USGBC CEO joins WELL Building Institute

USGBC CEO joins WELL Building Institute

Rick Fedrizzi, CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council, is joining the International WELL Building Institute™ as its chairman and CEO, the institute announced July 6. Fedrizzi co-founded USGBC while he was environmental marketing director at United Technologies Corporation and has served as its CEO since 2004.

USGBC News Release – EP Online

World GBC sets goal of 100% net-zero buildings by 2050

The World Green Building Council recently unveiled its “Advancing Net Zero” initiative that aims for 100% net-zero buildings by 2050. The Council’s interim goal is to have all new buildings and major renovations designed for net-zero energy use by 2030.

BDC Network – Eco-business – WGBC News Release

Vancouver to eliminate new construction GHG emmissions: 2030

Vancouver city planners have unveiled a new strategy to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from new constructions by 2030. “The Zero Emissions New Buildings is really the highest priority and the first most significant action towards our objective to have 100 per cent renewable energy in the city by the year 2050,” said Sean Pander, Green Buildings program manager of the City’s Sustainability Group.

CBC.ca

Voluntary and mandatory efficiency program coordination

The 2030 Districts program is gaining steam. Ithaca and Tomkins County, New York, became the thirteenth district. The success of the program begs important questions: Is there a danger that mandated programs and voluntary initiatives overlap and potentially conflict with each other?

Energy Manager Today – Green Biz

The energy efficiency sector should take a bow

Energy managers, facilities managers and everyone else in the sector should take a moment to congratulate themselves. A number of recently released studies and surveys show that investment in energy efficiency in general — and commercial buildings in particular — is growing steadily.

Energy Manager Today

DOE partners with CoStar to study valuation & sustainablity

U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Initiative will partner with CoStar Group, Inc. on a program to boost building energy efficiency and an effort to display building energy efficiency information in CoStar Group’s online property databases.

BDC Network

The marriage of big data and building management

It is a time of great creativity in the building sector. Many companies are doing some variation of the same thing: Using modern telecommunications and IT technology to gather data and analyze it using sophisticated big data tools. The result of these efforts are more efficient structures.

Energy Manager Today

	11 green building materials better than concrete
	The production of commercial concrete materials releases tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, contributing to the calamity that is climate change. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We have collated 11 green building materials that offer alternatives to concrete.
	Inhabitat, June 15, 2016

 

Australia starts research on high-rise timber building products

The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, has teamed up with government and industry to find ways of building high-rise timber structures with a dedicated research centre that opens tomorrow, 12 July.vThe state of Queensland will provide A$1m over five years in funding for the new research centre.

Global Construction Review

An international wood design competition

Metsä Wood’s next Plan B initiative to explore possibilities of wood in solving the problems of urbanization. The City Above the City international wood design competition invites architects and students from all over the world to solve the challenges of urbanization in both sustainable and humane ways.

Canadian Architect

World’s tallest Passive House tower rising in NYC

The world’s tallest Passive House building is steadily rising in New York City, and Inhabitat recently had a chance to check the revolutionary tower out for ourselves. When complete, Cornell Tech’s super energy-efficient residential building is expected to save a whopping 882 tons of CO2 (the equivalent of planting 5,300 new trees) per year.

Inhabitat

Perkins Eastman to use EDGE green building system

Perkins Eastman has pledged to apply Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) to at least five of its clients’ projects within the next year.  EDGE, a certification system of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), finds measurable solutions for the advancement of building green.

BDC Network

Joel Solomon: The Conscientious Capitalist

While he’s best known as the money behind Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Joel Solomon has been quietly building a reputation as one of the city’s smartest financiers. The 180-degree outlook from Joel Solomon’s 10th-floor patio deck is a perfect metaphor for his complicated and sometimes controversial world view.

BC Business

IKEA argues for businesses to go all-in on sustainability

Ask sportspersons what their ultimate aim is — from Usain Bolt and Serena Williams to Eric the Eel — and they’ll tell you it is to win, finish top, or be the very best at what they do. Their achievements may not always match their ambitions straight away, but in their vastly competitive world, they nevertheless set their targets as high as possible.

Green Biz

Will France’s corporate climate reporting model go global?

The Energy Transitions law imposes new binding energy targets for transport, housing and renewable energy in France alongside plans to raise the national carbon tax and tackle air pollution across the country. The  Act also contains a particularly significant piece of legislation for the finance industry.

Green Biz

Tata Housing commits to LEED and WELL

Tata Housing will certify 20-million square feet of space to LEED and WELL standards. Back in June, USGBC and GBCI announced a strategic partnership with Tata Housing, one of India’s fastest-growing real estate development companies. The partnership is designed to jump-start the availability of LEED- and WELL-certified homes throughout India.

US GBC News Release

	Sustainable Biz is on Twitter
	SustainableBiz.ca opened February 2016 to provide news, information and commentary about environmental, social and governance issues as it pertains to sustainability.
	Follow BizSustainably, the most comprehensive news feed on Twitter for Canadian business concerned about sustainability.

 

Market trends and research

U.S. healthcare system’s GHG emissions rise 30%

Researchers say greenhouse gas emissions from the healthcare sector grew 30% over the past decade, and accounted for 9.8% of the national total in 2013. If the U.S. healthcare system were a country, it would rank 13th in the world for GHG emissions.

BDC Network

Fort McMurray wildfire estimated to be costliest disaster in Canada

The wildfire that rendered the heart of oilsands country a charred mess is estimated to be the costliest disaster in Canada, evidence that extreme weather events have increased in frequency and severity, said the Insurance Bureau of Canada. About $3.58 billion in damage is expected due to the fire that swept through Fort McMurray in May.

Toronto Star

Commercial real estate

TAIPEI 101 receives LEED v4 certification from USGBC

After five years of relentless effort, TAIPEI 101 receives the world’s most authoritative and elusive green building certification — LEED v4 (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Version 4) — from the U.S. Green Building Council with the highest score in history, achieving the highest level of Platinum in the category of Operation and Maintenance of Existing Buildings.

Marketwired

Solar carports power soccer stadium in Utah

On a clear day at noon in the temperate zone, there’s about a kilowatt – 1000 watts – of energy falling on every square foot of open ground.  A free kilowatt, if you could capture it. 

BDC Network

Residential Real Estate

Open Building Institute offers ‘eco-building toolkit’

Marcin Jakubowski has been described by Sami as awesome, and he is, going from studying fusion energy to designing incredible tools that you can build yourself for the Open Building Institute. He’s back in the news with his new Kickstarter to raise $80K for an open-source eco-building tool kit.

TreeHugger

Sustainable products & materials

9 reasons why algae may be the next sustainable building technology

Biotechnologists are investigating biofuels as alternatives to fossil fuels. Corn, soybean and sugarcane produce a range of biofuels; however, they add to water scarcity, deforestation and large areas of land are used. An alternative is microalgae.

The Fifth Estate

Phasing out refrigerants doesn’t use more energy

Long before companies made managing energy consumption a corporate priority, the dialogue centered on a dizzying matrix of regulations governing their use of ozone-depleting refrigerants— the stuff that keeps freezers frozen and building heating and cooling equipment chilled.

GreenBiz

Cities and Towns

LRT line helps secure new Mississauga office project

The desire of two corporations to create environmentally friendly workspaces sparked an alliance that led to a fancy groundbreaking ceremony recently. Eight dignitaries armed with eight shovels sporting sandblasted limited-edition works of art entitled Fracture, dug into the dirt at 2 Prologis Blvd. on June 21.

Mississauga.com

5 rules for designing great cities

To Jan Gehl – a Danish architect, writer, and the most respected urbanist alive for his research on how urban design can improve quality of life and curb environmental problems—Venice epitomizes a city that engages all of our senses, and, in effect, becomes an environment tailored for a thriving public life scaled to the individual.

Fast CoDesign

Edmonton’s Blatchford might heat homes with sewage

A project to build one of the world’s greenest communities in Edmonton could be one step closer to reality.  On Wednesday, a representative of Axiom Group told the city’s executive committee his company would be able to use waste heat from sewage to heat buildings in the proposed Blatchford development.

Huffington Post

Sustainable Biz News

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