land for cannabis production.

Ottawa Business Journal

Cities and Towns

Edmonton’s compost centre set to reopen this spring

Eggshells and vegetable peels from Edmonton homes will soon be bound for the city’s composting facility for the first time since the centre was closed in October. The city’s waste services branch told the utility committee Monday the facility should be back up and running within two weeks.

CBC

Water Management

Vancouver adopts bylaw to cut lawn, garden watering

 Despite an unusually wet April, the City of Vancouver is looking ahead to the parched days of summer as it announces new watering restrictions, beginning May 1.  A news release from the city says councillors have approved a bylaw that aligns with the regional district of Metro Vancouver’s water-conservation plan and cuts permitted lawn and garden watering to two days a week from three days.

Globe and Mail

Waste Management

Canada mishandling nuclear waste plans groups warn

First Nations leaders say they have not been properly consulted about the prospect of a nuclear waste disposal site being established northwest of Ottawa near a prominent nuclear research centre. Environmental groups also say the controversy over the site near Chalk River, Ont., illustrates the fact that the federal government lacks suitable policies to regulate the handling of nuclear waste.

CBC

Keurig, Toronto spar over offee pods

Keurig Canada wants to tell every Torontonian they can put Keurig coffee “pods” in blue bins with paper, empty jars and other city-approved recyclables. The City of Toronto wants every Torontonian to absolutely not do that and has told Keurig so. The java giant is nonetheless unleashing a public education campaign with advertising, social media and grocery store demonstrations on how Canadians can blue-bin the wee plastic cups.

Toronto Star

Vancouverites struggle to recycle plastic bags

Vancouver has one of the lowest rates of contaminated recycling in the country — but residents are still struggling to figure out where to put their plastic bags, according to the managing director of Recycling B.C. Vancouver boasts a contamination rate of just 4.6 per cent, a small figure when compared to cities like Toronto, at 26 percent, and Edmonton, at 24 percent, according to data obtained by CBC News.

CBC

Patio furniture, posts might solve N.S.’s plastic recycling woes

A Halifax-area company says it has a made-in-Nova Scotia solution to the challenge of recycling plastics — turn shopping bags into fence posts and patio furniture. Municipalities across the province have scrambled to find new markets for recycled plastic after China stopped accepting the material last year.

CBC