Canada’s largest carbon credit producer, Radicle, expands

BIZ  Energy, Finance, ESG  •  National, Calgary

Calgary-based Radicle, Canada’s largest developer of compliance-grade carbon credits, has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years, but that is just the beginning its CEO says. Radicle has ambitious plans to expand its global footprint.

Canada has nearly kicked its coal addiction

Real Estate  •  Globe and Mail  •  Bloomberg

EDITORIAL: The “end of coal is in sight,” declared a press release from the U.K., host of the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow. That statement is true in some places, such as Canada, elsewhere it is decades into the future.

COP26: Agreement to phase out gas-powered vehicles

Transportation  •  Environmental Leader  •  Reuters  •  Environmental Leader

At the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, national and state governments and automakers committed Wednesday to have all new car and van sales be zero emissions vehicles by 2040 — and 2035 for leading markets.

COP26 tackles gender issues in climate change

Social  •  Globe and Mail

A report released last month by the United Nations said that while more women have been included in decision-making panels at the annual COP summit, “male overrepresentation on constituted bodies and on government delegations still remains an issue of concern.”

COP26 makes me believe things are different this time

ESG  •  Corporate Knights  •  Financial Post

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given how complicated the issues at play are, opinions on what’s occurring here at COP26, the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, are many and varied. Here’s mine: I’m pleasantly surprised at COP26’s success.

Canada Green Building Council › Don’t lose sight of long-term goals

Brandy Burdeniuk: Chief Customer Officer, GBCI Canada

Climate: Construction shouldn’t wait for 2030 or 2050

Real Estate  •  Daily Commercial News  •  Bay Today

In Canada, Toronto, Vancouver and Hamilton have adopted stringent energy-efficiency initiatives to combat GHG emissions. Five hundred other municipal and regional jurisdictions have declared a climate emergency. What more motivation does the country’s building industry need to take action?

Transport, buildings are ‘built environment emissions’

Real Estate, Transportation  •  Treehugger

Many people separate transportation from other sources of emissions, with neat pie charts showing that buildings are responsible for 39 per cent and transport 23 per cent, or some variation of this. But they are not. They are both “Built Environment Emissions.”

Massive new solar farm to power Alberta refinery

Real Estate  •  Globe and Mail  •  CBC

Land by a Shell oil processing and petrochemical hub just outside Edmonton will soon host a massive solar project the size of 313 Canadian football fields, the latest push from the fossil fuel sector to try and lower its emissions.

Latest wind farm joins Alberta’s power grid

Energy  •  Western Investor

Alberta now ranks third among Canadian provinces for installed wind energy capacity and a new project near the south eastern town of Oyen will add to the grid. Pattern Energy Group LP has started constructing the Lanfine Wind power project.

Calgary Aggregate Recycling gets $8M for new facility

Real Estate, Waste  •  Construction & Demolition Recycling

Calgary Aggregate Recycling Inc., a concrete, asphalt, and aggregate recycling business in Calgary, Canada, has been awarded an $8 million grant from Emissions Reduction Alberta to develop a C&D waste recycling plant that will be operational by 2022.

Alberta’s next boom can be sustainable

Energy  •  Financial Post

This fall, after the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Royal Bank of Canada surveyed the damage to the Canadian economy and downgraded its economic growth outlook for every province in the country but one: Alberta.

Climate ‘biggest single opportunity’ for insurance sector

Real Estate  •  CNBC

Climate is the “ultimate systemic risk” and represents “the biggest single opportunity the insurance industry has ever seen,” according to John Neal, CEO of the centuries-old insurance market Lloyd of London who described how his sector would operate going forward.

Ikea CEO: Greenwashing less dangerous than silence

Real Estate  •  Bloomberg

With climate change the main threat to humanity, “greenwashing is less dangerous than silence,” says Jesper Brodin, chief executive officer of Swedish home-furnishings giant Ikea whose research shows 70% of customers are “deeply concerned” about climate change.

Mid-size firms step up to meet environmental standards

Real Estate  •  Globe and Mail

As someone who runs a mid-sized Canadian company, Lina Bowden, chief financial officer and partner at CY Health, a division of Carmina de Young in London says that while perhaps it’s not easy being green, these days it’s absolutely necessary.

The most sustainable MBAs think global, teach local

ESG  •  Corporate Knights

The COVID-19 pandemic prodded some business schools to strengthen their teaching and research on sustainability. The schools wished to further embed the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals into course content and expand collaborations with non-business researchers.

Growth of mass timber prompts CCAT course

Real Estate  •  Daily Commercial News

In response to the growth of construction in mass timber, the College of Carpenters and Allied Trades (CCAT) in Woodbridge, Ontario is offering a four-week course for workers in its assembly and erection this month.

Forestry is Canada’s secret (climate change) weapon

Real Estate  •  Wood Business

Opinion: Canada’s forests and sustainably sourced forests products are among the most powerful weapons in Canada’s climate change arsenal as we work to reduce carbon emissions. Canadian forestry is rooted in the principles of sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and reforestation.

Burnaby develops urban forest management strategy

Real Estate  •  Burnaby Now

The City of Burnaby is developing an Urban Forest Management Strategy to help protect, preserve and expand the forest canopy in the city while delivering significant quality of life and climate action benefits.

Cities are surprising leaders in forest conservation

Real Estate  •  GreenBiz

The world’s forests face a dire threat. Each year, 15 million to 22 million acres of forests are permanently cleared and many millions more are degraded. But many decisions affecting forests happen from miles away in cities.