ENMAX to build District Energy Centre in Edmonton

ENMAX to build District Energy Centre in Edmonton

The success of Calgary’s eight-year-old District Energy Centre has utility company ENMAX looking to build a similar centralized heating system in Edmonton. The District Energy Centre in Calgary, located in the East Village neighbourhood just outside the downtown core, is a centralized generation facility which produces heat for distribution through underground pipes to buildings throughout the downtown and East Village.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Carleton University unveils ambitious energy plan

Canada’s Carleton University has released its latest “Energy Master Plan”, part of a sustainability strategy that reduces current energy and water consumption. The new plan builds on work from an early plan prepared in 2014. Carleton, known as Canada’s capital university, launched its inaugural Energy Master Plan in early 2014. The new plan builds on the work and progress the campus has realized since then.

Energy Manager Today – Carleton U. release

Mohawk College building earns ZCB-Design certification

The Joyce Centre for Partnership & Innovation in Hamilton has earned the first institutional and second overall Zero Carbon Building Design certification from the Canada Green Building Council. The JCPI will be home to new and existing programs offered through Mohawk’s School of Engineering Technology. It will be comprised of 96,670 square feet of innovative labs, workshops, lecture theatres, industry training centres all under one roof at Mohawk College’s Fennell Campus. It officially opens in September.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Business leaders appointed to guide GBCI Canada

Green Business Certification Inc. Canada (GBCI Canada) has announced the five board members from Canada and the U.S. who will provide green building leadership and expertise to the new joint venture between GBCI and the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC).

Sustainable Biz Canada

How to encourage better energy performance in rentals

Rocky Mountain Institute’s new report, “Better Rentals, Better City: Smart Policies to Improve Your City’s Rental Housing Energy Performance (PDF)” aims to inform city leaders on mechanisms that can boost energy performance improvements in rental housing that benefit tenants, landlords, communities and the environment.

Green Biz

EDF, BIT, Green Alliance to engage 3,600 Chicago buildings

The BIT Building Program is ideal for underserved communities that have not yet been able to take advantage of sustainability opportunities in the built environment. BIT provides structure, peer support, expert guidance, and public recognition for buildings working to reduce their operational impacts on the environment.

The Energy Collective

Pittsburgh steps up city-scale microgrid initiative

Pittsburgh, which hopes to eventually develop a grid of microgrids, continues to evolve as a center of energy innovation with about 20 distributed energy, nanogrid and microgrid projects now emerging in the Pennsylvania city.

Microgrid Knowledge

	WorldGBC, CaGBC partner in 2018 conferences
	The World Green Building Council Congress 2018 will be held in Toronto, Canada, in June, in partnership with the Canada Green Building Council’s Building Lasting Change conference.
	World GBC, April 24, 2018

 

Blue carbon, a billion-dollar resource you’ve never heard of

The Bay of Fundy may soon be known for more than its powerful tides. Instead, the plants and mud in the coastal ecosystem have the potential to hold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of “blue carbon” offset credits.

CBC

Montreal looks to ban plastic water bottles in city buildings

Now that single-use plastic bags have been banned in Montreal, city hall is setting its sights on getting rid of other kinds of plastic, too. Next week, Ensemble Montréal, the opposition party, will table a motion to ban the sale of 500-millilitre water bottles during city events and at city buildings.

CBC

We made plastic. We depend on it. Now we’re drowning in it.

Since plastic wasn’t invented until the late 19th century, and production really only took off around 1950, we have a mere 9.2 billion tons of the stuff to deal with. Of that, more than 6.9 billion tons have become waste. And of that waste, a staggering 6.3 billion tons never made it to a recycling bin—a figure that stunned the scientists who crunched the numbers in 2017.

National Geographic

Why real estate finance is going green

Real estate finance is going green, with the use of new bonds linked to the sustainability of a project. A number of developers are starting to look towards green bonds to finance green projects for renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transportation and green buildings.

The Investor – JLL News

	Bitcoin is an energy hog
	Bitcoin miners will guzzle more electricity this year than some countries do, according to new numbers from a leading researcher. Few disagree that the digital currency’s energy use is a problem that’s only getting bigger.
	CBC, May 23, 2018

 

B.C. cities debate how to cope with rising sea levels

The roughly 400 houses on Crescent Beach in Surrey, B.C., where Mr. Seiz has lived and run his software-technology business for 15 years, are backed by a dramatic cliff and face the ocean. The community may cease to exist if Surrey carries through with a plan to cope with rising sea levels.

The Globe and Mail

The road to greener and smarter cities is paved with copper

The EU Green Week—the biggest European conference on environment policy taking place this week under the theme ‘Greener Cities for a Greener Europe’—offers a perfect opportunity to reflect on how cities can become more sustainable, smart and resilient. And on the role copper plays in all this.

Euractiv – GreenBiz

Greenbuild releases 2017 sustainability report

Informa Exhibitions U.S. and the U.S. Green Building Council has released the 2017 Greenbuild Sustainability Report, highlighting valuable metrics and key benchmarks regarding the impact on energy use and waste management at the 2017 Greenbuild International Conference held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Green Lodgings News

Leading the transition to a low-carbon, resilient future in Asia Pacific

Recently, The Asia Pacific Regional Network of Green Building Councils gathered in Melbourne, the 16th most livable city globally, to experience the renowned Green Cities conference. At the event, the Green Building Council of Australia launched the executive summary of their Carbon Positive Roadmap, the culmination of a year-long discussion engaging their industry.

World GBC

Market Trends and Research

Land use can achieve 30% of carbon cuts by 2030

Land use is often a forgotten priority, yet those of us who wish to contain global warming and avert catastrophic climate change have a natural ally: the land. As nations plan to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion, an international team of scientists has calculated just how much the natural and farmed world could contribute to future stability by absorbing ever more carbon dioxide.

Globe-net.com

Municipal Policy and Urban Issues

Edmonton to cut GHGs 50 per cent by 2030

The city of Edmonton is crafting a new plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The urban planning committee agreed to one of three scenarios to cut GHGs in half by that year.  One scenario considered was a carbon-neutral target by the same year.

CBC

Commercial real estate

Bloomberg HQ achieves prestigious LEED certification

Bloomberg L.P.’s headquarters at 731 Lexington Avenue in New York has been LEED® certified to the Gold level for Building Operations and Maintenance (O+M) for existing buildings.

All Work Space

Residential Real Estate

Montreal homeowners on contaminated land accuse city of delays

A group of property owners who live on contaminated land near Baldwin Park in the Plateau–Mont-Royal borough say they are fed up with lagging legal proceedings — and they accuse the city of intentionally stalling their case.

CBC

Government Programs and Incentives

After years of disaster, how B.C.’s northern Interior can rebuild

British Columbia’s Forests Minister Doug Donaldson took a helicopter tour of the Cariboo region this month – a landscape ravaged in turn by pests, fire and drought. Last summer, 19 wildfires converged here 60 km. west of Quesnel to form one of the largest wildfires recorded in B.C.

The Globe and Mail

Water Management

Communities turn to reusing wastewater as scarcity threatens

When California’s Orange County Water District began distributing drinking water derived from sewage in the mid-1970s, it acted out of simple need. The aquifer relied on for most of its drinking water had been so overdrawn that saltwater from the Pacific Ocean had seeped into it.

GreenBiz

Waste Management

Alberta’s big cities compete to reduce straw use on July 14

Move over, hockey and football. When it comes to the rivalry between Edmonton and Calgary, there’s a new game in town. The latest competition is which city can recruit more bars and restaurants to eliminate plastic straws for a day on July 14.

CBC