REALPAC’s first global survey shows diversity a priority

BIZ  Real Estate  •  Human Resources  •  International

The first global survey by REALPAC and several international partners found 92 per cent of respondents already have a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy, or said they intend to implement one within 12 months.

Canada’s financial industry needs an ESG skills upgrade

Real Estate  •  Globe and Mail

Canada faces an ESG talent gap. There’s no shortage of discussion about the nuts and bolts of environmental, social and governance issues. Governments, regulators and investors are demanding more disclosure, analysis and management of business risks related to sustainability.

Financial sector faces climate transition risk: B of C

Real Estate  •  Globe and Mail  •  Financial Post  •  Bank of Canada media release

Canada’s long-term economic growth and the stability of its financial system could be at risk if the country delays transition to a low-carbon world, said the Bank of Canada after examining the balance sheets of RBC and four insurance companies.

Transforming Canada’s heavy industry to net-zero

Finance  •  Corporate Knights

When it comes to decarbonizing the Canadian economy, heavy industries, such as steel and concrete manufacturing, might be the hardest to untangle from their carbon emissions. Heavy industry has seen only a slight reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions since 2005.

OPG to break ground on mass timber HQ project

Real Estate  •  Daily Commercial News

Given the ambitious goals in its 2020 Climate Change Plan, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has no option but to aim high as it moves toward construction of its new low-carbon, low-slung mass timber Clarington Corporate Campus breaking ground this year.

Battery storage, a new real estate asset class

Real Estate  •  Bisnow

Rapid changes in society are creating new real estate asset classes almost every week, from last-mile logistics and film studios to mini data centres and dark kitchens. The need to cut carbon emissions is adding a new sector to that list: battery storage.

EnergyTech Today › Maximizing results for building operations

Brad Pilgrim: CEO and co-founder, Parity Inc.

An active way to be earth friendly: build a passive home

Real Estate  •  Ottawa Citizen

There are a few homes in near Ottawa that are net-zero. Net-zero homes produce as much energy (or more) as they consume. Some, like Bruce Fanjoy and his wife Donna Nicholson, own a “passive” house.

BrightDrop gets EV fleet orders from Walmart, FedEx

Transportation  •  GreenBiz  •  BrightDrop News Release

Electric vehicle and last-mile delivery company BrightDrop, a subsidiary of General Motors, kicked off 2022 with splashy new deals with Walmart and FedEx. Building up its zero-emissions fleet, mega-cap company Walmart inked an agreement for 5,000 BrightDrop electric home delivery vans.

Electric vehicles are about to take over the job site

Transportation  •  Bloomberg

Conventional wisdom on electric pickup trucks is that they weren’t suitable for work duty. Heavy and expensive batteries would make it difficult to tow big payloads and the outsized cost of electric vehicles would be beyond what contractors would pay.

Car advertising finally goes electric

Transportation  •  Bloomberg

Car brands collectively ran four times as many national television ads for EVs in 2021 as they did in either of the previous two years. General Motors, Ford Motor Co., and Volkswagen among others, spent an estimated $248 million on nearly 33,000 spots.

Vermont utility wants to ‘radically transform’ grid

Energy  •  Microgrid Knowledge

Green Mountain Power (GMP), Vermont’s largest utility, plans to create new microgrids and community resilience zones as part of a plan to “radically transform” the grid that is outlined in the utility’s new integrated resource plan (IRP).

Eastman plans world’s largest plastics recycling facility

Waste  •  Environmental Leader

With the support of numerous global brands, Eastman Chemical Company’s plan to invest up to $1 billion in a material-to-material molecular recycling facility in France that would recycle more than 176,000 tons annually of hard-to-recycle plastic waste that is currently being incinerated.

Beautycounter, HP, Walmart manage chemical risk

Waste  •  GreenBiz

California recently banned the use of PFAS in children’s products and disposable food packaging and set new disclosure requirements for the presence of these toxic “forever chemicals.”  Maine and the Biden administration have also introduced legislation to regulate PFAS.

A reusable takeout container program in Victoria, B.C.

Real Estate  •  CBC  •  Victoria Times Colonist

A group of restaurants known as the Bread and Butter Collective in Victoria B.C. has a program that utilizes reusable takeout containers to pack customers’ orders where the customers can purchase a reusable container for $8 to pack their food.

How to fuel a sustainable future for packaging

Waste  •  Sustainable Brands

Solving the ongoing packaging conundrum demands a significant shift in how businesses think — moving from a linear to a circular model of operation to improve the amount of packaging that can be reused, recycled and returned to the value chain.

Delays push cost to rebuild fire-razed Lytton to $102M

Real Estate  •  CBC

Insurance losses from a wildfire that wiped out most of Lytton, B.C., have surged to $102 million. The Insurance Bureau of Canada says the amount has risen from an original estimate of $78 million mostly because of delays in rebuilding the village.

Enough with ‘smart cities,’ we need cities done right

Real Estate  •  TreeHugger

At Treehugger we are not alone in complaining about the silliness of “smart.” In Yale 360, Jim Robbins explains why the luster on once-vaunted smart cities is fading and looks at smart city proposals on the boards and in the dumpster.

Where do cities stand in cutting global emissions?

Real Estate  •  World Economic Forum

Cities account for over 70 per cent of global CO2 emissions, most of which come from industrial and motorized transport systems that use huge quantities of fossil fuels and rely on far-flung infrastructure constructed with carbon-intensive materials.

U.S. to lease 500,000 acres of ocean for wind power

Real Estate  •  Daily Commercial News

The U.S. government will lease an area of the ocean larger than half the size of Rhode Island off the U.S. east coast for wind power development that could lead to enough energy production to power two million homes.