NRC, RBC study links green buildings to workforce productivity

NRC, RBC study links green buildings to workforce productivity

New ground-breaking research reveals that green buildings do more than reduce energy and increase real-estate value, they also have positive impacts on the employees working in them. The findings are the result of collaboration between the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

Canada Newswire – Research Summary

Embracing the WELL Building Standard: The next step in green

Did you turn off the lamp on your desk today before you left the office? Did you remember to reach down and turn off the power strip your computer was plugged into? When you got home from work, did you walk through the house turning off all the lights the kids had left on, and and turn off the running water while brushing your teeth?  You probably did because Earth Day is upon us.

BDC Network

Ontario unveils energy and water reporting program

Ontario will be the first province to introduce an energy and water reporting and benchmarking regulation for large privately owned buildings next year, and the Canada Green Building Council held an April 6 workshop in Toronto to help owners prepare. “Benchmarking helps owners in a number of different ways,” said Eric Chisholm, technical lead for WSP Canada.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Deep emissions reduction in existing buildings: Pembina

In November 2016, the Pembina Institute hosted the Pathways to Net-Zero Buildings thought leader forum to accelerate policy development and market transformation for high-efficiency buildings. Over two days, 126 participants from 90 organizations with a stake in the building sector joined in the discussion.

Pembina Institute

CaGBC launches interactive green building toolkit

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has launched an interactive toolkit to guide organizations and governments in implementing green building policies and programs.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Alberta homeowners offered up to $3,500 for energy-efficient renos

Alberta homeowners who are planning to upgrade their homes with new insulation, triple-glazed windows or tankless water heaters this spring can qualify for a new rebate worth up to $3,500 People can get back as much as $1,000 on a water heating system, $1,500 on window upgrades and a maximum of $3,500 for insulation.

CBC

A look at Grant-Harvey Arena’s thermal energy storage

It was the first of its kind in Canada so we decided to see how Fredericton’s Grant Harvey Arena’s underground thermal energy storage system is holding up.

CBC

AIA selects top 10 most sustainable projects of 2017

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have named the recipients of the 2017 Top Ten Awards, celebrating buildings that best exemplify the integration of great design, great performance and sustainable design excellence.

Architecture Daily

Walmart’s plan to lift a gigaton of carbon from its supply chain

Walmart is doubling down on its climate commitment. Today, the retail giant announced Project Gigaton, a goal to remove 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases from its supply chain by 2030, equivalent to taking more than 211 million passenger vehicles off the road for a year, the company said.

GreenBiz – GreenBiz

Buildings are still our biggest source of CO2: The Chart

Every April we show the latest energy flow chart from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which are “single-page references that contain quantitative data about resource, commodity, and byproduct flows in a graphical form.” I have called it The Chart That Explains Everything.

TreeHugger

Cadillac Fairview expands electric vehicle charging network

One of Canada’s largest property owners, Cadillac Fairview, announced plans Tuesday to roll out a national electric vehicle charging program.  Cadillac Fairview says it will install charging stations at 15 of its properties this year, including four in the Montreal area.

Montreal Gazette

CF trumpets global leadership in Corporate Responsibility Report

Sustainability is one of the hottest issues in development and property management. At Cadillac Fairview, though, improving sustainability has been part of doing business for almost a decade. The company has also discovered investing in becoming more “green” helps save a significant amount of another type of “green.”

Sustainable Biz Canada

Greenbuild Conference & Expo releases sustainability report

Informa Exhibitions U.S. and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the release of the 2016 Greenbuild Sustainability Report, highlighting valuable metrics and key benchmarks regarding the impact on energy use and waste management at the 2016 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo.

Green Lodging News

A new standard for net-zero leases in Boulder

Just two miles from downtown Boulder, Colorado, a new net-zero energy (NZE) development is under construction: Boulder Commons. The project consists of two commercial buildings totaling roughly 100,000 square feet of professional office space and boasting a restaurant, coffee shop and community gathering flex space — all accessible by Boulder’s transit network. 

GreenBiz

It’s Atlanta versus Boston in annual better buildings SWAP

Could harnessing America’s binge-watching habits change the world? The third annual U.S. Department of Energy Better Buildings SWAP – a reality TV-style challenge between the cities of Atlanta and Boston to seek better energy efficiency ideas for each other – is about to launch.

Energy Manager Today

Products, Technology and Design

Nuclear giants limp towards extinction

Any lingering hope that a worldwide nuclear power renaissance would contribute to combating climate change appears to have been dashed by US company Westinghouse, the largest provider of nuclear technology in the world, filing for bankruptcy, and the severe financial difficulties of its Japanese parent company, Toshiba.

Globe-net.com

Could EVs put the brakes on the utility ‘death spiral’?

Much has been written about the utility industry’s “death spiral.” I’ve got some data points to add to that scenario — and a possible solution. On the commercial customer front: the largest utility customers — companies, facilities and manufacturing plants that use a lot of energy — increasingly are going renewable.

GreenBiz

Market Trends and Research

Justin Fox: We’ve started using less juice!

For more than a century after the advent of commercial electrical power in the late 1800s, electricity use in the U.S. rose and rose and rose. Sure, there were pauses during recessions, but the general trajectory was up. Until 2007, it appears.

Calgary Herald

Why the market for fossil fuels is all burnt out

Dieter Helm advises the world’s energy leaders. So, when he says ‘big oil’ has had its day it is worth listening. “I usually put a £5 bet on the oil price — and I’m collecting,” smiles Professor Dieter Helm. It’s not difficult to imagine his tally of modest wagers adding up.

Calgary Herald

Managed forests are a tool for coping with climate change

The world’s forests already have a lot on their plate: Providing flood protection, drinking water purification, lumber, and recreation, plus habitat for about half the world’s mammals, birds, and insects. Forests absorb a third of the world’s annual carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

TreeHugger

Extreme heat threat rises for world’s megacities

The area of the world, and the numbers of city dwellers, exposed to serious risk from extreme heat will multiply later this century even if the world’s nations keep their promise and contain global warming to 2°C or less. If global warming is contained at 1.5°C the number of megacities, with populations over 10 million, in the danger zone will double from today’s figure.

Globe-net.com

Commercial real estate

Nortel’s toxic legacy: Cleaning up former sites

When Nortel Networks Corp. slipped under a dark cloud of bankruptcy protection in January 2009, concerns turned first to the people who’d lost money and the financial catastrophe that would ensue. But the company also left a legacy of environmental damage in the form of contaminated properties across Ontario, and taxpayers could end up paying to clean them up.

CBC

CDL, the first Singapore company to issue green bond

Singapore property giant City Developments Limited (CDL) has issued an S$100 million green bond, becoming first local company in the city-state to do so. Green bonds raise money that is specially allocated for funding projects that have positive environmental and climate benefits.

Eco Business

Renewable Energy

Solar thermal 101: getting to net-positive

A Calgary net-positive garage suite produces so much solar electricity and heat that it exports excess to the adjacent home. “Not enough!” That’s what Cornelius Koster told Tom Jackson of Simple Solar. The latter had presented a quote for a modest solar thermal heating system for Koster’s energy efficient garage suite. But Koster had grander ambitions.

Pembina Institute

Renewables firms rush to Alberta amid alternative energy push

A renewables rush is in high gear in Alberta as the province better known for oil and natural-gas resources formally pushes to up its wind, solar and hydro power capacity.  By the end of the year, the province will have completed the first in a series of annual competitions that sees companies bidding to provide renewable electricity into the power market.

Globe and Mail

Canadian Solar gains on bullish view from a solar bear

Canadian Solar Inc. gained the most in almost eight weeks after an analyst said North America’s largest photovoltaic company is undervalued because it has an extensive portfolio of power plants under development. The Guelph, Ontario-based company increased 5.6 percent Monday to $13.43 at 11:54 a.m. in New York.

Bloomberg

Residential Green Buildings

Vogel Haus: What a modern house should be

Passive House is primarily a standard for energy efficiency, but it has some other tangible benefits; it makes for very comfortable homes with no drafts and cold spots, and they are usually built carefully to very high standards, because it is going to be tested and only a very small amount of air leakage is permitted.

TreeHugger

Flat pack house has breathable skin

It’s a sad but true trend of the times: we are increasingly an indoor species, prone to staying inside for hours every day, to the point that even our kids are becoming deprived of contact with nature, spending less time outdoors than prison inmates.

TreeHugger

Government Programs and Incentives

CaGBC Manitoba’s infrastructure and green buildings strategy

Following the release of the 2017 Manitoba Provincial Budget yesterday, the Manitoba Chapter of the Canada Green Building Council (MB CaGBC), is pleased to see that there is continued commitment to a Manitoba Climate Plan, and that investment in green infrastructure will be a key strategy going forward.

Canada Green Building Council News

American Institute of Architects takes a stand on climate change

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a voluntary organization that advocates for the value of architecture and give architects. Political and public relations are a big part of their job, but they angered a lot of members when shortly after the Presidential election, they wrote a letter congratulating the winner.

TreeHugger

Architects’ group urges America to reduce carbon emmissions

As the nation prepares to celebrate Earth Day on April 22, the American Institute of Architects  has issued eight principles governing how architects can mitigate climate change and has urged the government to protect policies designed to conserve energy and reduce carbon in the built environment.

Energy Manager Today

UN forum highlights financing sustainable development

Underlining the importance of sustainable finance for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, senior United Nations officials today called for stronger partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders to ensure that resource requirements are met.

Eco Business

Why has Asia been slow to catch on to green buildings?

Green buildings are good for the environment and ultimately save the construction business a lot of money. So why are so few buildings piercing Asian skylines with sustainability in mind? According to Research and Markets, the number of green buildings doubles every three years and green buildings solutions market are billed to be worth US$364 billion by 2022.

Eco Business – Business Wire

Municipal Policy and Urban Issues

How to make green building a no-brainer: Lessons from Vancouver

A few years ago TreeHugger reviewed Emily Talen’s wonderful book CITY RULES: How Regulations Affect Urban Form and learned how rules are what make cities. I noted that “It makes totally clear that architects and designers don’t determine how small or big or what form to make our houses, the rules do. … “

TreeHugger

Cities and Towns

How Green Space is transforming the Cityscape

As the world’s population continues to migrate to urban settings, city planners are investing new ways to incorporate green space into these densely populated markets. Columbus Downtown Development Corp. President & CEO Guy Worley discusses the benefits of urban green space.

CP Executive

Waste Management

Target vows to make all packaging recyclable

Target says it will use its “power and scale” as one of the country’s largest retailers to advance the idea that all packaging will be recyclable one day, and to help consumers understand how and why recycling is so important. With that in mind, the retailer has joined the Material Recovery Facility of the Future.

Environmental Leader

Etsy hacked an app to track waste

They say necessity is the mother of invention, a value embodied by the millions of do-it-yourself artisans and artists that rely on Etsy’s digital marketplace to sell their wares. That same DIY spirit clearly pervades the internet company’s sustainability organization.

GreenBiz