First net-zero commercial building opens in Calgary

First net-zero commercial building opens in Calgary

To step into SAIT’s brand-new Green Building Technologies (GBT) Lab and Demonstration Centre is to step into the future – a future where buildings produce as much energy as they consume. The hands-on research facility is Calgary’s first net-zero commercial building, meaning the energy it uses is roughly equivalent to what it produces. It produces most of its power through solar panels on the roof.

Metro News

Toronto appoints new chief resilience officer

The City of Toronto has appointed Elliott Cappell as chief resilience officer (CRO), a new position created to lead city-wide resilience-building efforts to help Toronto prepare for catastrophic events and urban stresses that are increasingly part of 21st century life. Toronto was selected from almost 1,000 cities that applied over the last several years to be part of 100 Resilient Cities (100RC).

Water Canada

Energy efficient buildings: Subnational governments lead the way

Canada is still recovering from a decade of inaction and regression on environmental issues under the previous government. The current Canadian government is making progress on the climate file — setting a minimum price on carbon and charting a pathway to net-zero ready building codes by 2030 — but much remains to be done.

Pembina Institute: Part 2 – Part 1 – Part 3

How a Canadian architect created a rainforest in Dubai

Green Planet, the biodome that houses 3,000 species in the middle of Dubai is both a learning tool for conservationists as well as a potential wellness centre “What if you had a hospital with a facility like Green Planet attached to it, whereby you could visit a clinic for treatment, and then head into a rainforest to heal?”

Vision

Financing the clean transition is Canada’s G7 opportunity to lead

The road to a sustainable economy was never going to be easy. U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement exemplifies the type of bumps we’re likely to see along the way. Yet the recent G7 Environment Ministerial Meeting held in Bologna, Italy, showed we are heading irreversibly toward a cleaner, more prosperous and more inclusive economy.

Globe and Mail

S&P Global Ratings evaluates first municipal green bond

The City of Gothenburg in Sweden has received a score of E2/67 on S&P’s new Green Evaluation scale for its SEK1bn of green bonds due June 15th, 2022. The bonds, issued on June 15th have been allocated to fund a number of eligible projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency, public transportation, waste management, water treatment, and sustainable housing.

FTSE Global Markets – NASDAQ

Electric vehicles to get $50-million boost in throne speech

British Columbia’s Liberals are promising a $50-million jolt to charge up more electric vehicles across the province. Environment Minister Jordan Sturdy says the Liberals are not letting their minority government status serve as a roadblock to ongoing plans to build up infrastructure to support electric vehicles.

Vancouver Sun

	Pittsburgh launches ‘CEOs for Sustainability’
	Seventeen businesses in the Pittsburgh area have launched CEOs for Sustainability, an initiative meant to “heighten awareness that sustainable business practices are a must thing to do, not just a nice thing to do.”
	Environmental Leader, June 20, 2017

 

Parliamentary committee recommends a stronger toxics law

After a 15-month long review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), a parliamentary committee report confirms that Canada’s main pollution and toxics law is outdated and needs a substantial overhaul. The significance of this report and the implications for public health, indigenous rights, and the safety and quality of our shared environment cannot be overstated.

Environmental Defence Canada

Autonomous driving has major implications for real estate

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has a warning for companies and industries that haven’t started to prepare for the next big tech disruptor — don’t wait. Krzanich ranks the fast-developing technology on par with the rise of personal computing, the internet and smartphones for its potential impact on traditional business models.

CoStar Group

Why hotels are embracing sustainable development

For a sizeable number of today’s one billion tourists, the prospect of pristine mountain slopes, sun-drenched beaches and nature at its best is worth traveling long distances for. Yet for all the good they do for local economies, a steady stream of tourists can also have a significant environmental impact.

Green Lodging News

Thriving times for microgrids and nanogrids

For a long time microgrids and nanogrids were heralded for their ability to provide power locally when the grid goes down. Now, more and more, they win friends because of their intelligent usefulness. They are increasingly employed to undertake sophisticated management of energy resources beyond their own footprint.

Microgrid Knowledge – Microgrid Knowledge

	Could this become London’s greenest building?
	Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture has created a concept for a school that would sit on the Thames wharf side at Cannon Street and could become the greenest building in London. The Thames Tidal School concept is “an exemplar of low embodied energy and carbon construction technologies,” according to the architect.
	BDC Network, June 7, 2017

 

Peek inside Bloomberg’s sustainable new headquarters in London

Former Mayor of New York City Michael R. Bloomberg’s eponymous company is moving into the heart of London with the help of Foster + Partners. The renowned British architecture firm designed the new 3.2-acre Bloomberg site with approximately 500,000 square feet of sustainable office space illuminated with natural light and naturally ventilated with a large living green wall.

Inhabitat

Green-energy cladding tied to ‘towering inferno’ widely used on London buildings

UK officials since 1999 had warned of the risks of using environmentally friendly exterior insulation on buildings, only to be ignored by environmentalists. A blog post by the Grenfell Action Group in November 2016 warned that “only a catastrophic event” would bring attention to the issue.

World Tribune – TreeHugger

Melting ice sheds make case for green building codes

If an ice chunk can pass judgment on human behavior, the 1,080-pound cube in the shed on the steps of the state Capitol is meant to become a puddle tinged with shame. The 8-foot-by-8-foot tan shed and its twin were parked by green building advocates in the path of lawmakers to demonstrate the performance benefits of energy-efficient buildings.

Power Source

Songdo the first to earn LEED for Communities Pre-certification

The USGBC announced that Songdo International Business District (Songdo IBD) in South Korea, which is home to nearly 50,000 residents and 50,000 jobs, has earned precertification utilizing LEED for Communities. The announcement was made at the 2017 edition of the New Cities Summit in Songdo.

US GBC

Products, Technology and Design

The digital, sustainable future of supply chains

A few weeks ago, the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference was buzzing with stories of companies that are digitally transforming their supply chains: augmented reality head-mounted devices in factories, machines making decisions to approve suppliers, IoT buttons reducing inventory, and AI enhancing supply chain planning.

Eco-business

Market Trends and Research

Heat waves expected to increase, says study

Killer heat is getting worse, a new study shows. Deadly heat waves like the one now broiling the American West are bigger killers than previously thought and they are going to grow more frequent, according to a new comprehensive study of fatal heat conditions. Still, those stretches may be less lethal in the future, as people become accustomed to them.

CS Monitor

Green building awards

Moose Jaw’s Polytechnic campus earns BOMA BEST award

Moose Jaw’s Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus has been recognized with a provincial award for sustainable management. The building was recently awarded the provincial Building Owners and Managers Association Building Environmental Standards (BOMA BEST) Earth Award recognizing excellence in energy conservation and environmental management.

Moose Jaw Times Herald

Renewable Energy

Forward Labs’ new solar roof is 33% cheaper than Tesla’s

Tesla gets all the attention lately when it comes to solar roofs, but start-up Forward Labs has been hammering away at their own solar roof technology – and not only is it 33% cheaper that Tesla’s offering, but it can be installed in half of the time. Forward Labs’ design blends right in with traditional roofs, and it’s made of monocrystalline solar cells with a higher density that other solar roofing options.

Inhabitat

Government Programs and Incentives

Fossil-free islands: A blueprint for sustainable development?

One is a 7,300-person tropical paradise. Another is a Danish territory roughly twice the size of Manhattan situated in the icy waters off Northern Europe. Molokai, Hawaii, and Samso, Denmark, have one very important thing in common: Both islands are at the forefront of a global push to use remote, energy-constrained territories as a petri dish for fossil-fuel-free societies.

GreenBiz

After Paris: What’s at stake for the building industry

In the wake of President Trump’s unilateral decision to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, many in the building industry have optimistically pointed to unstoppable market forces pushing the sector towards a post-carbon future.

BDC Network

Government Programs and Incentives

A public-private recipe for sustainable urban development

Never has there been a more critical time for the private sector to partner with others to tackle the critical global challenges facing our cities and communities. In light of the world’s climate and environmental crisis, increasing inequity and rapid urbanization, everyone is talking about the dire need for collaboration. But how do we do it?

GreenBiz

Cities and Towns

Sudbury on its way to being a walk-friendly city

It’s been 10 years since Sudbury city hall promised to improve the walking experience around the city. In 2007, former mayor John Rodriguez signed a ‘Walk 21’ document. That is a movement from a global organization which focuses on making walking more enjoyable in communities around the world.

CBC

Eco-friendly ‘green’ district launched in Detroit

Detroit earlier this month officially launched a “green” building district in the city that aims to significantly curb energy use, water consumption and transportation greenhouse gas emissions. Officials gathered at NextEnergy to celebrate the Detroit 2030 District, a private-public partnership associated with a larger national collaboration working to boost sustainability at existing buildings.

Proud Green Building

London’s transportation service plan aims for zero emissions by 2050

London could be a lot more green by 2050 – Mayor Sadiq Khan has outlined a plan for transportation service (via Engadget) in the city that would make the whole system, including taxis, cars and buses, totally emission free by that year. 

Tech Crunch

Iconic New York beach gets climate-resilient boardwalk

Beachgoers in this New York City oasis can now flip-flop along a fully rebuilt boardwalk, one that reflects a coastal reimagination underway along the Mid-Atlantic and that heralds the staggering costs ahead of adapting to a changing climate. Rockaway Beach had its wooden boardwalk shredded by Hurricane Sandy.

GreenBiz

Waste Management

Boston’s bid for zero waste: when less really is more

In May, Mayor Marty Walsh took the first step toward making Boston a zero waste city, calling for proposals to eliminate the city’s net trash output entirely. “In Boston we’ve been leaders in sustainability for many years now,” says Austin Blackmon, the city’s chief of environment, energy and open space, who jointly leads the city’s Zero Waste Advisory Committee.

CS Monitor

Other

	Sustainable Biz followers on Twitter
	Follower The Buildings Performance Institute EU is a Brussels based think-tank delivering policy analysis, advice and implementation support for buildings energy performance.
	Follow BizSustainably, the most comprehensive news feed on Twitter for Canadian business concerned about sustainability.