Sifton’s West 5 sets a high bar for energy-efficiency

BIZ  Real Estate

Sifton Properties has been responsible for a number of construction firsts in its base of London, Ont., since it built its first house in 1923. With West 5, it’s going to new heights and creating what it claims to be

The pros and cons of building high-rises with wood

Real Estate  •  Toronto Star  •  Bloomberg

The construction project underway at 80 Atlantic Ave. in Liberty Village looks like your typical new office building. But peer through the spaces where windows will soon be installed and you’ll notice above the ground floor there is wood everywhere; walls, ceilings, support beams.

Canada ranks second for LEED certified projects

Real Estate  •  Canada Green Building Council

Canada has been ranked second in the U.S. GBC’s 2018 list for Top 10 Countries and Regions for LEED certified projects.  Canada’s more than 3,200 LEED buildings have supported climate action efforts by reducing 3.24 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, 16.7 million eMWh of energy and 30 billion litres of water.

Quebec school first in Canada certified Zero-Carbon

Real Estate  •  Canada Green Building Council

The Curé-Paquin Elementary School of the Seigneuriedes-Mille-Îles School Board (CSSMI) has become the first grade school in all of Canada, and first project in the Province of Quebec, to recieve Zero-Carbon – Design certification from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC).

The business case for living buildings in 2019

Real Estate  •  Green Biz

The Living Building Challenge launched in 2006 by the International Living Future Institute with an exciting and incredibly audacious question: Is it possible to upend the design and construction paradigm to create buildings that function as elegantly and beautifully as anything found in the natural world?

Land use decisions should consider climate impacts

Real Estate  •  Canada Newswire  •  Sustainable Land Use in B.C. – Report

In a report recently released by the Real Estate Foundation of BC examines land use challenges – including climate change, biodiversity loss, and complex trade-offs – and suggests recommendations to support more sustainable land management.

Sustainable amenities office tenants wish for

Real Estate  •  CP Executive

In this month’s partnership, CPE and Kingsley Associates sought to find out how tenants really feel about sustainability in the office—what they like, what they wish they had and what they could do without.

Natural disasters influence CRE participants’ decisions

Real Estate  •  Lexology

Climate change and the increase in natural disasters occurring as a result are increasingly on the minds of those in the commercial real estate industry. Extreme weather events have the potential to not only damage but completely destroy real estate assets and in fact, they often do.

Quebec students poised to strike over climate change

Real Estate  •  Montreal Gazette  •  TreeHugger

Impatience. Cynicism. Hope. It is with this mix of emotions that many young Quebecers regard the future. But it’s not so much their individual futures that are the source of worry; it’s their collective future. Or rather, our collective future as humans on a planet that is rapidly warming.

Concordia, Canada’s first university to issue green bonds

Real Estate  •  Financial Post

Concordia University became the first Canadian university to issue a sustainable bond, riding an ethical investing wave that saw the country’s largest institutional investors more than quadruple their output in social and eco-friendly bonds in 2018.

The challenge of putting ESG into practice

Real Estate  •  IPE Real Estate

During a climate-change debate at the IPE Real Estate Global Conference fund managers and investors called on the real estate industry to provide better data on the energy efficiency of buildings. Certifications (BREEAM, LEED) tend to gauge how efficient a building could be rather than how efficient they are in practice.

European REITs focus on social, governance reporting

Real Estate  •  REIT.com

Hassan Sabir, finance and sustainability director at EPRA, recently commented on some of the key issues facing European REITs in terms of ESG reporting. He noted REITs face issues from both the regulation and the market side.

The Green New Deal meets America’s myopia

Real Estate  •  Green Biz  •  The New Green Deal – Text of resolution before Congress  •  TreeHugger

Over the past few days, nearly everyone within arm’s reach of a keyboard seems to have weighed in on the Green New Deal, an ambitious framework for future congressional legislation. It aims to build a clean economy and eliminate the U.S. carbon footprint, while creating jobs and opportunity across the economic spectrum.

In Germany, the Green New Deal actually works

Real Estate  •  Bloomberg

Opponents of the U.S. congressional Democrats’ Green New Deal point to Germany as an example of a country where similar policies have backfired. They should take a closer look; the U.S. could do well to imitate Europe’s largest economy.

Low-carbon economy fuels clean-tech manufacturing

Real Estate  •  Business In Vancouver

For AdvanTec Global Innovations, the growing clean-tech industry has been good for business. The sector accounts for about 40% of the specialized manufacturing company’s business.

Canada’s forests actually emit more carbon than they absorb

Real Estate  •  CBC

You might have heard that Canada’s forests are an immense carbon sink, sucking up all sorts of CO2 — more than we produce — so we don’t have to worry about our greenhouse gas emissions.

This claim has been circulated on social media and repeated by pundits and politicians.

Canadian cities will have very different weather by 2080

Real Estate  •  CBC

The average summertime temperature in Edmonton is around 15 C. It’s comfortable and familiar for residents. But in 60 years, that temperature is forecast to rise by almost 5 C, more reminiscent of the climate just outside St. Paul, Minn.

Women are leading the zero-waste movement

Real Estate  •  CBC

Of the last 300 members who have joined Rose’s group, 250 of them are women. Rose’s group replays itself across the internet, in an avalanche of zero-waste blogs, Instagram accounts, podcasts and other content overwhelmingly created and maintained by women.

Investors to double allocations to renewables: Survey

Real Estate  •  IPE Real Assets  •  The green investor: why institutional investing holds the key to a renewable energy future

The current market volatility and the perceived end of the market bull run are driving increased allocations to renewable infrastructure.  According to an Octopus Group report allocations to renewables will increase from 4.4% to 7.1% over the next five years.

Cannabis growers not eligible for carbon tax rebate in B.C.

Real Estate  •  Business In Vancouver

The B.C. government announced February 11 that cannabis is not an eligible crop for carbon tax relief grants at any phase of production, including propagation. Business in Vancouver asked the Ministry of Agriculture why that is but did not get a rationale.