Stock exchanges ranked by sustainability disclosure: report

Stock exchanges ranked by sustainability disclosure: report

The world’s largest companies are under-reporting sustainability policies and performance according to a new report.  Measuring Sustainability Disclosure: Ranking the World’s Stock Exchanges 2017 finds that of 6,441 large companies analysed, over the past five years, corporate disclosure rates for GHGs, energy and waste and injuries have flat-lined while water and employee disclosure both improved at an annualized clip of 10%.

Corporate Knights

New flooding standards coming as insurance claims rise

The Standards Council of Canada is working on new guidelines to make municipalities more resilient against major flooding as the insurance industry grapples with soaring claims and governments face demands to help those who are uninsured. The resiliency standards for new communities will complement work being done by a private-sector company, CSA Group, to provide guidance on how to best protect existing buildings.

Globe and Mail

2017 Greenest School in Canada is in Winnipeg

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and the Canada Coalition for Green Schools announced today that Amber Trails Community School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the winner of the annual CaGBC Greenest School in Canada competition. Amber Trails is a 78,000 sq.ft., newly constructed building that acts not just as a school, but as an open and accessible hub within the community.

Canada Green Building Council

Building the world’s greenest city

In her earlier life, Andrea Reimer rummaged through dumpsters, trying to find useful items in other people’s rubbish. Today, she’s fighting for the city of Vancouver to, among other lofty ambitions, put an end to waste. A rags to riches story that she is not afraid of telling, Reimer was put into foster care as a baby.

Eco-business

Victoria builders encourages tax credit for earthquake retrofits

A recent 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Mexico has flattened buildings and killed more than 250 people, reminding those in the Pacific Northwest of what an earthquake can do.  Construction leaders on Vancouver Island believe the province could be doing much more to help homeowners prepare for earthquakes as well as reduce their carbon footprint by offering a tax credit.

Journal of Commerce

Alberta town considers Canada’s first geothermal heating system

An Alberta town is planning to pull a different kind of energy from the abandoned oil and gas wells that ring its outskirts.  Hinton, west of Edmonton on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, is teaming up with academic researchers and the private sector to install what may be Canada’s first geothermal heating system in its downtown core.

CTV News

IKEA new Halifax store Canada’s most sustainable

IKEA is set to officially open its only store in Atlantic Canada as thousands from across the region are expected to descend upon the popular Swedish furniture chain’s new Halifax-area location. The store in the Dartmouth Crossing retail district features a bright, streamlined showroom with rooms that were furnished based on the needs of Maritimers.

Globe and Mail

	Nova Centre: The smartest building in Halifax
	Free Wi-Fi for visitors and thousands of kilometres of secure fibre makes Nova Centre one of the most connected, high-tech and green business spaces in Atlantic Canada.
	Canada Newswire, September 27, 2017

 

Wellness gains ground with real estate professionals

Water Street Tampa, a mixed-used district under construction in Florida, is striving to be the world’s first community certified under the WELL Building Institute’s Community Standard. Indoor air quality and comfort tied for first among the most important wellness attributes cited by real estate and property management execs polled in a new survey about sustainability.

BDC Network

Meet the new LEED-like standard for professional services

A significant economic sector — professional services — has joined the growing number of major industry coalitions developing and adopting specific approaches to address climate change and other global sustainability challenges. Consequently, the first sustainability standard for the professional services sector could be a reality by early 2018.     

Green Biz

The sustainability movement’s secret weapon

The global buildings sector is at a critical juncture. If the warming of the planet is to be kept below the two-degree Celsius limit enshrined in the 2015 Paris climate accord, the sector will have to cut carbon emissions drastically, peak them by 2020, and achieve “net zero carbon” by 2050, according to the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC).

Eco-business

USGBC CEO shares an evolving blueprint

Anyone looking to accelerate the construction of green, healthy buildings is up against considerable challenges. The building and construction industry is one of the least efficient in the world, thanks in part to the lack of global standards and codes. USGBC is aiming to change that, and the person leading the charge is Mahesh Ramanujan, CEO of USGBC in November.

Green Biz

	Sweltering planet braces for deadly heat waves
	Over the last 30 years, increasingly broiling summer heat has claimed more American lives than flooding, tornadoes or hurricanes, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. And the problem has not been limited to the United States.
	Reuters, September 19, 2017

 

Grid resilience depends on distribution-scale solar

When Hurricanes Harvey and Irma blew through the southern United States, they left millions without power. During such natural disasters, access to electricity is more critical than ever, allowing hospitals to run medical equipment, letting people charge phones and computers to communicate with the outside world, and powering lifesaving air conditioning for the elderly and infirm.

GreenBiz

Dozens of Japanese towns go off the grid

A Miyagi city’s efforts to rebuild its electrical power system after 3/11 mark a quiet shift away from Japan’s old utility model and toward self-reliant, local generation and transmission. After losing three-quarters of its homes and 1,100 people in the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, the city turned to the government’s “national resilience program” to rebuild.

Energy Manager Today

California’s big batteries: a turning point for energy storage?

On a paved expanse next to an electrical substation in Escondido, 30 miles north of downtown San Diego, sits a row of huge silver boxes. The site resembles a barracks, but instead of soldiers, the 24 containers house racks of battery packs.  This is the largest lithium-ion battery in the world, according to its developers.

The Guardian

Empire State Building takes energy-efficiency to new heights

The iconic Empire State Building in New York City is pointing the way toward energy efficiency. Since the building started a comprehensive retrofit in 2009, it has been consistently racking up savings every year. Currently the retrofit is projected to save 38% of the building’s energy and $4.4 million annually, according to the building’s ownership.

Energy Manager Today

Market Trends and Research

How can buildings be adapted to the era of dangerous climate change?

Natural disasters intensified by climate change have dominated recent headlines around the world. How can the building industry prepare for a world in which dangerous weather events are common? Climate change does not discriminate between urban and rural areas, as has been shown by the multiple disasters striking cities around the world in the last month alone.

Eco-business

How the restoration economy can help us withstand the next hurricane

Three hundred miles north of hurricane-ravaged Houston, Rick Wilson is helping Dallas-Fort Worth grow in ways that don’t disrupt the natural systems that regulate floods. In so doing, he’s also paying off the mortgage on his ranch and paving the way for us all to better survive the next Hurricane Harvey.

GreenBiz

Market trends and research

For islands, Hurricane Irma is the climate change wakeup call

To most people, islands bring to mind tropical paradises with palm trees surrounded by a turquoise sea. Millions of tourists visit annually to relax and to play on the beautiful beaches. But with the destruction wrought by Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean, the world also must recognize the vulnerability of the islands to climate change.

GreenBiz

Commercial real estate

Green award for Marine Atlantic

Marine Atlantic’s terminal building has achieved LEED silver certification from the Canada Green Building Council. The certification indicates the North Sydney facility is a leader in environment and energy design. The designation demonstrates the building has achieved high performance in key areas of human and environment health including sustainable site.

Cape Breton Post

How to build a hospital for the people

When it rained at the ward tower of Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), a 590-bed facility in Yishun, Singapore, nurses dashed to close the numerous louvre windows that lined the facade of the block. In the rush, some windows were closed too forcefully, causing dents that led to water seepage.

Eco-business

Renewable Energy

What’s the best way to buy renewable energy?

Buying renewable energy is getting easier. Large U.S. corporations signed contracts this year through Sept. 19 to buy more than 2000 megawatts of renewable power, up nearly 30 percent from last year, and up from just 70 megawatts in 2012, according to the Business Renewables Center.

Green Biz

Corporate Sustainability

Walmart takes bold steps towards safer chemicals

Walmart has updated their ambitious sustainable chemistry policy on consumables, which to-date has resulted in a 96 percent reduction in the weight of high-priority chemicals. The new commitments set a goal of reducing Walmart’s chemicals footprint by 10 percent by 2022, affecting over 55 million pounds of priority chemicals.  

GreenBiz

Other

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