Yorkdale Shopping Centre parkades earn Parksmart certification

Yorkdale Shopping Centre parkades earn Parksmart certification

Two parkades at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, owned by Oxford Properties, are the first Canadian sites to be certified under the Green Business Certification Inc. Canada Parksmart sustainability program. Parksmart is the world’s only rating system designed to advance sustainable mobility through smarter parking structure design and operation, according to GBCI Canada.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Why demolish buildings instead of deconstructing them for re-use?

Just a few years after starting a non-profit reselling used building materials in the early 1990s, Ted Reiff’s organization, The ReUse People, hit a wall. “We couldn’t get enough materials to supply the demand,” he says. Despite tons of donated and salvaged doors, windows and structural beams coming in to his San Diego-based operation, the amount of people seeking cheap materials for home building and renovation projects was overwhelming.

Globe-net.com

Montréal’s Entremise is full of new ideas for empty buildings

Entremise was started after its founders struggled to answer why, when there are so many people and projects needing space, any building should sit idle. With funding from and in partnership with the city, the Maison de l’innovation sociale (MIS) and the McConnell Foundation, the non-profit has as its first pilot project transformed a formerly vacant public industrial building in the city’s Griffintown area.

Corporate Knights

A Canadian solution to the challenge of building livable cities

This is why the Smart Cities Sandbox is so important. It’s a partnership of leading Canadian companies that collectively are seeking ways to create a Canadian advantage in one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century – how to use digital technologies, from artificial intelligence and the cloud to 5G and the Internet of Things – to build livable cities at a time when more and more of the world’s growing population is concentrating in urban environments.

IT World Canada

How to seize the opportunities that come from growing cities

Ontarians can all feel the pressure of growing cities — whether it’s through rising home ownership or rental costs, worsening air quality, congestion on the roads, or squeezing onto a packed subway car for your daily commute. As the population in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) is expected to grow by 50% — from 9 million today to 13.5 million in 2041 — cities need political leaders to double down on city planning efforts that support a growing population.

Pembina Institute

REIT investors put more focus on environmental issues

Due to a combination of drivers, environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns are gaining prominence among REITs and their investors. The new Emerging Trends in Real Estate report from the Urban Land Institute and professional services firm PwC declares a “sophisticated approach to ESG practices can be critical … in the world of public REITs.”

National Real Estate Investor

Green bonds and green buildings—the perfect match?

Imagine going to a bank to ask for your energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly building to be refinanced through a green bond, only to be told by the banker that there would be no financial return in doing so. Should you go ahead with it anyway? Yes, was the consensus from a panel of business leaders at the International Green Building Conference (IGBC) in September.

Eco Business

	Organizations to divert textiles from landfills
	Twenty-two organizations in the GTA participated in the third annual Recycling Collection Drive, a campaign that helps reuse and recycle clothing and household textiles. Up to 30,000 employees brought clothing and textiles to 65 collection locations.
	Canada Newswire, October 16, 2018

 

Canada, U.K. launch $20M smart energy challenge

Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Anita Vandenbeld, Member of Parliament for Ottawa West–Nepean, and Susan Jane le Jeune d’Allegeershecque, U.K. High Commissioner to Canada, Tuesday launched a 30-month transatlantic competition challenging Canadian and British innovators to create new technology solutions to transform our traditional power grids into smart energy systems with investments of $20 million.

Canada Newswire

Concordia University tries eco-friendly approach to watering gardens

Concordia University has found a more environmentally friendly way to water gardens and care for the Loyola campus grounds. Instead of using city water, Concordia has started collecting and reusing rainwater from the gutters on the Physical Services (PS) building. The idea came after the university’s maintenance crew decided to remove the garden hoses and sprinkler systems from the Loyola campus grounds.

CBC

Cleanup of wind, solar sites won’t fall on Alberta farmers

With a growing number of wind and solar developments studding Alberta’s landscape, the province has enshrined new rules that ensure operators are ultimately responsible for cleaning them up. The province has had renewable energy development for over two decades, but landowner advocates grumble about insufficient rules. Landowners wanted to make sure their property is returned to its prior state when renewable facilities expired.

CBC

Prime ranchland near Calgary to be protected from development

Two thousand acres of prime real estate west of Turner Valley will be protected from development in a deal announced by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) on Thursday. The voluntary agreement with the owner of the White Moose Ranch will protect the 811-hectare portion of the property while allowing cattle operations to continue.

CBC – Calgary Herald

Mackenzie, Greenchip Financial launch Global Environmental Equity Fund

Mackenzie Investments announced the launch of Mackenzie Global Environmental Equity Fund to better support its investors and advisors seeking investment solutions with sustainability themes. “Sustainable, responsible and impact investing continues to grow in popularity in Canada, but there are limited investment options,” said Barry McInerney, president & CEO, Mackenzie Investments.

Canada Newswire

CDPQ increases stake in Azure Power to 40%

La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a long‑term institutional investor, has increased its stake in Azure Power Global Ltd., a leading player in solar energy, to 40 per cent through a US$100 million contribution to the company’s recent capital raising. This new investment in Azure Power brings the total amount invested by CDPQ to US$240 million.

Canada Newswire

CPPIB Sustainable Investing report highlights push for board effectiveness

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is increasing its focus on strengthening corporate governance, with an emphasis on improving the gender composition of investee companies’ boards. In its 11th Report on Sustainable Investing, CPPIB outlines how its Sustainable Investing team added Board Effectiveness as a fifth focus area this year, joining Climate Change, Water, Human Rights and Executive Compensation.

Globe Newswire

Circular investment platform part of new EC bio-economy strategy

Last week the European Commission announced its action plan to further develop a sustainable and circular bio-economy in Europe. As announced by President Juncker and First Vice-President Timmermans in their letter of intent accompanying President Juncker’s 2018 State of the Union Address, the new bio-economy strategy is part of the Commission’s drive to boost jobs, growth and investment in the EU. 

Bio-based World News

	Passive House Canada conference 2018
	Passive House Canada is collaborating with UN Economic Commission for Europe Committee on Forests, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and Canadian Wood Council, to hold concurrent conferences in Vancouver, November 7 to 8, 2018.
	Passive House Canada Conference

 

Products, Technology and Design

Wood at Work 2018 conference is like a TreeHugger reunion

So many of the people we talk about here are coming to talk timber and tall wood. Wood at Work 2018 is the fourth annual conference of global innovators linking the use of wood with urbanization, architecture, climate change, forestry and forest conservation. It’s taking place in Toronto on October 25 and 26 at the jazzy new Daniels Faculty of Architecture.

TreeHugger

Mass timber: Thinking big about sustainable construction

A MIT class has designedd a prototype building to demonstrate that even huge buildings can be built primarily with wood.  For this structure, called ‘the Longhouse’, massive timbers made of conventional lumber would be laminated together like a kind of supersized plywood.

Engineers Journal – Bio-based World News

Microsoft has figured out a way to reduce risks associated with PPAs

Corporate power purchase agreements have helped bring at least 13 gigawatts of software and wind power to the U.S. grid over the past decade — and more than 4.5 GWs during 2018 alone, thanks to a new deal revealed Monday. But the underlying risks associated with these contracts aren’t for the faint of heart. That is, of course, if you’re an insurance company. Microsoft has figured out a way to use this to its advantage.

GreenBiz

Market Trends and Research

Will Canadians accept a carbon tax?

A recent report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sounded an urgent warning about the profound consequences of a warming globe. Some citizens, leaders and experts are even arguing that the combination of a carbon tax and rebates to individuals might mean that many Canadians come out ahead on two counts: more money in their pockets, and less greenhouse gas (GHG) in their atmosphere.

Globe and Mail

Carbon dividends would benefit N.B. families: Report

Canadians for Clean Prosperity released new data showing households in New Brunswick would receive more money in the form of carbon dividend cheques than they would pay in carbon taxes, if the federal government brings in its carbon tax backstop starting in 2019. The Province of New Brunswick has opted to comply with the federal government’s carbon pricing legislation.

Canada Newswire – Canada Newswire

Saskatchewan air quality readings raise new concerns

The front door of the Gervais farmhouse is little more than a stone’s throw to some of the 10s of thousands of batteries, pump jacks and flare stacks that burn off the gaseous residues of the province’s oil boom. Louis Gervais has lived here his whole life and, with his wife, Lucille, and their children, has farmed the surrounding acres.

Toronto Star

Oil industry faces global warming and a lower carbon world

What is the future of oil? It’s hard if not impossible to say for sure, but there are few more important questions, since the answer will be a key guide to the fate of humanity over the next century. It’s worth speculating about because the climate will depend on it, with the burning of gasoline and diesel key drivers for global warming.

Toronto Star

Commercial real estate

Hurricanes reveal the level of resilient in an area

Two extraordinary tropical storms have hit major population centers in very different parts of the world. Hurricane Florence made landfall Friday morning in North Carolina in the U.S. Typhoon Mangkhut, meanwhile, is headed for the Philippines and on to China’s southern coast, perhaps directly at Hong Kong, where it could be the most powerful storm since records began in the city.

Bloomberg

Renewable Energy

Walmart, EDPR buy three wind energy power systems

Walmart and EDP Renewables (EDPR) announce three power purchase agreements (PPA) that will enable the construction of three new utility-scale wind farms – developed, owned, and operated by EDPR – in the states of Illinois and Indiana. Walmart’s cumulative 233 megawatt (MW) investment is comprised of generating capacity in several existing mid-western U.S. wind farms.

Globe Newswire

Cowessess First Nation launches solar power project

Looking at the four imposing rows of solar panels on the east end of Regina, Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme says the band’s latest renewable energy project has a definite “wow” factor. It’s clear renewable energy is an emerging powerhouse, Delorme said, with SaskPower stating its own goal is to to see 50 per cent of the power used in the province come from renewable sources by 2030.

CBC

Renewable Energy among top tech investment opportunities

With technology evolving at an accelerating pace, investors are focusing on the opportunities presented by a wide array of technological themes, according to the third annual survey of affluent investors by Global X.ⁱ The New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), found in its survey that 27% of respondents believe that renewable energy presents the biggest investment opportunity when compared to other disruptive technologies. 

PR Newswire

Residential Real Estate

Climate change and the coming coastal RE crash

Amid the havoc Hurricane Michael caused on blocks of waterfront property in Mexico Beach, Florida, a single home stood out after the storm cleared, a survivor of winds that made buildings “buck like an airplane wing.” This so-called Sand Palace, a home owned by Russell King and his nephew, Dr. Lebron Lackey, and profiled in the New York Times, has become famous for its resilient reinforced-concrete construction.

Curbed

Government Programs and Incentives

Ontario will loose $3B by cancelling cap-and-trade

The cancellation of the cap-and-trade system will cost $3 billion in lost revenue over the next four fiscal years, Ontario’s fiscal watchdog said Tuesday, warning the decision would push the provincial budget further into the red.  Financial Accountability Officer Peter Weltman said the loss of revenue from cap and trade will be greater than the savings the government will achieve by cancelling spending associated with the program.

CBC

Those opposing carbon tax should reveal their plans to save the planet

The world can’t say it wasn’t warned – repeatedly. But unfortunately, the dire cautions being levelled by climate scientists these days don’t seem to be precipitating the global panic and outrage that they should. The latest report from the United Nations indicates the planet is warming at a far greater rate than previously thought.

Globe and Mail

Corporate Sustainability

Clean up climate? It’s good for business

If the world’s largest companies live up to the promises they’ve made to slow global warming, together they could reduce emissions by an amount equal to those of Germany. The corporate pledges gained renewed attention last week after an ominous report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said that government policies alone won’t ensure the “unprecedented” societal changes needed over the next decade to stem global warming.

Toronto Star

Sanexen to open new office in Kitimat, B.C.

Sanexen Environmental Services Inc., a member of the LOGISTEC family, announced the opening of a new office in Kitimat, B.C. on Wednesday. Over the past 30 years, the experts at Sanexen have completed projects totalling more than $1 billion in the environmental and water main rehabilitation fields, and this, in urban centres and remote northern communities across Canada.

Canada Newswire

Cities and Towns

Can India’s Amaravati become the next sustainable city?

In south-east India, 217 square kilometers of farmland along the Krishna River are being transformed into a city billed as an urban utopia. When complete, Amaravati will not only be the new capital of Andhra Pradesh state — developers hope it will also be one of the most sustainable cities in the world.

CNN.com

Water Management

How climate change threatens to leave water bonds high and dry

Hurricane Florence caused record flooding at water and wastewater plants in North Carolina. Saltwater intrusion from rising sea levels is wreaking havoc on Florida’s water supplies. The nearly two decades of drought afflicting the Colorado River Basin will soon require southern California to cut its draw from the river by as much as 8%.

Ceres

Target and Archer Daniels Midland join AgWater challenge

Ceres and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announce the addition of Target, a general merchandise retailer that serves guests at more than 1,800 stores, and Archer Daniels Midland Company, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, to the AgWater Challenge.

Environmental Leader

Waste Management

Micron, Quest partner to treat U.S. cannabis waste

Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (MWM-CN), a developer of proprietary digester solutions for the treatment of organic waste, announced it has partnered with Quest Resource Management Group LLC, a fully owned subsidiary of Quest Resource Holding Corporation (QRHC-Q), a leader in environmental reuse, recycling, and disposal services, to market and distribute Micron’s proprietary Cannavore cannabis waste processing systems in the United States.

PR Newswire