LocationsRecent Articles
‘Living building’ could be Canada’s greenest home
‘Living building’ could be Canada’s greenest home
• Business In Vancouver • Burnaby Now
What is being hailed as possibly the greenest house built in Canada is nearing completion in Vancouver, and it’s blowing past the net-zero home program limits promoted by the federal government and residential building associations.
Larch Corner is a Passivhaus wooden wonder
Mark Sidall understands UCE, and has built Larch Corner almost entirely out of natural, regenerative materials. A celebration of the best modern timber engineering techniques, Larch Corner is a timber lover’s paradise that lies in the heart of the English countryside.
Climate change is making some homes uninsurable
• CBC
It’s easy to see the flood risk of homes along the shores of the Ottawa River and recall devastating flooding in Calgary and Quebec. It’s harder to imagine an urban Toronto neighbourhood 27 kilometres from Lake Ontario being deemed high-risk.
McDonald’s plans Canada’s first ‘Green Concept Restaurant’
• Daily Hive • Environmental Leader
McDonald’s is about to bring something brand new to Vancouver. As part of the fast-food giant’s journey toward making its packaging more sustainable and reducing its environmental footprint, the company will unveil two “Green Concept Restaurants.”
Smart buildings are getting smarter
With trillions of dollars in commercial real estate assets, building and facility managers are searching for innovative ways to maintain structures in a state of good repair while reducing operating costs by cutting waste and energy consumption.
Apple and Best Buy reveal their circular visions
Extending the time consumers spend using their electronics is maybe the lowest-hanging piece of fruit when it comes to advancing circularity. Both electronics giants Apple and Best Buy have begun to make strides in that direction.
Green bins may become mandatory at Ottawa apartments
• CBC
The City of Ottawa is considering making green bin programs mandatory at multi-residential dwellings to improve what has been poor uptake on a voluntary program in place for nearly a decade.
Urban agriculture takes its place in Montreal
Green roofs and large vegetable gardens take up more and more space in the cities of the province, and mainly in Montreal, demonstrating the first “Portrait of Commercial Urban Agriculture in Quebec”. A practice whose benefits go far beyond food.
IBC releases: Options for Managing the Flood Costs
Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) publicly released a paper, Options for Managing the Flood Costs of Canada’s Highest-risk Residential Properties. The paper focuses primarily on ways to better manage the costs of flooding for high-risk residential properties in Canada.
Hamilton has spent $720K on waterfront flood repairs
• CBC
Hamilton spent more than $720,000 to fix flood damage along the city’s waterfront in 2017 and 2018. But 2019 has proven to be wet and windy yet again, with Lake Ontario hitting its highest point in recorded history. More repairs are anticipated.
Why we need to save the Great Lakes: Gord Miller
• CBC
Over the next decade, there’s an urgent need to spend $1 billion to protect the Great Lakes according to Gord Miller, a former environment commissioner for Ontario, co-chair of a group that cites four key problems facing the lakes.
Chloride maps show devastating effects of road salt
Southern Ontario waterways are showing dangerously increasing road salt levels in WWF-Canada’s Great Lakes Chloride Summer Hot Spot Maps. More than seven-million tonnes of road salt are used in Canada each winter by public road agencies alone.
Boralex plans to diversify with solar and storage
Boralex, a specialist in wind energy, is turning to solar and storage facilities to ensure growth. Its strategic plan outlines diversification of its solar energy activities in the U.S. and developing energy storage as a new source of income.
First Nation to have biggest solar farm in Manitoba
• CBC
Fisher River Cree Nation will soon be home to Manitoba’s largest solar farm — a one-megawatt facility that will be hooked up to the province’s power grid. Its backers hope the project piques the interest of other First Nations.
Renewables power 21% of electricity generation in the U.S.
Electricity generation trends are a sure sign it’s no longer business as usual. Renewable energy sources recently reached a milestone, as UtilityDive pointed out. As of April, 21.56% of capacity is provided by water, wind, solar, geothermal and biomass.
Half of global electricity powered with renewables by 2050
• Toronto Star • Globe and Mail (Subscription required)
Half the world’s electricity will come from renewable energy by 2050 as costs of wind, solar and storage plummet. That titanic shift will come as electricity demand increases 62 per cent and investors pump $13.3 trillion into new projects.
Fiera Infrastructure becomes member of GRESB
Fiera Infrastructure Inc., a leading global mid-market direct infrastructure investor, a leading independent asset manager, announced that as of June 3, it is a member of Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark, the ESG benchmark for real assets.
Fort Mac moves to protect itself from capricious rivers
Matthew Hough, engineering director for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, is in an arms race with Mother Nature. His crews are raising a road in Fort McMurray alongside the Clearwater River, one of two major waterways through town.
Scientists find permafrost is thawing 70 years early
• Reuters
Permafrost at outposts in the Canadian Arctic is thawing 70 years earlier than predicted, an expedition has discovered, in the latest sign that the global climate crisis is accelerating even faster than scientists had feared.
Environmentalists are taking their fight to the courtrooms
• CBC
No stranger to climate activism, 20-year-old college student Zy St-Pierre-Bourdelais is part of a Quebec environmental group asking the courts to declare the Canadian government is violating the rights of a generation by depriving them of a healthy environment.
Industry Events
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Greenbuild 2024: Built to Scale
Nov 12 2024
to Nov 15 2024
Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA
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Sustainable Finance Forum 2024
Nov 28 2024
to Nov 29 2024
Shaw Centre, Ottawa
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