Communicating the value of sustainability: Bentall Kennedy

Communicating the value of sustainability: Bentall Kennedy

Sustainability has become entrenched in conversations about commercial buildings both old and new. Buildings with low environmental impact and efficient use of energy are highly desirable to property investors making attention to sustainability a key component of the business model for building owners and managers. During the recent Conflux Canada Conference in Ottawa, Anna Murray, vice president of sustainability for Bentall Kennedy, gave a talk on how to accurately communicate the value of sustainability.

Sustainable Biz Canada

100 Murray St., Ottawa, Canada’s first Zero Carbon Building

In June 2018, 100 Murray Street in Ottawa’s central Byward Market, asset managed and operated by Bentall Kennedy, was awarded the country’s first Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) – Performance certification. This existing 60,000 sq. ft. Class A commercial office built upon its proven energy performance results and LEED Gold certification in 2016 to achieve ZCB status.

Canada Green Building Council

Green buildings, crucial in fight against climate change

As individuals and communities across the globe suffer the effects of extreme weather, the need for concerted action on climate change has never been more urgent. The 2017 UN climate report found that climate-related events came with a phenomenal financial (estimated at $320 billion) and human cost. Their effects are changing lives; especially, and disproportionately, those of women.

Women’s News

Industry challenged to achieve net zero carbon buildings

The World Green Building Council has issued a challenge to the global building sector: eliminate carbon emissions from building use by 2030. The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment – the first of its kind worldwide – was issued at the WorldGBC Congress Canada in Toronto last week.

The Fifth Estate – Sustainable Biz Canada – World GBC

The key to driving green building movement forward

Since the inception of the first green building council in 1993 (the U.S. GBC), the push toward sustainable practices in construction has gathered worldwide momentum. The World Green Building Council’s annual report shows that 1.24 billion square metres of office, retail, public sector and other space had been certified for sustainable construction by one of 73 green building councils.

Sourceable – Eco-Business: What is the future of green building?

Humber River Hospital wins green building award

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) awarded PCL Constructors Canada Inc. (Toronto) and its partners with its 2018 Excellence in Green Building: New Construction Institutional Award for Humber River Hospital (HRH), in recognition of the team’s leadership in delivering a new construction project that exemplifies the merits of sustainable building.

Global Newswire – Urban Toronto – A mod of sustainable health care design

Chicago developer plans passive house office building

Chicago developer plans to construct an office building just east of Google’s Midwest headquarters that will feature an environmentally friendly building standard rarely used in the United States. Mark Goodman & Associates is planning a 12-story office building at 310 N. Sangamon St., on a lot near Google’s 1KFulton building and the Ace Hotel.

Chicago Tribune

	Passive House buildings, small to extra-large
	There is a building revolution going on in New York City, as it becomes “the passive house epicenter of the country.” Anyone who thinks that Passive House design is just for houses should have a look at Sendero Verde, a huge new multi-use project.
	TreeHugger, June 13, 2018

 

Colorado Health HQ the first U.S. LEED, WELL Gold

The Colorado Health Foundation’s new headquarters in Denver is the first in the US to receive both the LEED Gold Certification and WELL Gold Certification for design and construction, according to Saunders Construction. The three-story building features a “health-positive” design and development standards that aim to improve the health of both staff and visitors who interact with the building space.

Environmental Leader

California proposes new laws to reduce GHG emissions

California’s is now the 5^th largest economy in the world even as the state implements rigorous climate statutes. Targetting GHG emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, it put in place a cap and trade system, a Renewables Portfolio Standard for electricity, progressive advances on clean cars, the low carbon fuel standard, energy efficiency programs and incentives to farmers to capture or reduce methane emissions, and more.

Ceres.org – BDC Network

Is this the most sustainable underground mine?

Goldcorp, Inc., a Canadian gold production company, has set a large goal for itself: to create the first all-electric underground mine in Canada. The company is currently mining several hours from Toronto, tunneling through the earth to create what it hopes is one of the most sustainable mines yet, called Borden.

Energy Manager Today

How land under solar panels can contribute to food security

At a recent solar energy conference in Minneapolis, attendees unwound at happy hour tasting free pints of a local honey-based India Pale Ale called “Solarama Crush.” Minnesota-based 56 Brewing makes the smooth IPA using honey from hives located on solar farms outside the Twin Cities.

Globe-net.com

	Hydrogen could replace 30% of UK natural gas
	A new study by Swansea University in Wales says that almost one-third of the natural gas fueling UK homes and businesses could be replaced by hydrogen, without requiring any changes to the nation’s boilers and ovens.
	Energy Manager Today, June 7, 2018

 

Walmart’s war on waste

It’s hard to wrap your head around the numbers: a staggering 1.3 billion tons of food—roughly one-third of all food produced for human consumption—never gets eaten. Around the globe, this amounts to about $1 trillion worth of food that gets tossed each year.

Canadian Grocer

Plastics Bank uses blockchain to remove plastics waste

David Katz is on a mission to democratize material handling and waste management. Since co-founding The Plastic Bank in 2013 in Vancouver, he has been hard at work creating an ecosystem that attaches a value to plastics that make their way into the oceans and rivers around the world.

Financial Post

One pipe, many problems

Have you ever noticed a slight odour of sewage in the air after a heavy rainfall?  Some of you will be bewildered by this question, but for those of you nodding vigorously, you probably live in one of many municipalities in North America with a combined sewer system, including large cities like New York City, Toronto, and Vancouver. Combined sewer systems collect rainwater runoff and sewage into one pipe.

Water Canada

CPP sells first global green bond, price $1.5-billion

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board went green with a bang. The pension fund, which boasts the highest credit score at the three largest rating firms, priced $1.5 billion of green bonds in what it called the first green bond sold by a pension fund globally and largest in Canada.

Financial Post – Bloomberg

Products, Technology and Design

World can ‘safely’ store billions of tonnes of CO2 underground

Storing billions of tonnes of CO2 underground would be a “safe and effective” way to help limit the effects of climate change, a new study says. The research suggests that large amounts of CO2 could be stored under the ground or sea with only a small risk of surface leakage in the following 10,000 years.

Eco Business – Environmental Leader

Market Trends and Research

Climate change policies to cost oilpatch $25 billion over 10 years

The Canadian oil and gas industry estimates it will pay $25 billion over the next 10 years to comply with federal and provincial climate change policies and is asking the federal and provincial governments to reconsider a few “duplicative” regulations. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers says the country’s new emissions regulations are driving up costs for domestic oil and gas producers.

Vancouver Sun

Municipal Policy and Urban Issues

How much money can planting trees save for your city

Megacities are on the rise. There are 47 such areas around the globe, each housing more than 10 million residents. More than half the global population lives in urban areas, comprising about 3 percent of the Earth. The ecological footprint of this growth is vast and far more can be done to improve life for urban residents around the world.

GreenBiz

Renewable Energy

Market forces drive the growth of renewables

Solar panels cover the sloping roofs of the police headquarters in Mainz, a picturesque city on the Rhine whose most famous inhabitant was Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. The station’s rooftop photovoltaic system was installed more than 10 years ago and is run by UrStrom eG, one of the hundreds of citizens’ cooperatives that have driven Germany’s renewable energy revolution.

Yale 360

Government Programs and Incentives

Doug Ford determined to scrap Ontario’s cap-and-trade system

A spokesman for Doug Ford says Ontario’s incoming premier is determined to deliver on his campaign promise to scrap the “disastrous” cap-and-trade system and fight a federal carbon tax. Ford’s pledge is causing concern in Quebec, a province that introduced a cap-and-trade system in 2013 and shares a carbon market with Ontario and California.

Global News

Corporate Sustainability

Sustainability governance is integrated governance

The logic behind integrated reports — the merging of sustainability and business disclosures — is straightforward. Academic research, Wall Street reports, even company financial performance all show that sustainability is good for business. Investors and other stakeholders are looking for evidence that companies are combining their sustainability and business strategies.

Ceres.org

Top companies increasingly aware of climate change’s effect

The world’s biggest companies are increasingly worried about climate change. The terms “climate” and “weather” combined were among the most frequently discussed topics among executives of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies, beating “Trump,” “the dollar,” “oil” and “recession” according to the analysis of 10 years of earnings call transcripts by S&P Global Ratings.

Toronto Star

Waste Management

Globe editorial: Canada can do more to cut back on plastics

In the 1967 film The Graduate, the question of where the future lay for an ambitious young man was summed up in a single, memorable word: “Plastics.” Half a century later, the planet is awash in the stuff. The world dumps more than eight-million tonnes of plastic into the ocean each year, according to a 2015 study published in Science.

Globe and Mail

Sobeys’ plastic bag effort among RCC winners

An effort to reduce plastic bag use earned Sobeys an award from the Retail Council of Canada this week. The Environmental Leadership honour was part of the RCC’s Excellence in Retailing Awards handed out during Store Conference in Toronto late last month.

Canadian Grocer