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Recent Articles

Saint-Laurent is a green leader among municipalities

5 years ago

BIZ   • 

The Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent has long focused on sustainability and environmentalism, and it has reduced its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15 per cent between 2009 and 2017. Saint-Laurent, the largest of Montreal’s 19 boroughs by area, has been

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Halifax Regional Council voted on Tuesday to declare a climate emergency. The declaration as an opportunity to stress that climate change is real, while considering how it might implement serious changes to the municipality’s climate change plan.

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The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is poised to become the first global pension fund to issue a euro-denominated green bond. The bond is expected to be priced as much as 1 billion euros and, sources say, could be announced as early as this week.

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Corporate Knights released its 15th annual list of the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations following a rigorous analysis of some 7,500 companies with US$1B+ in revenues.  Reconciling the Global 100 companies against the MSCI All Country World Index supports the case that sustainable corporations have better returns for investors.

Energy Profiles

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The year 2018 had many extreme weather events;  an extreme heat wave in Quebec, flooding in New Brunswick, wildfires in B.C. and tornadoes in Ottawa. There were record rainfalls in Japan; wildfires in Greece, Sweden, California; flooding in India; and two hurricanes hit the U.S.

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In 2019, Canadian cleantech companies are making their mark on the world stage, with 12 companies being named to the prestigious Global Cleantech 100 list at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco. The list of innovative and promising clean technology companies represents strong diversification of markets and sectors with representation from across Canada.

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Great-West Lifeco Inc. (GWL) earned an A- (leadership) rating on CDP’s 2018 Climate Change Questionnaire, which identifies the global leaders in the management of carbon and climate change risks. Great-West Lifeco achieved the highest rating among Canadian insurance companies and was among the top seven Canadian companies.

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Export Development Canada took a significant step in contributing to a global transition to a low carbon, sustainable economy. A new policy commits EDC to measure, monitor and disclose climate-related risks and opportunities, integrate climate change considerations into business decisions and encourage partners to do the same.

BOMA BEST - Building on Zero

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Defining efficiency used to be straightforward: weatherize, upgrade equipment and lighting, use a bit of social science to cut consumption. Now efficiency is becoming as much about shaping demand in real-time to support distributed energy. And that’s shaping how it gets defined, implemented and tracked.

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Requirements for energy and thermal performance and resilience are growing more stringent, as well as playing an increasingly significant role in building codes throughout North America. However, understanding and meeting the requirements have also become more complex for building designers.

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The Federal and Quebec governments and Quebec pension fund are putting new money into a company that makes charging stations for electric cars. Quebec will invest $4.5 million in AddÉnergie, acquiring a stake in the company, while the federal government will give it $1.5 million.

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The legalization of cannabis in Canada last October created a new type of agricultural industry. Some estimate cannabis could be worth $6.5 billion in retail sales alone. That’s good news if you’re a grower.

CaGBC’s plan to close zero carbon skills gap
A new report by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) provides an action plan to close the low-carbon building skills gap in the Ontario construction industry. The impact of the skills gap is estimated at $24.3 billion of Gross Domestic Product.

Canada Green Building Council, January 29, 2019

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York University biologist Sapna Sharma led an international team of researchers that predicts about 35,300 lakes stand to lose their annual winter ice cover should worldwide temperatures increase by 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. That’s up from 14,800 lakes that currently experience intermittent ice cover.

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Greenland’s enormous ice sheet is melting at such an accelerated rate that it may have reached a “tipping point,” and could become a major factor in sea-level rise around the world within two decades, scientists said in a study published Monday.

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Communities are increasingly turning to water reuse as a tool to bolster water supply reliability in the face of numerous uncertainties.  Just look at this year’s “day zero” warnings from Cape Town, or when California’s governor made a 2015 executive order requiring a 25 percent water use reduction by cities and towns.

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Quebecor Inc. executives considering worst-case scenarios that could befall their business as a result of climate change suggest buried Internet infrastructure could be at risk from rising sea levels.

BOMA BEST

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Canadians can now apply for funding to support their local Wildfire Community Preparedness Day activities and join municipalities from coast to coast in a national effort to reduce wildfire risk to local homes and environments.

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“Uncounted forest emissions” represent a major hole in B.C.’s climate plan. Climate-warming carbon emissions released from B.C. forests in both 2017 and 2018 were more than three times higher than emissions from all other sources combined in 2016, the report from Sierra Club B.C. estimates.

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Insurers are paying out US$11.4 billion so far to cover losses caused by the wildfires that ravaged California in November — and that number is going to grow, state insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara announced Monday.

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A series of devastating wildfires that killed more than 100 people and scorched hundreds of thousands of acres in California over the course of two years just brought PG&E Corp., one of America’s largest utilities, to its knees.

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Slightly more than five years ago, geologist Wes Hanson and his wife, Julie, resident of the community of Ancaster in Hamilton and parents of three grown boys about to embark on their own lives, started to dream of a suburban escape to some serious acreage. But what to place on their fantasy land? An old farmhouse or a new straw bale, off-the-grid home?

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