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Nicholas Sokic: Business reporter

NYC’s new era of climate resilient urban infrastructure

Real Estate  •  GreenBiz

With over 500 million square feet of office space in NYC (all reliant on fossil fuels or Con Edison’s systems), how can the real estate and construction industry decarbonize at scale, and implement solutions that perform over the next 20-plus years.

Women lead the world’s most sustainable cities

Real Estate  •  Corporate Knights

The mayors of the top three cities in the 2022 Sustainable Cities Index – Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen – are all women, but the trend is not unique to famously progressive Scandinavia. Female mayors around the world are distinguishing themselves as climate leaders.

The inaugural, crowd-sourced Sustainable Cities Index

Real Estate  •  Corporate Knights

The Corporate Knights Sustainable Cities Index is the world’s first interactive, crowd-sourced sustainability index for cities. When the index goes live on June 15, 2022, local government officials will be able to log in to a user-friendly data hub.

Land conference highlights biomimicry, smart buildings

Real Estate  •  Daily Commercial News

In what may well have been the first exposure of CRE industry professionals to the concept of biomimicry, attendees at the Land and Development Conference learned many design problems can be addressed with solutions taken directly from the natural world.

Wellness a top priority at Curated Properties’ AKRA

Real Estate  •  Urban Toronto

Curated Properties is bringing a new wellness-centred development to Toronto’s Midtown: AKRA is a 22-storey, 211-unit condominium designed by RAW that is making the wellness of its residents a priority, a trend that has become something that’s not just nice-to-have.

Are high-rises actually better for the B.C. environment?

Real Estate  •  Vancouver Sun

OPINION: The thinking goes that residential high-rise towers are more environmentally friendly than low-rise buildings because they squeeze more people onto a smaller footprint of land. Highrises are believed to emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions and reduce suburban sprawl.

Net-Zero business success requires long-term strategy

ESG  •  Environmental Leader

A recent report by Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCLTGlobal), founded in 2013 as a joint initiative of CPP Investments and McKinsey & Company, found that to strengthen their net-zero transitions, companies should articulate how targets fit into their futures.

The right to repair revisited

Waste  •  Green Biz

For the movement that is championing the consumer’s right to fix their products — and bringing attention to the dwindling lifespan of electronics and the enormous volume of waste from planned obsolescence — 2021 looked pivotal when the EU took on the issue.

Sustainability needs to be a focus for retailers

Real Estate  •  Retail Insider

Perhaps the greatest impact of the pandemic, suggests industry expert and founder of Retail Strategy Group, Liza Amlani, is reflected by the galvanization of our collective consciousness around social issues and the influence it’s having on retailers and brands.

Heat pump refrigerants urgently require regulation

Waste  •  TreeHugger

The U.S. in a recent memorandum on electric heat pumps called for their increased production but the refrigerant, a critical part of a heat pump, needs urgent regulatory action as it has significantly higher global warming potential than CO2.

Bolongo puts surplus equipment to work

Real Estate  •  Calgary Herald

Calgary-based Bolongo, founded in 2014 by president and CEO Stewart Worth, is having remarkable success as a supply chain platform offering that matches the needs of companies looking for equipment and others trying to get rid of surplus.

Permafrost is a poorly understood climate variable

Carbon, Health  •  Physics Today

Estimates of the carbon that could be released into the atmosphere from the thawing of the frozen soils, known as permafrost, just beneath the surface of much of Arctic Alaska, Canada, Siberia, and Scandinavia range from 30 to 150 billion tons by 2100.

Canadian lawyers falling behind on climate change

ESG  •  The Tyee

OPINION: Although some professional bodies in Canada have started to issue guidelines to their members, lawyers in Canada are falling behind. Now, the B.C. Law Society is poised to vote on how to link professional practices with the climate crisis.

IEA calls for serious energy conservation

Energy  •  Treehugger

The International Energy Agency (IEA), established in 1974 to ensure the security of oil supplies, is once again proving itself a leader by pushing energy efficiency as a critical solution to the world’s most urgent challenges, aligning with its original mandate.

NextEra Energy plans to reduce CO2 by 82% by 2030

Carbon, Energy  •  Environmental Leader

NextEra Energy is targeting a carbon-emissions-reduction rate of 82 per cent by 2030 by boosting investment in wind, solar, battery storage and green hydrogen claiming it will increase renewable energy deployment and “lead the $4 trillion market opportunity to decarbonize …”.

BP beefs up hydrogen team in bet on fuel’s future

Real Estate  •  Globe and Mail

BP is beefing up its hydrogen management team as the energy company prepares to accelerate investments in the low-carbon fuel which it believes will play a key role in the world’s shift away from fossil fuels.

Scottish facility to turn plastic waste into hydrogen

Real Estate  •  Treehugger

Peel NRE is building a $36.5-million plant in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland to turn plastic waste otherwise destined for landfill, incineration or export overseas,  into hydrogen. The hydrogen will then be utilized to fuel cars, buses and HGVs.

Icelandic startups tackle energy resilience

Carbon, Energy  •  GreenBiz

Iceland is endowed with excellent resources, with geothermal energy pulsating just under its surface and thundering rivers providing hydropower galore. That cleared the way for the country to reach 100 percent renewable electricity in 2015 and now resilience is high on its agenda.

Australia raises emissions cutting target for 2030

Carbon, Energy  •  Financial Post

Australia, one of the world’s highest per capita carbon emitters, has pledged to the United Nations that it would cut carbon emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030, an increase from the previous conservative government’s target of between 26% and 28%.