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Tesla’s solar strategy if it buys SolarCity
Tesla’s solar strategy if it buys SolarCity
The future that Tesla’s Elon Musk envisions is a near future where a consumer’s decision to go green is convenient, stylish and economically appealing, all at the same time. That is the future he’s hoping to create with Tesla’s proposed purchase of SolarCity for roughly $2.5 billion.
Green Tech Media – Wired – Green Biz – Yahoo
Apple Energy: A wake-up call for businesses
Last week, Apple quietly dropped a bombshell in the energy industry, launching an entirely new subsidiary called Apple Energy that will manage the complexities of its renewable energy efforts. The only information available on Apple Energy is in the company’s regulatory filings which suggest a foundational shift underway in the energy world.
Energy reporting shifting from voluntary to legislated
Energy reporting and benchmarking have started to take hold in several American cities to support strategic improvements to buildings while reducing their environmental footprint, and Canadian jurisdictions are also starting to embrace the concept.
Apple, Home Depot turn to Bloom Energy
When Apple’s new massive campus, opens for thousands of its employees next year in Cupertino, Calif., a small part of it will be powered by rows of big silver boxes containing fuel cells that generate energy through a chemical reaction. The energy technology was developed and manufactured just a few miles away by the 15 year-old Silicon Valley company called Bloom Energy.
LiteZone™ wins CaGBC Green Building Product of the Year
LiteZone™ Glass Inc. has been named the winner of the 2016 CaGBC Green Building Product of the Year Award for their LiteZone™ insulating glass units (IGUs) which are the highest performing and longest lasting IGUs available: Up to R17.0 for a window with an expected life of more than 60 years.
Putting brains into buildings
In Asia Pacific alone, the market for big data in smart buildings is expected to almost triple from US$7.6 billion to just under US$20 billion between 2015 and 2020, according to Memoori Business Intelligence. Most buildings already collect data through their systems such as water meters, heating and cooling units and security cameras.
CBRE office revamp best-in-class, targets WELL
At face value, it seems obvious: if you are in the commercial real estate business, shouldn’t you operate out of the best-in-class office space that you try to line up for your clients? That’s part of the thinking behind CBRE’s current program to upgrade its offices nationwide.
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Major flood event could cost Canada billions |
| Severe flood events in Canada could lead to more than $13 billion in losses, with less than half of that amount covered by insurance, according to a new report authored by reinsurance company Swiss Re. In its report, The road to flood resilience in Canada, Swiss Re uses a flood model to simulate the loss generated by both river flooding and torrential rainfall in Canada. | |
| Calgary Herald, June 15, 2016 |
Telus Garden perfectly reflects Vancouver urbanism
Telus had a presence on this block where Telus Garden is located, in an old B.C. Tel switching station that is now a data centre. Henriquez is reskinning that structure and linking it with the two new towers in a district energy system; waste heat, especially from the energy-hungry data centre, will provide 80 per cent of the energy for the office tower’s climate-control systems.
World Green Building Council appoints first Asian chair
Singapore’s green building pioneer Tai Lee Siang, who has been named as the new chair of the WGBC’s Board of Directors, has ambitious plans to grow the organization’s member base, boost sustainable design and transform Asian cities. He is currently the group managing director of Ong and Ong.
Spotlight on Green Building Councils around the world
There are almost 100 Green Building Councils around the globe, and the leaders of four of them spoke on Tuesday at the Canada Green Building Council’s “Building Lasting Change 2016” conference.
Climate change forcing builders to rethink design: expert
Severe weather events like wildfires and floods are becoming more frequent and more difficult to predict, forcing architects and engineers to rethink how they design buildings, infrastructure and cities. Brock Schroeder, managing director of engineering firm Entuitive, says events such as the fire in Fort McMurray, Alta., and the floods that hit Alberta in 2013 have led to changes in how structures are designed in Canada.
Municipalities call for new rights in wind farm deals
Seventy-five municipalities across Ontario are calling on the provincial government to give them more say on future wind farm projects. Some eastern Ontario communities have declared themselves “unwilling hosts” to wind farms, only to recently have the province award contracts against their wishes.
Spot the Passive House!
There is a wonderful demonstration of different approaches to green building on Bergen Street in Brooklyn. A house we covered two years ago, complaining that its facade of solar panels was not going to generate much power meanwhile, two doors to the left, is what looks like a normal Brooklyn townhouse that has been renovated to Passive House EnerPhit.
Cities forge world’s largest alliance to curb climate change
Cities in six continents joined up to form the world’s largest alliance to combat climate change on Wednesday, a move intended to help make ground-level changes to slow global warming. More than 7,100 cities in 119 countries formed the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.
New York City seeks developer for district energy microgrid
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is seeking proposals for a district energy microgrid for 28 buildings with 6,300 people on 39 acres in Brooklyn. The microgrid will deliver heat, steam and electricity to part of the Red Hook neighborhood, which was pummeled during SuperStorm Sandy and lost eight steam plants.
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Market trends and research
A carbon price set to carbon damage
What damage are we causing with each new emission of carbon pollution? Economists regularly assess the economic impact of each marginal greenhouse gas emission, which is labeled the “social cost of carbon.” No surprise, this is hard to measure.
Developing nations lead the pack in renewables
Investment in renewable energy sources hit record highs in 2015, led by developing nations, despite rock bottom prices for fossil fuels, according to a new study. Total global investment in renewable power and fuels hit a record of $286 billion, exceeding the previous record of $278.5 billion spent in 2011.
California shutters its last nuclear plant
The closing of California’s last nuclear power plant, announced in a deal with environmental and labor groups on Tuesday, marks a key milestone, as one of the first states to embrace nuclear power has dramatically increased its focus on renewable energy sources.
Commercial real estate
AddEnergie launches 2,000-station EV charging network
A Montreal-based company is launching a multi-province network for recharging electric vehicles. Quebec’s largest pension fund manager, La Caisse de depot et placement, and a provincial investment agency recently provided $12.8 million to support the deployment. Called the FLO network, it will initially have 2,000 charging locations in five provinces, including Quebec.
Office system from Vitra looks raw, but …
Ignore the waferboard panels that this new office system is made from. Designed by the omnipresent Konstantin Grcic for Vitra, the Hack office system is supposed to look rough and ready, like a shipping crate. But nothing from Vitra is rough and ready. This is in fact a very sophisticated, flexible and green office system.
Residential Real Estate
U.S. lender makes buying a solar system inexpensive
If you want to add a rooftop solar system to your home or finance energy efficiency upgrades, you can now do that through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at low interest rates. Because solar prices are so low, more people want to buy their arrays rather than lease them.
Solar thermal system integrates invisibly into slate roof
Others prefer quiet money, believing the old dictum that “if you’ve got it, don’t flaunt it.” For example, real slate roofs are about the most expensive you can buy, but they last almost forever and they are really beautiful. The last thing you are going to want to do is cover them up with photoelectric or solar thermal panels.
Green building ratings
CaGBC honours green building innovators
Canada’s green building innovators were in the spotlight at the Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex in Toronto June 7, 2016, as the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) honoured the 2016 Leadership Award recipients as a part of Building Lasting Change, the 2016 CaGBC National Conference and Expo.
Sustainable products & materials
Is cement a building block or roadblock to sustainability?
It is six months since the Paris Agreement was adopted by 195 countries and set a new compass for business on climate. The sectors at the forefront of investors’ minds in the wake of the deal have tended to be obvious climate culprits such as oil & gas, extractives or transport, but another industry that will be dramatically affected by the agreement is cement.
Why batteries are the ‘holy grail’ for clean energy
There is no shortage of solar power installations scattered across the Hawaiian islands. None is quite so ambitious as a project in Kaua’i slated to go online in late 2016. What makes this particular installation unique: it will be able to supply solar power to the electric grid during the evening hours, long after the sun goes down.
Ice as an efficient, clean cooling tool
There is a cool option that has not gotten too much attention as an efficient and clean way to provide air conditioning: Ice. Last week, CleanTechnica posted a story noting that the JCPenney has been using ice storage technology from CALMAC at its headquarters for a quarter century that saved the retailer $100,000 last year at its Plano, TX, headquarters.
Government Programs and Incentives
UK’s out vote is a ‘red alert’ for the environment
Despite being an issue that knows no borders, affects all and is of vital interest to future generations, the environment was low on the agenda ahead of the UK’s historic vote to leave the European Union. The short answer to what happens next with pollution, wildlife, farming, green energy, climate change and more is we don’t know – we are in uncharted territory.
Proposals for a North American climate strategy
Recognizing the strong role that an allied North America could play in the movement to address climate change, a coalition of think tanks in the United States, Mexico, and Canada has identified a set of trilateral initiatives that could be both effective and within the power of the three governments to undertake.
Ont government snubs commercial real estate
The Ontario government has pledged to recirculate revenue derived from the pending cap-and-trade system, but not all sectors are in line for an equitable share of the proceeds. Commercial real estate operators have been largely excluded from incentives outlined in the newly released Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP), even though they’ll soon be absorbing the flow-through cost of carbon emission allowances in natural gas prices.
How to protect nature on your home turf
I recently had the honor and pleasure of meeting Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, a global advocate for women and children and a leader in climate change justice. She was fresh from the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris and optimistic about the result.
Corporate Sustainability
GM’s renewable efforts build from the ground up
Improving energy performance is the responsibility of everyone at General Motors — but a particularly important group for managers to tap into are those closest to the products the company makes, according to Mari Kay Scott, the, Executive Director of GM’s Environmental Compliance and Sustainability.
Positivity and vision are key to building a better future
Just as I was putting pen to paper for this piece I was amused to receive an invitation from a wonderful organization called “Julie’s Bicycle” to an event with the compelling title: “How to be a COPtimist: Culture, Creativity and COP21.” Optimism regarding the state of the planet in the face of climate change is in understandably short supply these days.
Cadillac Fairview invests in future community leaders
Today, Cadillac Fairview (CF) announced their youth-focused philanthropy platform aimed to inspire and empower today’s youth. This platform is part of CF’s overall corporate social responsibility strategy aimed at supporting environmental, economic and social initiatives in the community and is an important part of CF’s core values.
Cities and Towns
These 7 major risks threaten urban sustainability
The world’s cities are home to 54 percent (4 billion) of the earth’s total population; by 2050, that percentage is projected to increase to 66 percent. Today’s mass urbanization, while an undoubted driver of growth, is also unsustainable, according to a recent UN report, by putting many people at risk, creating unnecessary costs, negatively affecting the environment and bolstering social disparity.
Waste Management
Industry awaits impacts of the Waste-Free Ontario Act
Ontario’s building industry will have to wait until late summer or early fall before it obtains clarity on how the province’s newly minted Waste-Free Ontario Act will affect construction activity. The Act, which received Royal Assent June 9, requires producers, such as manufacturers, to be fully responsible for their products and packaging at the products’ end of life.
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Industry Events
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Zero Carbon Building Standards Interactive Workshop
Dec 10 2024
to Dec 12 2025
Online
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FCM’s Sustainable Communities Conference 2025
Feb 10 2025
to Feb 13 2025
Fredericton, NB
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GlobeXchange
Feb 11 2025
to Feb 14 2025
Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel
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BuildGreen Atlantic 2025
Apr 28 2025
to Apr 29 2025
Halifax, NS
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Building Lasting Change
Jun 18 2025
to Jun 20 2025
Vancouver, BC
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