GBCI introduces TRUE Zero Waste Rating System

GBCI introduces TRUE Zero Waste Rating System

GBCI, the premier organization independently recognizing excellence in green business industry performance and practice globally, unveiled TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency), the new brand identity for its zero waste rating system. The TRUE Zero Waste rating system helps businesses and facilities define, pursue and achieve their zero waste goals through project certification and professional credentialing.

GBCI News Release – Environmental Leader

Bentall Kennedy maintains top position in GRESB rankings

Bentall Kennedy has run its streak to seven years atop the Canadian rankings of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB).  The company ranked as the No. 1 diversified firm in Canada, second among diversified private firms in North American and third among diversified private firms around the world in the 2017 survey.

Sustainable Biz Canada

It’s time to talk about liability and compensation

The quick succession of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Jose hitting the Caribbean islands, Texas and Florida as well as one-in-100-year floods in South Asia hitting first Nepal, then India and now Bangladesh is highly relevant for the forthcoming 23rd Conference of Parties (COP23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) taking place in Bonn in a few weeks.

Reuters Foundation

Insurers, government back away from disaster relief

With the federal government looking to play a smaller role in covering the costs of natural disasters, and private insurers declaring some homes built in some high-risk areas are uninsurable, the question of who will pay for storm damage is becoming a more pressing issue. In the U.S., which continues to be pounded by powerful hurricanes and storms, the government will be spending billions on recovery.

CBC

Climate change shaping investment decisions at CDPQ

The spectre of climate change is increasingly shaping investment decisions at Quebec’s largest pension fund. The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, is starting to introduce the idea of “carbon budgets” to its investment teams, said Michael Sabia, its president and CEO. Those “budgets” are a specific amount of carbon dioxide that will be emitted as a result of investment decisions.

Montreal Gazette

Truly green building harder than rocket science to build

Not long ago, in the southwest of England, a local community set out to replace a 1960s-vintage school with a new building using triple-pane windows and super-insulated walls to achieve the highest possible energy efficiency. The new school proudly opened on the same site as the old one and was soon burning more energy in a month than the old building had in a year.

Green Biz

Passive House in a box

In the community of Symons Gate, Northwest Calgary, an experimental Passive House is being built, straight out of a box, shipped from Germany. The house is being constructed by Brookfield Residential, headquartered in Calgary, as a pilot project to educate its trade suppliers on construction methods to meet Passive House Institute standards.

Globe and Mail – Sustainable Biz Canada

	AkzoNobel re-claims top industry ranking in Dow Jones Sustainability Index
	AkzoNobel, the global paints giant and a member of WorldGBC’s Corporate Advisory Board, has returned to the top of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for the fifth time in six years.
	World Green Building Council, September 13, 2017

 

Builders warn new energy code will step up home prices

The new B.C. Energy Step Code will add up to $80,000 to the cost of a new single-family house while having a minimal effect on energy efficiency, according to the Victoria Residential Builders Association (VRBA). The Step Code is an amendment to the B.C. Building Code announced by the former Liberal government this April.

Business in Vancouver

When sustainability saved the city

Making a city more sustainable is not just about protecting the environment. It’s also about transforming the local economy so that it’s more resilient, said city leaders yesterday at a conference on green buildings in Singapore.  Copenhagen was on the verge of bankrupcy and “handing the keys of the city back to the national government” some 13 years ago.

Eco Business

Washington, D.C. is first LEED Platinum city in the world

Washington, D.C. was named the first LEED for Cities Platinum city in the world by the U.S. Green Building Council last month. Today, 65% of D.C. neighborhoods are walkable, 58% of commuter trips are by bike, walking, or public transit, and the D.C. government is 100% powered by renewable energy. D.C. is also on track to derive at least one-half of its electricity from renewable resources by 2032.

BDC Network

Massachusetts leads by example at Greenbuild

The USGBC Massachusetts Chapter has been working hard all year, helping to build the road to Greenbuild. Boston first served as the host city for Greenbuild in 2008, and USGBC Massachusetts is excited to host in 2017 for this second visit.

US Green Building Council

	Monster Fatberg blocks London sewage system
	A fatberg weighing the same as 11 double decker buses and stretching the length of two football pitches is blocking a section of London’s ageing sewage network. The congealed mass of fat, wet wipes and nappies is one of the biggest ever found.
	The Guardian, September 13, 2017

 

WorldGBC surpasses 75 Green Building Councils as Serbia joins

Membership of the World Green Building Council has surpassed 75 Green Building Councils – as Serbia has joined. Serbia Green Building Council is the newest, and 76th member of the World Green Building Council, and joins at the Prospective level of membership.

World GBC

Colorado College’s new library skipped a LEED certification

Despite being a beacon of sustainability, Colorado College’s new carbon-neutral, net-zero energy library has opted not to get a third- party certification. Originally built in 1962, and named for Charles L. Tutt Jr., a former president of The Broadmoor and El Pomar Foundation and CC trustee, Tutt Library has evolved in line with the college’s dedication to having a neutral carbon footprint by 2020.

Colorado Springs Independent

Global LED market on track for continued growth

The global market for LEDs will increase at a compound annual growth rate of more than 18% this year until 2021, the market research firm Technavio forecasts. At that rate, the market would go from $18.51 billion in 2016 to $43.18 billion in 2021, Semiconductor Today reported.

Energy Manager Today

New energy storage deployments hit record in the US

More than 40% of the 38 megawatts of new energy storage installed in the US during the second quarter of this year was in homes and businesses compared to 9% in the first quarter, Reuters reported. The relatively small energy storage market is growing rapidly, driven by lower costs for battery systems as well as incentives in Hawaii and California.

Energy Manager Today

Market Trends and Research

People are less likely to fall sick in green buildings, study finds

Buildings that are built and renovated with the environment and resource-efficiency in mind are not only greener and cheaper to operate, maintain and demolish, but they’re healthier places for people to live and work in. This was the key finding from a study by Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and the National University of Singapore.

Eco Business

Third of Earth’s soil is acutely degraded due to agriculture

A third of the planet’s land is severely degraded and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24bn tonnes a year, according to a new United Nations-backed study that calls for a shift away from destructively intensive agriculture. The alarming decline, which is forecast to continue as demand for food and productive land increases, will add to the risks of conflicts.

The Guardian – Reuters Foundation

Commercial real estate

Tiny island lands big catch with microgrid

Cuttyhunk witnessed New England’s whale oil industry give way to kerosene and incandescent light bulbs. Now the tiny island is deep in another energy revolution — reducing diesel use by way of a solar plus storage microgrid. With a $2.1 million microgrid in operation since the early spring, the fishing mecca offers good argument for pursuing the new energy paradigm.

Microgrid Knowledge

Renewable Energy

Vulcan builds Canada’s first solar park

It seems fitting that Vulcan, Alberta, is home to the first solar park in Canada. After all this small town of fewer than 2,000 people loves making science reality out of science fiction. They built a replica Starship Enterprise and a space station-styled visitor centre while declaring themselves full-on Trekkies.

Pembina

Residential Green Buildings

An apartment building built around bicycles

There are many things that make a building green, and TreeHugger often complains that where one builds and how you get there is as important as what you build. That’s why I have long been intrigued by the Cykelhuset Oboy! in Malmö, Sweden, and why I took a train over the famous bridge from Copenhagen to visit.

TreeHugger

Green building ratings

GBCI bring Greenbuild to Mumbai, India

Green Business Certificate Institute (GBCI) for the first time is bringing their annual Greenbuild conference to India which be held from 2nd to 5th November, 2017 at Bombay Exhibition Center (NESCO), Mumbai. Greenbuild has been held annually in the United States since 2002.

Business World India

Government Programs and Incentives

Trump rescinds elevation requirements for federally buildings

The Trump Administration has rescinded an Obama-era rule that required higher elevations on new buildings constructed in flood-prone areas. The Obama executive order had required that new public infrastructure projects, including subsidized housing, hospitals, and fire departments, to be built a few feet above the 100-year floodplain.

BDC Network

Government Programs and Incentives

Sustainable development and the end of history

A warning: At the end of this article, I will raise some uncomfortable questions about sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and other concepts that many of us have been promoting in recent decades in response to global challenges, such as ending poverty, dealing with climate change and halting the destruction of ecosystems.

Green Biz

Energy-efficient buildings can reduce Canadians’ energy costs.

In December 2016, Canada’s first ministers set the stage for bold action in the building sector. They committed, in the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, to pursue some of the lowest-cost, most rapidly achievable ways to reduce carbon emissions. 

Policy Options

European Union concerned about carbon pricing after Brexit

The European Union is now trying to prevent a mass sell-off of carbon permits in the wake of Brexit — Great Britain’s systematic departure from the bloc in two years. The concern is that Britain, which is Europe’s second biggest CO2 emitter and whose utilities are the biggest buyers of the permits, will seek to dump their trading allowances before their departure.

Environmental Leader

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