The State of Green Business, 2018

The State of Green Business, 2018

“Two degrees and the SDGs.” That’s the new sustainable business mantra. It rhymes. You can almost dance to it. The double-barrel impact of the Paris climate agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, both enacted in 2015, is finally being felt as companies begin to align their sustainability goals and, ultimately, their operations with these global commitments.

Green Biz

Government of Canada funds smart grid expansion

Smart grids — electric grids that make better use of existing generation, transmission and distribution assets to provide a higher quality of service to customers — result in more dynamic and flexible electricity systems and safer delivery of power, while creating good middle-class jobs for Canadians. Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jim Carr, today announced a $100-million call for proposals to fund more smart grid systems.

Canada Newswire

Choosing the right type of microgrid for your operation

Answering that question isn’t always easy because microgrids come in many different permutations, often customized to the business, factory, hospital, university, community or other operation they serve. But they do fall into certain broad categories, sliced and diced in various ways, including by type of grid connection, owner, developer and fuel, as well as purpose, function and sophistication.

Microgrid Knowledge

Community-scale solar is on the fast track to grid parity

Will 2018 be the year when solar power reaches so-called grid parity, providing a cost of energy over its operating life that is equal to or less than the cost of energy from existing conventional energy sources? This levelized cost of energy (LCOE) comparison informs new grid investments and, as a result, the evolving resource mix of the grid.

Rocky Mountain Institute

Large dams fail on climate change and Indigenous rights

Brazil has flooded large swaths of the Amazon for hydro dams, despite opposition from Indigenous Peoples, environmentalists and others. Brazil’s government had plans to expand development but a surprising announcement could halt that. Mines and Energy Executive Secretary Paulo Pedrosa said the government is reconsidering hydro construction in the face of increasingly competitive renewable energy options.

The Coast

Why energy efficiency speeds renewables adoption

Enter the search term “100 percent renewable energy” into Google, and you will find fierce debate. Is the possibility of 100 percent renewable energy a myth? Or is the world already close to achieving this goal? This debate tends to underemphasize energy efficiency. But recent research makes a case that energy efficiency is important in any discussion about 100 percent renewable energy.

GreenBiz

10 smart building IoT trends for 2018

The concept of constructing smart buildings evolved to conserve energy and build buildings – both commercial and residential – that are energy efficient. For commercial buildings, the transition to smart buildings is vital to the growth of the organization. It will help the building management save a lot of money because of better efficiency as well as improved overall building operation.

Proud Green Building

	Self-driving cars. Utopia or dystopia?
	Innovation visionaries say electric, self-driving, shared cars will soon revolutionize the way humans move about. But experts caution that unless this paradigm shift is guided by sound public policies, it could lead to more pollution, emissions, and gridlock.
	Yale 360, January 18, 2018

 

Automation becoming a necessity for high-performance buildings

Automation, more and more, is helping efficient buildings become higher performing. HVAC systems. Lights. Even window shades. Applications that used to require someone to manually turn them on and off and adjust the settings – like tube TVs before the advent of the remote control – have quickly vaulted into the world of high-tech and become connected by a common moniker: Smart.

Proud Green Building

Revolutionizing the standard green lease

As more building owners, managers, and tenants incorporate environmental stewardship and sustainability into their real estate operations, the concept of green leasing has moved into the mainstream. A green lease is a lease for a commercial or public building that incorporates an agreement between a landlord and a tenant as to how a building is to be occupied, operated, and managed in a sustainable way.

BDC Network

Report says Canadians want to fight climate change (cheaply)

Most Canadians care about the climate – but not quite enough to welcome massive energy bill hikes or to buy an electric car. That was one of the many interesting snippets to come out of a recently-released report for Natural Resources Canada. The report’s purpose was to help tailor the government’s resource-related plans to meet “the needs of the public.”

ipolitics

Feds urged to consider environmental impacts of legal marijuana

Dan Sutton, a former technology professional was new to the pot industry in 2012 when he founded Tantalus Labs. The stereotypical image of a large industrial warehouse, with pot plants growing under bright lights and fans. At the time when Sutton asked academics, horticulturists and engineers for advice, they all told him that no crop on the planet is grown indoors on a commercial scale.

The Province

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts named most sustainable hotel group

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has been named the world’s most sustainable hotel group for the second year running by certification body Green Globe. The international hospitality firm has also been hailed a “global sustainability leader” in the ‘Green Globe Report 2017’, with more than 50 percent of its certified properties worldwide achieving the entity’s prestigious ‘Gold’ status.

Green Lodging News

3M’s Ann Meitz on achieving zero waste-to-landfill

Science-oriented 3M is a $30 billion global company with a portfolio that includes around 55,000 products. On the consumer side, 3M makes products like Post-It Notes, Scotch Magic Tape, and Filtrete Air Filters, but the company has four other business groups for energy and electronics, industrial, safety and graphics, and healthcare solutions.

Environmental Leader

California’s Scoping Plan sets path to meet climate targets

Amid the big headlines, you would be forgiven for not noticing that California has advanced an important climate initiative: the 2017 Climate Change Scoping Plan, the third version of the plan.  The state Air Resources Board (ARB) adopted the extensive 2017 version to outline California’s climate policy path to 2030 and detail how it will fulfill its landmark legislative mandate to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Ceres.org

New York City to divest $5bn from fossil fuels, sues oil companies

New York City is seeking to lead the assault on climate change and the Trump administration with a plan to divest $5bn from fossil fuels and sue the world’s most powerful oil companies over their contribution to dangerous global warming. City officials have set a goal of divesting New York’s $189bn pension funds from fossil fuel companies within five years.

The Guardian – Global News – TreeHugger

	Costa Rica: 100% renewable energy, 300 days
	Costa Rica, is not just a hotspot for newlyweds is also set its sights on saving the world with renewable energy. In 2015 it generated 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy sources for 299 days, and in 2016 for 271 days.
	VT.co, January 18, 2018

 

Market Trends and Research

B.C.’s carbon emissions continue to increase

The B.C. government has quietly released the latest figures on B.C.’s carbon emissions that show the province continues to have an uphill fight to make significant targeted reductions. The latest figures, for the year 2015, estimate B.C.’s carbon emissions at 63.3 million tonnes of carbon equivalent, an increase of 1.6 per cent over the previous year.

Vancouver Sun

Industrialization gives rise to booming water treatment market

The market for industrial water treatment equipment will experience a CAGR of 7.34% between 2017 and 2021, according to a new report from Technavio. The rise in industrialization will contribute to the growth of the market, owing to the increased demand for recycling water to mitigate the contamination by industry.

Environmental Leader

Municipal Policy and Urban Issues

The nation’s capital of sustainable design

Cities are the laboratories of innovation that power the world. They also hold the key to avoiding the most devastating impacts of climate change. Major cities, like Washington, D.C., make up less than 2% of the world’s landmass, but they contribute 77% of the world’s CO2 emissions.

BDC Network – Green Biz

Commercial real estate

A new approach to MEP cost analysis

When it comes to environmental issues, the AEC community plays a central and ever-changing role. Whether it’s through voluntary or regulated compliance, we are tasked with implementing new ideas that have been designed to counter a century of damaging ecological effects. A clear understanding of these technologies has important implications for the built and the natural environments—and, of course, the construction budget, as well.

BDC Network

Residential Real Estate

Another reason to love Passive House: it’s really quiet

When Passive House started in the 90s, it was all about energy, and that is what the basic standard regulates. But saving energy is a hard sell these days when fossil fuels are so cheap, so Passive House people are pivoting to other virtues of Passive House design that are byproducts of super-insulated walls and high quality windows: comfort, resilience or security.

TreeHugger

Could your house hold carbon?

Rammed earth. Earthship. Light clay straw. These terms may sound new age and unfamiliar, but they are par for the course at the Ontario Natural Building Coalition’s annual Natural Buildings Tour. The tour is a key part of the ONBC’s mandate to provide information, support and community for those who wish to pursue natural building, either as homeowners or as building professionals.

Alternatives Journal

The 4 benefits of building a green home

I was at the Greenbuild conference last year, and my general, unscientific assessment would be this: There are many passionate individuals — true believers — holding down the green building fort and pressing it forward. But it seems to me there were fewer booths than there were six or seven years ago, and the ones that were there were smaller.

GreenBiz

Government Programs and Incentives

Two more Greater Victoria schools eye seismic refits

Two more sites in the Greater Victoria school district could be headed for seismic upgrades following reviews of their condition. The former Uplands and Richmond elementary schools have been evaluated by consultants at a cost of about $5,000 per school. Uplands closed its doors in 2003 and Richmond closed in 2004 and has been used extensively as a temporary facility for schools receiving seismic work.

Times Colonist

Saskatchewan’s next premier won’t back down on carbon tax fight

Saskatchewan’s outgoing premier and the five candidates vying to replace him are firing back at the federal government plan to impose a carbon tax on every province that does not develop its own pricing scheme.  The government has released a draft bill outlining its plan, which could see hundreds of millions of dollars in carbon tax revenue returned to individuals rather than the provincial governments.

The Star Phoenix

Waste Management

Durham Region may divert up to 10,000 tonnes of waste from incinerator

Durham region could possibly divert up to 10,000 metric tonnes of mixed waste from the Durham York Energy Centre to avoid an exceedance of capacity regulations this year.  A Durham study suggests the region enter into a sole-source contract with Canada Fibers Ltd. in order to process the diverted waste at the company’s pre-sort facility located in Vaughan.

Oshawa Express

Vancouver’s dream to be the greenest city?

Vancouver bills itself as Canada’s greenest city, and yet there’s one area where Fort McMurray, the Alberta town not known for its light environmental footprint, has us beat. In 2010, Canada’s oil sands capital banned single-use plastic grocery bags. Since then, shoppers have grown accustomed to toting their own reusable bags or, in a pinch, purchasing one at the till.

Globe and Mail – CBC

Zero Waste Oxford weighs in on the provincial strategy

Every year about $31 billion in food is wasted in Canada or $868 worth of food per person. In Ontario that works out to be about $12 billion alone. And it is forecast that Ontario will need 16 new or expanded landfills by 2050, if no progress is made in keeping it out of the landfill.

Woodstock Sentinel Review

Other

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