Billions for green energy in Alberta, Saskatchewan

Billions for green energy in Alberta, Saskatchewan

With up to $50 billion to be spent on renewable energy projects in Alberta and Saskatchewan over the next 14 years, suppliers want details on how the money will be spent and which projects they can bid on.  The estimate came Thursday from David Hickey, of Siemens Canada’s wind and renewables division, speaking at a panel in Calgary.

CBC.ca

Avison Young introduces a “Global Citizenship” strategy

Avison Young is stepping up its game when it comes to sustainability, as evidenced by the commercial real estate firm’s more focused efforts introduced in 2014 and highlighted in its just-released 2015 Global Citizenship Report.

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London City Centre sustainability earns praise

The millions of dollars being put into the London City Centre twin towers in London, Ont., is paying off in both cost-savings and recognition. London City Centre “I’ve been here for five-and-a-half years and all we’ve been doing is technological migration from the 20th century to the 21st century,” said property manager Kurt Bromhall.

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Toronto green roofs second in North America

Daily Commercial News

5 steps to creating high-performance communities

As we become a planet of city-dwellers, planners and urban designers have an imperative to design communities that perform better than ever before. But what exactly does “performance” mean? Communities should have energy and water-saving systems, but at a high level there also needs to be a more holistic approach to creating a sense of place and connection.

BDC Network

Draft GRI sustainability reporting standards released for comment

The Global Reporting Initiative has released the second set of draft GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards for public comment until July 17.  In November, the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) said it would transition the GRI G4 Guidelines to GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, or GRI Standards.

Environmental Leader

CaGBC announces green skills training partnership

Daily Commercial News – Construction Global – CaGBC News Release

LEED by the numbers: 16 years of steady growth

LEED has grown to become the world’s most widely used green building rating system, with nearly 80,000 projects participating in LEED across 162 countries, including more than 32,500 certified commercial projects. As the best model for sustainable construction, LEED’s growth and impact around the world is undisputed—but the growth has not always been linear.

US Green Building Council

WorldGBC to host session on Net Zero buildings

The World Green Building Council is to host a session on Net Zero buildings at the 2016 Business & Climate Summit in London, one of the leading annual forums where international businesses and policymakers meet in support of enhanced action on climate change.  The Summit, which takes place on 28 and 29 June, will see 1,000 global CEOs, investors and politicians gather at London’s Guildhall.

World Green Building Council

USGBC offers new LEED pilot credit

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced a new LEED pilot credit: Building Material Human Hazard & Exposure Assessment. The credit aims to encourage building teams and manufacturers to assess human health-related exposure scenarios for products during installation and beyond.

BDC Network

Urban beekeeping takes off

A sure sign of spring at Toronto’s Shangri-La Hotel is the arrival of Alexandre McLean. But he’s not your average guest; and his luggage is definitely out of the ordinary.  For a second season, McLean is installing the honeybees in the “B-Wall” at the Shangri-La’s third-floor Bosk terrace.

Financial Post

Knowledge is (a tool to reduce consumption of) power

Data centers get an oversized amount of attention because they use an oversized amount of energy. Increasingly, sophisticated measurement and management of what actually is happening in the data center is the key to reducing energy use and hiking efficiency. CenturyLink is joining the Department of Energy’s Better Building Challenge and points to previous energy efficiency steps that the company has taken in its data centers.

Energy Manager Today

Bold goals at CEM7: Philips projects 2 billion LEDs sold

Energy ministers from around the world converged with business and NGO leaders and entrepreneurs in downtown San Francisco Wednesday for the first day of the Clean Energy Ministerial 7th gathering (CEM7) to figure out how to transition the world to clean energy. But it was entrepreneurs and businesses that got things going.

Green Biz – Green Biz – TreeHugger

CoStar, DoE making energy data more accessible

The CoStar Group last week announced a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) that will make far more information about commercial and industrial buildings’ energy efficiency easily accessible.  The CoStar Property database is one of the key tools used by insiders researching commercial and industrial space.

Energy Manager Today – US Green Building Council

Developer adds PV arrays to 10 malls in the Philippines

A shopping mall in the Philippines now boasts the world’s largest commercial rooftop solar array, which generates 2.9 MW of clean energy to help run the mall’s operations. The project is also the biggest private solar power system designed for self-consumption in the country.

Inhabitat – BDC Network – PV Magazine

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Market trends and research

Investment in renewable energy exploding — but not in Canada

A new report by the Renewable Energy Policy Network has found that, for the first time, worldwide investments in alternative energy have exceeded investments in new fossil fuel projects. It’s a sign that the world is taking positive steps toward a clean energy future. But Canada is still behind the major players.

CBC.ca

Eight chemicals of Canada / U.S. concern in the Great Lakes

The governments of Canada and the United States today announced that they  have identified eight substances as chemicals of mutual concern under the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. These chemicals are potentially harmful to human health or the environment.

Water Canada

Green office buildings that are saving the planet

To celebrate World Environment Day on June 5th, Euroffice decided to put together this infographic to celebrate some of the most environmentally friendly office buildings in use today. These buildings are some of the smartest, most innovative and in many cases the most beautiful office buildings built in recent years.

Energy Manager Today

Commercial real estate

Inside the toxin-free hospital of the future

Last week, hundreds of change makers from hospitals, health systems and medical products or supplier companies gathered in Dallas to learn and compare notes at the 13th CleanMed Conference.  CleanMed is the nation’s largest conference focusing on health care sustainability. These are people who have moved beyond protecting the environment and human health, to improving them.

Green Biz

Residential Real Estate

Firm’s plan to bring passive house standards to Vancouver

A Vancouver firm is taking an active role in bringing passive house standards to the city.  Architect Simon Richards and engineer Scott Kennedy, both from Vancouver-based Cornerstone Architecture, presented a session at the recent Architectural Institute of British Columbia’s (AIBC) annual conference on adapting a passive house standard to their projects.

Journal of Commerce

Sustainable home made of straw bale

Architect Nicolas Koff recently designed and built a modern and very sustainable home near Hamilton, Ontario. K-House, as the home is called is eco-friendly from the ground up and built using prefabricated 15.75-inch (40-centimetre) thick straw-bale walls. According to the architect, building a green home is about more than just installing solar panels, and K-House proves that.

Jets on Green

‘Hobbit’ home in Canmore seeks eccentric buyer

Sixty-seven-year-old Tony Young has just returned from a 17,000-kilometre, three-month road trip around North America, taking him from his hometown of Canmore in the Rockies to Ohio, Los Angeles and back via the Oregon coast.  He undertook the journey in his motorhome with his trusty companions; a pair of giant Leonberger dogs.

Globe and Mail

Energy-plus houses in Berlin are the future of eco-friendly living

The three structures, collectively named “Holistic Living”, are the result of a holistic design approach that combines energy efficiency, mobility and health. Each building was built using natural, recyclable materials-walls, ceilings and roofs are made of wood and clay.

Inhabitat

In London they are building deposit boxes, not housing

For some time I have been complaining about those who attack the “nostalgists and NIMBYs” for preventing development that according to the laws of supply and demand, would reduce the cost of housing. Writing here and in the Guardian, I have called for a Goldilocks Density.

TreeHugger

This eco-village is designed to be fully self-sufficient

RegenVillages aims to create the “Tesla of eco-villages,” and its first development is underway outside Amsterdam.  Imagine a neighborhood that can grow its own food, produce its own energy, and turn its waste system into a closed-loop regenerative system. Now imagine a network of such villages all over the world.

TreeHugger.com

Green building ratings

CaGBC CEO Thomas Mueller to receive award from RAIC

The College of Fellows of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) bestows Fellowship in recognition of outstanding achievement. Criteria include design excellence, exceptional scholarly contribution, or distinguished service to the profession or the community. This year the CaGBC is very pleased to congratulate our President, CEO and Founding Director of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) Thomas Mueller, MA, LEED AP.

Canada Green Building Council

Sustainable products & materials

Google’s Project Sunroof now available in 42 states

I’ve been staring at my roof a lot for the last few years, wondering whether or not it would make sense to invest in solar. After all, I live in a Southern state with plenty of sunshine. But I also live in an old Southern city with plenty of shade cast by majestic urban oak trees.

TreeHugger

Public solar-powered phone chargers coming soon to Ottawa

Always forgetting to charge your phone? Maybe it’s time to spend more time on Bank Street, where the local business improvement area is planning on adding two public phone and laptop chargers.“We’re pretty charged about it,” said Christine Leadman, executive director of the BIA.

Ottawa Business Journal

Longo Brothers buy EnerNOC software

Canadian food retailer Longo Brothers Fruit Markets has purchased EnerNOC’s energy intelligence software. EnerNOC says that the technology will enable Long to budget more accurately, prioritize investments in energy projects and increase employee productivity. The chain consists of 31 stores in the greater Toronto area.

Energy Manager Today – Enernoc News Release

Government Programs and Incentives

Bill would eliminate NY greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

New York lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s climate and clean energy goals law, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions from anthropogenic sources by 100 percent, compared with 1990 levels, by 2050. It also sets an incremental GHG reduction target of at least 50 percent by 2030.

Environmental Leader

Corporate Sustainability

Insurance companies taking too big a risk on fossil fuels, report says

The US insurance industry, the country’s second largest institutional investor in oil, gas and coal with $459bn in fossil fuel investments, needs to divest or face serious threats to its financial stability, according to a report released Tuesday.  The report, funded by Ceres, a Boston-based sustainability advocacy group, analyzes investment data from the country’s 40 largest insurance companies, including Prudential, AIG, Metlife, State Farm and Allstate.

CERES

Loblaw Water Fund making an impact on freshwater health

The second year of the Loblaw Water Fund Projects are now complete and WWF-Canada sees the positive effects the initiative is having on the health of freshwater in Canada after two years.

Canada Newswire

Cities and Towns

Railway enclave in Paris is transformed into a solar-powered mixed-use eco-district

A former brownfield in Paris has turned into a hotspot for green development and clean energy production. As part of an ambitious plan to green the city, the Parisian government is transforming the vast Batignolles railway enclave in the 17th district into the Clichy-Batignolles Eco-district.

Inhabitat

Cities poised to play a bigger role in SDGs review process

Cities would make up one of three major themes guiding how the U. N.’s new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are monitored, under a high-level plan that would go before the U. N. General Assembly for approval. If approved, the cities theme would be in place for all of 2018.

Eco-Business

Hard-pressed rust belt cities go green

Depending on how you look at it, Gary, Indiana is facing either the greatest crisis in its 110-year history, or the greatest opportunity. The once-prosperous center of steel production has lost more than half its residents in the past 50 years. Just blocks from city hall, streets are full of crumbling, burned-out houses and lush weeds.

Environment 360

Waste Management

Calgary green cart program ready to roll

Calgary homeowners can expect green carts to arrive next spring as the city moves one step closer to rolling out its residential compost food and waste program, pending final approval of a $6.50-a-month levy at Monday’s council meeting.  Construction of the $143-million organics and biosolids processing facility and an adjacent $25-million “resource recovery campus” is underway.

Calgary Herald

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