London Drugs gets closer to zero waste

London Drugs gets closer to zero waste

The tallies are in and Canadian retailer London Drugs is reporting another record year for waste diversion in 2016. The chain’s 79 stores’ continuous sustainability efforts resulted in 92.8% waste diversion totaling 12.5 million pounds of waste diverted from city landfills across Canada. Each year, these stores come closer to their goal of reaching zero-waste status.

Marketwired

Metro Vancouver launches unflushables campaign

Metro Vancouver is rolling out a new campaign, The Unflushables, in hopes of educating residents to stop dumping items down the drain that clog the municipal and regional sewer system. This is a national problem and the cost of dealing with this issue across Canada has been estimated at $250 million.

Water Canada

Green standards manages diversion of GM office assets

Green Standards, a specialized environmental firm that manages furniture and equipment “waste” generated by workplace revitalization and relocation projects, is helping General Motors manage tens of thousands of office asset donations. The company is undergoing a multi-campus office decommissioning effort at its Warren Technical Center, Detroit headquarters, and Milford Proving Ground locations.

CSR Wire

Google Kitchener building saves 500,000L of water per year

Google’s new office in Kitchener, Ontario, will save 500,000 Litres of water a year, while maximizing health and wellness through a variety of initiatives. For its sustainable practices, the building has earned a LEED v4 Silver rating for Interior Design + Construction (ID+C).

Water Canada

Enwave grows into thermal energy powerhouse

Residents of the GTA likely immediately think of Enwave Energy Corporation as a provider of green, chilled water to Toronto’s skyscrapers drawn from the depths of Lake Ontario. It turns out there is so much more to the Toronto-based company.

Sustainable Biz

Top 10 states and countries of 2016 for LEED

Every year, USGBC does a rundown of the top 10 countries (besides the United States) and the top 10 U.S. states leading the way in LEED-certified buildings. It’s our way of highlighting the progress these places are making in sustainable building design, construction and transformation.

USGBC

CaGBC supports Ontario’s investments towards GHG reductions

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) would like to commend the Ontario Provincial Government on the release of a budget that stayed true to its commitments to the Climate Change Action Plan. The CaGBC views investments in improving building energy efficiency as key to moving toward a low-carbon economy and meeting Ontario’s emission reduction targets of 15 per cent by 2020.

Canada Green Building Council

	Six sustainable tenants’ leasing principles
	More than half dozen world-leading firms are extending an offer to other corporate tenants to join them in publicly endorsing the Sustainable Tenants’ Leasing Principles. These six simple principles help corporate tenants advance their own commitment to sustainable business.
	The Sustainable Roundtable, April 28, 2017

 

Intelligent buildings: a magic wand for sustainability and efficiency?

Even if statistics don’t typically get your blood racing, those surrounding so-called ‘intelligent buildings’ are remarkable. According to a report by Technavio in December 2016, the global Integrated Building Management Systems (BMS) market is expected to record a global compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.47 percent between 2017 and 2021.

Architecture and Design

Hot-desking and activity-based work isn’t so positive

A recent survey of 400 multinational corporations found that two-thirds plan to implement shared-desk workplaces by 2020. But research shows these arrangements have a range of outcomes, many of which are negative. A recently published study of 1,000 Australian employees found that shared-desk environments had a number of problems.

Architecture and Design

Co-working spaces are the future of work. Is it good thing?

The growing phenomenon of co-working spaces – places where individuals can rent a desk of their own while sharing a range of other facilities with their co-tenants – is as indicative of the changing nature of work as almost any metric you care to name. Although many see the casualisation of the workforce that this growth represents as an inherently bad thing there may well be a big upside.

The Guardian

UK-GBC launches “Wellbeing Labs” compendium on green, healthy offices

The UK Green Building Council has launched a new publication detailing the experiences of participants in its “Wellbeing Labs” initiative, conducted through the WorldGBC’s Better Places for People project. The Wellbeing Labs are a core part of UK-GBC’s work on health and wellbeing.

World GBC

	Humber River Hospital achieves LEED® Gold
	One of the most energy efficient acute care hospitals in North America, Humber River Hospital is revolutionizing sustainable healthcare design, with a built environment that is setting the bar for reduction of operating costs and carbon footprint.
	Canada Newswire, April 28, 2017

 

The green corridor of five schools in Montreal

The City of Montreal, the Montreal North Borough, the Société de verdissement du Montréal métropolitain (Soverdi) and the Working Table partners of the Green Corridor of Five Schools in Montreal North came together today to announce TD Bank Group’s contribution to the project.

Canada Newswire

Renewables in the city: ‘This building is its own power plant’

In an increasing number of cities around the world, businesses are switching to rooftop solar. The trend started in rich countries, where solar has been subsidized, but as the cost of solar has come down it has become cost-competitive in sunny cities from Rio de Janeiro to Delhi to Nairobi.

The Guardian

St. Paul to power 25% of municipal buildings with solar

St. Paul, Minnesota, city officials have negotiated an agreement with GreenMark Solar to power one-quarter of the state capital’s municipal buildings with electricity derived from community solar gardens.  The agreement allows the city to buy up to 8-MW of electricity to power its government offices, libraries, recreational centers, and fire stations. As a result, energy bills are projected to drop $165,000 in 2018.

Energy Manager

Chicago commits to 100% renewable power for all city buildings

The City of Chicago has committed to power all city properties with renewable energy by 2025. The pledge makes Chicago the largest U.S. city to implement a clean energy policy for all of its public buildings. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Office said that the commitment would be met by multiple means, including on-site generation and the acquisition of renewable energy credits.

BDC Network

Products, Technology and Design

Making cross-laminated timber earthquake-proof

Washington State University researchers have received a $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant to that will help builders use more sustainable timber in high-rise buildings in earthquake-prone areas. As part of the $1.5 million National Science Foundation grant, the researchers will test their designs for a 10-story tall, wooden building by simulating a real earthquake in a laboratory.

Woodworking Network

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	Sustainable Biz Canada (SBC) launched in 2016 and already has thousands of page views available for advertisers. Website exposure on RENX.ca, ads in the Green Real Estate Newsletter, writing services and more.
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Market Trends and Research

Book review: What business models will prevail on new microgrids?

The book argues that the electricity grid of today needs to split up into a cluster of microgrids, interacting with each other, and also capable of standalone operations. Further, the grid will split up into specialized, vertical market segments – product-markets – offering such services as street lighting, water pumping, traffic lights, overlay DC networks for home electronics or appliance charging, and so on. 

Microgrid Knowledge

Alberta to assess creosote levels in Bow River watershed

The Alberta government is undertaking a five-year, $1.3-million project to continue assessing creosote levels in Calgary’s West Hillhurst community around the Bow River watershed. The goal of the project is to assess the extent of contamination in the neighbourhood and examine levels throughout the year to determine any seasonal variances.

Water Canada

Fossil groundwaters contain modern contaminants

Most of the groundwater in the world that is accessible by deep wells is fossil groundwater, stored beneath the earth’s surface for more than 12,000 years. However, new research, led by University of Calgary hydro-geologist Scott Jasechko and co-authored by an international team of researchers, has demonstrated that ancient water is not immune to modern contamination.

Water Canada

Green building awards

AIA/COTE Awards this year redefine sustainable design

Every year around Earth Day the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and their Committee On The Environment (COTE) release their list of the top ten green projects of the year, and we make a big deal of it. They take their green building very seriously, looking at many different aspects of sustainability and do an incredible amount of work putting it together.

TreeHugger

Architects finally are taking climate change seriously. Sort of.

In our recent post American Institute of Architects takes a stand on climate change I ended up by quoting architect and writer Lance Hosey, and his survey that found “as many as a third of architects are skeptical about climate change.” Lance tweeted me a new survey which found that  now fully 93.6 percent of architects actually believe that human activity is changing the climate.

TreeHugger

Municipal Policy and Urban Issues

How to stop the construction industry choking our cities

Poor air quality, with diesel the biggest culprit, is now thought to be the cause of 40,000 deaths in the UK each year. But while cars and lorries have attracted most attention, less reported is the contribution of other polluters to the problem, particularly construction sites.

The Guardian

The rise of the smart city

Cities have a way to go before they can be considered geniuses. But they’re getting smart pretty fast. In just the past few years, mayors and other officials in cities across the country have begun to draw on the reams of data at their disposal—about income, burglaries, traffic, fires, illnesses, parking citations and more—to tackle many of the problems of urban life.

Wall St. Journal

Commercial real estate

Solar a powerful option for water heating

Hotels and resorts around the planet are utilizing the sun’s infrared radiation and ultraviolet (UV) rays to preheat and heat water for on-property consumption—the Marriott Hotel Port-au-Prince in Haiti, the Brando in Tetiaroa, French Polynesia, the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead, and the Hilton Garden Inn Exton/West Chester in Exton, Pa. are some examples.

Green Lodging News

Macy’s adds 21 rooftop solar arrays, three with storage

On April 21, nationwide retailer Macy’s announced that 21 high-efficiency SunPower solar arrays have gone live this year at its Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s locations in seven states, totaling 15 MW – and adding to the nearly 24 MW of SunPower solar that has been operating on its store and fulfillment center rooftops since 2007. Electricity generated by the new solar power systems ultimately will be sold to others.

Energy Manager Today

Green building ratings

Demonstrate your building’s performance with the ILFI Reveal label

The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) has collaborated with Architecture 2030 to update their Reveal label – an easy-to-understand method of displaying the energy performance of a building. Reveal is designed for owners, managers, architects, 2030 Challenge adopters, and AIA 2030 Commitment signatories.

Architecture 2030

Municipal Policy and Urban Issues

Adelaide partners with EU to build smart, sustainable cities

Adelaide has been chosen by the European Union as the latest partner in the EU World Cities project. The programme, which is managed by the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), aims to facilitate the exchange of information and best practice on regional and urban development policy issues.

Architecture and Design

B.C. First Nation leads with green technology, sustainability

A tiny B.C. First Nation is emerging as a leader in renewable and green energy. The T’Sou-ke Nation, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, has just over 250 community members. Yet in the last decade, the T’Sou-ke have been operating a solar micro-grid, wasabi and oyster farms and an eco-tourism enterprise, and have launched a large-scale wind project.

CBC

Podcast: Fast forward Hamilton waterfront

Outsiders might assume that miraculous restorations of Hamilton, Ontario’s Bayfront Park and neighbouring Cootes Paradise are products of the city’s current post-industrial makeover. The revitalization actually began decades ago, spurred by a powerful wave of citizen activism.

Raise the Hammer

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Water Management

Wall Street is waking up to water

Walking beneath the iconic columns of the New York Stock Exchange in Lower Manhattan, one only has to glance up Wall Street to spot the spire of Trinity Church. On this year’s World Water Day, these divergent institutions were aligned on the importance of tackling one of our society’s greatest challenges – the water crisis.

Ceres

Other

Citizen Jane: Does the new film get it right?

When Lewis Mumford reviewed Death and Life of American Cities in 1962, he titles it “Mother Jacobs’ Home Remedies” and at one point calls it “a mingling of sense and sentimentality, of mature judgements and schoolgirl howlers.”

TreeHugger