Could cities, business be sued for inaction on climate change?

Could cities, business be sued for inaction on climate change?

Eight hundred million dollars: that’s the potential price tag of the rising ocean in Vancouver. The city needs a new storm surge barrier to stop flooding if sea levels climb by one metre this century due to climate change. When discussing this scenario last fall, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said something that made lawyer Andrew Gage perk up and listen.

Toronto Star – Policy Horizons Canada

Vancouver ultra energy-efficient standard kicks in

What Lucio Picciano noticed when he moved into his ultra-energy-efficient new house was how his daughter started sleeping through the night. Previously the two-year-old had constantly been woken up by sounds from outside. “Her patterns changed because everything was so quiet,” Mr. Picciano said.

Globe and Mail

Vancouver’s first Passive House Plus home in the works

Work will soon be underway on Vancouver’s first certified Passive House Plus home. The two-storey house that will be constructed on 5th Avenue in East Vancouver was designed by Marken Design and Consulting. When completed early next year, it will be the third of its kind nationwide, Marken Design principal Alexander Maurer said. The builders are now tearing down the existing home on the property.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Britco Construction’s blend of modular and passive housing

The veteran builder can construct passive homes, which use up to 90 per cent less energy than their traditional counterparts, much faster than rivals that work on-site. You probably know Britco for its tan-and-orange rental trailers, a fixture on construction sites. But the Langley-based company has other talents.

BC Business

The case for office buildings with windows that open

Over the past 20 years, offices around the world have changed from offering windows that open to air-tight spaces that are fully air conditioned. Why don’t we design skyscrapers with windows that open? And what will it take to get a breath of fresh air during the workday without having to leave the office?

GreenBiz

Toronto’s first non-smoking apartment building

In his first apartment, non-smoker Jonah Wolfraim was often invaded by cigarette smoke. It would blow in from the floor below or the backyard, “a smoking hotbed.” “In the middle of summer, your window would be open to get some air, but you’d get smoke,” says Wolfraim, 26, who works in marketing with Shopify.

Toronto Star

Bioeconomy proponents welcome SuperCluster program details

Proponents leading the development of a bioeconomy supercluster welcome the federal government’s launch of the Innovation Superclusters Initiative. One of two BioDesign SuperClusters will focus on the sustainable low-carbon living environments that use advanced and bio-sourced materials.

Canada Newswire

	Building in Japan, a flexible wooden wonder
	In 2017, Aki Hamada Architects have built a multipurpose building that is an addition to a circuit board factory in Yokahama. It’s interior reminds me of traditional Japanese architecture like the Katsura villa in many ways.
	TreeHugger, May 25, 2017

 

Better Buildings Challenge to reduce energy usage 20% in 10 years

According to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge, on average, participants are improving energy efficiency by more than 2% per year. This is in line with meeting energy savings goals of 20% over the next 10 years. Energy performance results for nearly 38,000 properties have been recorded to date.

BDC Network

5 ways to win private investors for energy-efficient buildings

The 2017 Sustainable Energy for All Forum kicked off with a stark warning: The world is not on track to reach its 2030 energy goals, including those on efficiency. To speed action, leaders in government and finance must better coordinate policy and investment to move more money toward clean energy.

Green Biz

GBCI releases LEED in Motion: Europe report

In May, GBCI, the certifying body for all projects participating in the globally recognized LEED green building rating system, opened its newest office in Europe. LEED certification continues to grow throughout the region, and I am pleased to take on the role of director for the GBCI Europe office in Munich.

U.S. Green Building Council

European GBCs urge strong commitment on renovation

Green Building Councils across Europe have written to their Energy Ministers to advocate for a stronger vision for building renovation, as proposed revisions to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) are debated by EU member states.

World Green Building Councils

	Majority see climate change as catastrophic risk
	Nearly nine in 10 people say they are ready to make changes to their standard of living to prevent future climate catastrophe. A survey of more than 8,000 people in eight countries found that 84 per cent now consider climate change a “global catastrophic risk”.
	Thompson Reuters Foundation News, May 23, 2017

 

Guide helps cities, businesses collaborate on climate resilience

Cities and businesses both face the threat of damaged infrastructure and disrupted operations due to climate impacts. A new C2ES guide outlines ways cities can collaborate with the local business community to strengthen climate resilience. To create the Guide to Public-Private Collaboration on City Climate Resilience Planning, U.S. based C2ES brought together local government and business officials.

Globe-net.com

The growth of corporate clean energy in 6 charts

Utilities are breaking away from traditional electricity products to offer customers access to large-scale renewable energy. Until very recently, utilities did not differentiate the sort of power they offered customers. With very few exceptions, everyone shared in the cost and used electricity from the same fleet of power generating stations.

GreenBiz – Energy Manager Today

Supermarket giant Tesco to slash emissions 60% by 2025

UK supermarket giant Tesco is not exactly popular with the deeper green environmentalist crowd. In fact, when they planned on opening one of their Tesco Express convenience stores in my hometown of Bristol, it literally resulted in riots.  While there is legitimate concern around the oversized power that Tesco wields, it’s hard to deny that the company has also made some substantial and important commitments to sustainability.

TreeHugger

New York REVs up for a clean energy future

From huge renewable infrastructure projects to rethinking how consumers use energy at every level, New York is in the midst of arguably the most proactive and comprehensive electric system overhaul happening anywhere in the U.S.  New York is grappling with the same issues unfolding across the globe: a power grid not built that cannot quickly adopt new technology.

Corporate Knights

Products, Technology and Design

New surface options for stormwater management for parking areas

Businesses with large surface parking areas are increasingly needing to focus on stormwater runoff management, particularly as rules are toughening regarding how such water is being collected. New porous pavement and pervious concrete options are beginning to solve the problem for some companies.

Environmental Leader

Forward Labs solar roof promises to compete with Tesla’s

With all of the hoopla over Tesla’s solar roof offering it can be easy to miss some of the current and upcoming solar roof contenders, such as SunTegra. But there are other companies innovating in the thin-film, building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV), solar tile, solar blinds, and solar roof sector, such as Forward Labs.

TreeHugger

Lightweight prefab wood framing system goes together without nails

Wood is the only building material that sequesters carbon for the life of the building. These days, “Mass Timber” is all the rage; this is big wood, glue-lam, cross-lam, nail-lam and dowel-lam, using a lot of wood. But there are other more efficient techniques including good old American style platform framing.

TreeHugger.com

Market Trends and Research

Major job growth from energy-saving tax incentive

As many as 77,000 new design and construction jobs would be created annually over 10 years in the U.S. – along with almost $7.4 billion more in annual GDP – if U.S. Congress and the Administration continue an important energy efficiency tax policy, according to an economic impact study released today.

U.S. GBC

Opinion: Canada’s home and buildings key to unlocking clean growth

The energy used for heating, air-conditioning, hot water, appliances, equipment and lighting is responsible for 124 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year in Canada or 20 per cent of our country’s annual total. To put this in perspective, that’s equivalent to the annual amount of carbon emitted by all the vehicles on the road in Canada.

Vancouver Sun

Municipal Policy and Urban Issues

Green space – how much is enough?

Half of the world’s people now live in urban areas. This creates competition for resources and increases pressure on already limited green space. Many urban areas are still experiencing active degradation or removal of green space. 

Eco Business

Coyote activity forces city to close Calgary park

Responding to reports of aggressive behaviour from denning coyotes towards humans, the City of Calgary is closing an entire green space in Panorama Hills. The closure includes the slope and pathway between Country Hills Blvd. N.W. and Hidden Creek Blvd. N.W.

Calgary Herald

Commercial real estate

PepsiCo, Walmart and setting a standard for sustainable fleets

Mike O’Connell has a big job. As PepsiCo’s senior supply chain director for fleets and sustainability, he is tasked with overseeing the food and beverage giant’s fleet of 50,000 tractors, trailers, route trucks and other vehicles. “We have a mix of about every truck type,” O’Connell observed. “We’re one of the larger private fleets in the United States.”

GreenBiz

Renewable Energy

World’s largest floating solar power plant connected in China

The Chinese firm Sungrow, a supplier of photovoltaic (PV) inverter systems, has announced the commissioning of the world’s largest floating PV power plant. Sungrow’s new floating 40-megawatt photovoltaic plant has been successfully connected to the grid in Huainan, China. The new 40-megawatt plant was built using Sungrow’s PV inverters.

Daily Commercial News

Residential Green Buildings

Thornhill condo is carving out green space

Once the Vanguard condominium takes its place in the Yonge St. corridor in Thornhill, finding a green, family-friendly condo will become a walk in the park — literally. Residential builder Devron Developments has designed the 25-storey Vanguard, located at Yonge St. and Grandview Ave., to include three- and four-bedroom units, a children’s playroom and a half-acre park on an adjacent lot, which the company has donated to the city.

Toronto Star

Government Programs and Incentives

Trump’s 2018 budget would whack EPA and DOE

The Trump administration is proposing to cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency more than 31% in the 2018 budget. The White House rationalizes that the cuts would reduce the regulatory burden, allowing businesses to expand and to invest in modern pollution controls.

Environmental Leader – ENS Newswire

Cities and Towns

Experts explore sustainable infrastructure amid rapid development in Asia-Pacific

Nearly 200 experts, academics and officials from around the world gathered last week in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi for an international forum on sustainable infrastructure. The two-day conference tackled issues related to the developing world’s massive need for new infrastructure in light of climate resilience and natural capital.

Eco-business

The Granville Island redevelopment vision unveiled

An elevator that would drop pedestrians from the middle of the Granville Street Bridge into the heart of Granville Island is one of the ideas contained in the Granville Island 2040: Bridging Past & Future report. The plan, released Tuesday by CMHC-Granville Island, is the result of a 18-month study.

Vancouver Sun

Envisioning a city that produces more energy than it uses

What does a city powered entirely by renewable energy look like? Ray Wills imagines a Sydney that, by 2025, is generating more energy than it’s consuming. Every home in the sunny Australian city has solar-paneled rooftops whose energy can be fed back into the grid or stored at home to be used later.

Eco Business

Waste Management

New green bins are a smashing success, but not with raccoons

Here’s the score so far on the city’s new green bins: 300,000 for the good guys, and, it appears, a big fat zero for raccoons. By now, most Toronto households are using the new organic waste bins, which the city began rolling out last year and which will be delivered to every home by the end of 2017.

Toronto Star

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.