Toronto tower Canada’s first Fitwel-certified office building

Toronto tower Canada’s first Fitwel-certified office building

A 30-story tower that helped revitalize Toronto’s waterfront since it was completed in 2010, has become the first office building in Canada to receive Fitwel certification. 25 York Street, owned and operated by Menkes, was completed in 2010. Fitwel is an evidence-based building certification system for well-being in real estate.

Proud Green Building

You still haven’t heard of PACE? Now is a good time.

Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) is a program that allows investment companies to fund individual building owners to make renewable energy or efficiency upgrades to their property — thus providing the required upfront capital, while generating secure returns for investors. It has been well tested in the U.S. and addresses two barriers to change lack of upfront capital and lack of transferability of the investment.

Pembina Institute

Bentall Kennedy, VP sustainability to co-chair UN group

Anna Murray, Vice President of Sustainability for Bentall Kennedy has been appointed to the Investment Committee of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). As Bentall Kennedy’s representative, Anna Murray will Co-Chair the Property Working Group of the UNEP FI, with a global mandate to drive adoption of sustainability in real estate investment and property management.

Businesswire

Inside Amazon’s giant plant filled spheres

Three years ago, Amazon.com Inc.’s horticulturalist was giving Jeff Bezos a preview of what the company’s three plant-filled spheres—the centerpiece of its $4 billion downtown Seattle office project—would look like on opening day. One rendering showed the view from a 30-foot-high suspension bridge looking down on a tree.

Bloomberg – BDC Network

Achieving dual BREEAM, WELL Certification and a useful Q&A

Project teams seeking to have their building projects receive dual certification under both BREEAM and WELL have an improved guide to help them. Assessing Health and Wellbeing in Buildings: Alignment between BREEAM and the WELL Building Standard was developed as part of a commitment to continuous improvement by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and BRE using industry feedback from industry professionals.

Energy Manager Today

Alberta’s climate professionals share why they’re hopeful for 2018

2017 gave Albertans many reasons to be optimistic. Eager to continue this momentum into 2018, Pembina asked five energy and climate professionals what they’re hopeful for in the coming year.

Pembina Institute

Carbon taxes and economic growth do mix

Data soundly refutes the misconception that a price on carbon pollution hurts economic competitiveness and growth. In Canada four provinces with an effective carbon price outperformed the rest of Canada, and the country led the G7 in economic growth in 2017. British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec saw 3.2 percent, 4.1 percent, 2.9 percent, and 2.8 percent in real gross domestic product growth.

Pembina Institute

	PwC UK sets carbon targets for 2022
	The firm aims to reduce their total operational carbon emissions by 40%. They plan to lower business travel carbon emissions by 33% per FTE. PwC UK also intends to maintain their energy reduction at 50% from the baseline while growing the business.
	Environmental Leader, January 29, 2018

 

Ontario has work to do to meet long-term climate change goals: report

Ontario’s first year of carbon pricing went well but more work is needed if the province wants to meet its long-term goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,said  the province’s environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe in her annual report.  The government needs a better plan for spending the funds brought in by the cap-and-trade system, which amounted to close to $2 billion last year.

Financial Post – CBC

Wetland protection measures ordered for Calgary ring road

The Alberta government is instituting measures to protect Beaver Pond and requiring additional wetland monitoring related to the construction of the Southwest Calgary Ring Road. Following recommendations of the Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) a ministerial order was written for Alberta Transportation and KGL Constructors to undertake additional protection of wetlands.

Water Canada

How much water does a power plant use?

The power sector is the largest industrial water user yet most countries don’t mandate that power plants disclose their water use. Power plants use water for cooling primarily, yet the World Electric Power Plants Database (one of the most commonly used repositories of global power plant information) has cooling data for only 59 percent of the world’s electricity generation capacity. It’s a dangerous information gap for everyone from investors to consumers.

GreenBiz

AkzoNobel and World GBC partner to build hydrogen plant

AkzoNobel, the global paints, coating and specialty chemicals firm and WorldGBC Partner, has unveiled plans to build Europe’s largest green hydrogen production plant in a bid to cut global CO₂ emissions. The facility would use a 20 megawatt (MW) water electrolysis unit to convert sustainable electricity into hydrogen.

World Green Building Council

	Quebec startup’s biofuel powers jet flight
	A small biotechnology firm from Gatineau had a lot riding on Qantas Flight 96 that was scheduled to leave Los Angeles late Sunday night for the 15-hour journey to Melbourne, Australia.
	Globe and Mail, Jan. 28, 2018

 

SunPower puts U.S. expansion on hold over Trump tariff

SunPower Corp (SPWR.O) has put a $20 million U.S. factory expansion and hundreds of new jobs on hold until and unless its solar panels receive an exclusion from federal tariffs the Trump administration imposed this week.

Reuters

Science-based targets gain traction

The bar for setting meaningful greenhouse-gas-reduction targets keeps getting higher. The leaders are turning to science to determine exactly how high. Science-based emission-reduction targets are those in line with the level of decarbonization required to keep global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius.

Green Biz – Green Biz

Pension association urges shareholder action over climate change

The UK’s pension fund association is encouraging its members to vote against the chair of a company if they feel the company is not doing enough to ensure its business model is compatible with efforts to limit global temperature increases.

IPE Real Estate – IPE Real Estate

Weather disasters cost a record $344 billion in 2017

In 2017 the United States and the Caribbean were hit hard by multiple hurricanes within the span of a month. Mexico grappled with two major earthquakes a mere week apart. China suffered major flooding problems while large parts of Europe endured serious drought. If you count weather disasters alone, the total cost exceeded $344 billion, the most expensive year in history.

MacLeans

Products, Technology and Design

Building code changes can have unintended consequences

A study in California shows that changing codes can change a lot more than just their energy consumption. Years ago when I worked in the development industry, I asked another developer what his secret was. He was convinced that the single most important number was what people could afford per month; if interest rates went up, he would shrink the homes. If construction costs went up, the square footage went down.

TreeHugger

Market trends and research

New study finds that being a couch potato is green

Americans are also apparently spending 8 more days lolling in front of the big screen at home. They are working at home more, sleeping in and eating and drinking at home. They are reading for personal interest a lot less. Unfortunately, the study doesn’t track how much time people are spending on exercise but it doesn’t appear that Americans are getting out much any more.

TreeHugger

Renewable Energy

Citizens sue province over proposed wind turbine parks

Citizens living near five proposed wind turbine parks in Ontario have launched a lawsuit alleging the provincial government is allowing the companies behind the projects to defy safe noise limits. The province approved the wind park projects in 2016. They are scattered around rural Ontario, and two are within an hour’s drive from Ottawa.

CBC

Reasons small(er) biz can gain from renewables

While economies of scale used to be a significant demotivator for smaller companies when it came to the affordability and practicality of procuring renewable energy, recent technological and industry advancements in the renewable energy landscape have effectively lowered the barrier to entry for smaller businesses.

Energy Manager Today

Bikes and The City

Bike lanes are good for everyone — including drivers

Protected bike lanes are a favourite punching bag for Canada’s pundits and politicians.  Lawrence Solomon in the Financial Post recently called for Toronto to “ban the bike” in one of his three columns on the subject in the span of a month. Rob Ford made a career out of condemning the “war on the car” and ripping out bike lanes.

The Tyee

Transit, bikes and transportation

California governor pushes for 5 million zero-emission cars

Gov. Jerry Brown outlined a $2.5 billion plan Friday to help Californians buy electric vehicles and expand a network of charging stations as part of a goal of getting 5 million zero-emission cars on the road by 2030. The ambitious proposal to transform California’s car culture comes as Brown begins his final year in office and works to set the stage for his environmental legacy to continue under his successor.

Financial Post

All new homes will be EV ready in Scottish development

When Atlanta mandated that all new construction be electric vehicle ready, I got excited. After all, the most common questions I get from homeowners wanting to go solar are about where they can charge, and how difficult it is to install charging at home. While the fact is that you can charge anywhere that has a wall socket, most drivers are going to want to install an electric vehicle charging station.

TreeHugger

Water Management

Province must act on conservation authority funding

With the passage of Bill 139, Building Better Communities and Conserving Watersheds Act, 2017, in December, the elevated role of provincial Conservation Authorities (CAs) has garnered the attention of Ontario municipalities struggling with the tax burden of supporting CA operating budgets.

Water Canada

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