World GBC launches BUILD UPON in Europe

World GBC launches BUILD UPON in Europe

The world’s largest collaborative project on building renovation has been officially launched today by Green Building Councils across Europe, in a bid to tackle one of the region’s biggest climate challenges – its existing buildings.   After more than a year of preparations, the BUILD UPON project is launching a series of 80 European events that aim to bring together more than 1,000 organisations in a concerted effort to reduce emissions from buildings.

World GBC

Learning from leading net zero energy buildings

Forty percent of American energy use today comes from building operations.  We have the technology today to reduce this number to zero – demonstrated by the nineteen remarkable net zero energy buildings contained in The Power of Zero. Net zero energy buildings use no more energy than they generate over the course of a year.

The Living Future Institute

Small investors powering green revolution: CoPower

The biggest obstacle to the greening of Canada’s commercial real estate portfolio isn’t technology, infrastructure or government approvals. It’s money. Installing rooftop solar power, geo-thermal energy systems, or even swapping out thousands of inefficient lightbulbs for high-efficiency LEDs can be an expensive and daunting prospect.

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TELUS Garden receives LEED Platinum certification

Vancouver’s TELUS Garden office tower is officially one of the greenest buildings in North America after receiving a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification from the Canada Green Building Council.

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BC Wood Design Awards winners announced

Inspired and innovative designs of wood structures in smaller urban BC centres and mid-rise construction were in the spotlight at the 2016 Wood Design Awards in BC, presented by WoodWORKS! BC. Included in the awards were many impressive large public buildings including a museum, visitor centre and a diplomatic property located outside of BC and Canada.

Canadian Architect

Wood highrises designed in B.C. are sustainable and safe

The search for ways to build greener, more energy-efficient buildings has triggered a 21st century version of the old skyscraper race, but these contestants aren’t made of concrete and steel.  This week’s Globe Conference on sustainability in Vancouver will hear how some municipalities, including two B.C. cities, are pushing the boundaries of building high with wood.

CBC

Carbon neutral certification for cities, precincts and buildings: Australia

Entire suburbs and cities across Australia could be formally declared carbon neutral by the Federal government from as early as 2017. In a move certain to spur investment in the renewables sector, the Turnbull government on Tuesday revealed will expand official carbon neutrality standards to now include buildings, precincts and cities in the zero-emissions certification mix.

Government News – Australia Department of the Environment – Architecture and Design

Which women are leading the green building movement?

Today is International Women’s Day – an opportunity to celebrate the social, economic, cultural political, and of course, environmental achievements of women around the world.  Our Green Building movement has a number of female leaders who are driving transformative change across the buildings industry. In fact, 13 of the CEOs in our 28 Established Green Building Councils are women – over 45 per cent.

World GBC – GreenBiz – The Guardian – Eco-business

Re-cladding your multi-residential building

Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation manages 4,700 units of affordable housing in over 732 buildings throughout the City of Windsor and County of Essex.  The multi-residential building located at 2455 Rivard Dr in Windsor was scheduled for a building re-cladding in 2014 as the building envelope was suffering from localized deterioration, air infiltration, and moisture damage.

Monster Commercial

The U.S. Governments new policy for optimizing data centres

A new White House policy for optimizing energy-guzzling data centers in the federal government would block agencies from budgeting any money toward new or expanding data centers without approval from the federal chief information officer.  The new Data Center Optimization Initiative “supersedes” a 2010 effort to close down data centers.

NextGov.com – Energy Manager Today

USGBC becomes affiliate of DOE Better Buildings program

USGBC recently formalized its commitment to become a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings Alliance Affiliate. The Better Buildings program was formed in 2011 with the goal of making buildings 20 percent more energy-efficient over a period of 10 years. The program covers residential, commercial, industrial and public buildings, and includes Better Buildings initiatives such as the Energy Data Accelerator.

US GBC

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Future proofing of buildings in Canada

In the construction sector the concept of “future proofing” of commercial buildings is actually quite new. We have heard and seen a lot about sustainability however many professionals now look at the net result of sustainability programs and resource conservation initiatives as providing additional benefits by allowing owners and investors to “future proofing” building assets.

Monster Commercial

Hotels tapping geothermal technology

A growing number of developers are looking more closely at geothermal heat pump systems, a technology that uses the earth’s thermal properties in conjunction with electricity as an alternative to traditional HVAC and water heating systems. This technology both lowers utility costs over time and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 40 percent more than traditional HVAC systems.

Green Lodging News

New York should copy rival cities to green its buildings

The city that brought the world PlaNYC and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s commitment to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050 is unquestionably ahead of the pack when it comes to combating climate change. And in New York City that effort must begin with buildings, which account for 70% of our greenhouse gas emissions. 

Crains New York

Norway to create 10 ‘bike superhighways’

Norway—the 15th largest producers of oil on Earth—appears to be looking for an alternative path forward. Fresh off of announcements that it’s building Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, and not so long after it decided to divest its sovereign wealth fund from coal and tar sands operations, this small Scandinavian country is announcing a huge investment in cycling infrastructure.

TreeHugger

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Market Trends and Research

7 steps to get your piece of the green building market

2015 marked the tipping point on several sustainability fronts, and building products appears to be one of them. Building product manufacturers who’ve been waiting to tell their sustainability stories until the market ripens should really stop waiting. Here’s why …. 

Green Biz

Planet Earth in carbon budget squeeze

Humanity must hold itself to a strict carbon budget – emitting even less greenhouse gases than earlier estimated – if we want to keep planetary warming to less than 2°Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, a new study finds.  The 2°C target was adopted as a goal by the leaders of 196 countries at the United Nations’s 2015 Paris climate conference, COP21. 

Environment News Service

Commercial Real Estate

Whole Foods to install solar on 100 stores

Reflecting what an industry group describes as a surge in commercial solar installations — after lagging behind residential and utility installations for a couple years — Whole Foods Markets and SolarCity announced the grocery chain plans to install solar on 100 of its stores.  Whole Foods entered contracts with both SolarCity and NRG Energy for the installations, which will increase the grocer’s solar capacity fourfold.  

GreenBiz

How do you create healthier buildings?

IDC is pleased to be partnering with the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) on a new study examining the impact of building design and construction on the health and well-being of building occupants – and we encourage you to participate! 

IDC Canada

Can ‘active’ building designs make people healthier?

The phrase ‘environmentally conscious design’ typically conjures images of recycled materials and energy efficient systems for lighting and temperature control.  This article focusses on an example of this – a 25,000-square-foot (and LEED Gold projected) medical office building GS&P recently designed for Kaiser Permanente in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

BDC Network

Las Vegas casinos seek to power their bright lights with renewable energy

The glittering Las Vegas strip is not an obvious model for energy conservation.  Yet hidden above the glowing Eiffel Tower, neon resort awnings and a black pyramid that shines a beam of light into space, is one of the largest rooftop solar arrays in the country.

The Guardian

Residential Real Estate

Paul Hanley: Passivhaus a first for province

Green builder Robin Adair is building Saskatchewan’s first “Passivhaus.” Located at 1102 Temperance St., the ultra energy efficient duplex will be certified by Germany’s Passivhaus Institute, which has one of the highest quality control standards for green buildings in the world.  Passive houses achieve a 90 per cent energy saving compared to typical building stock.

The Star Phoenix

Home that moves with the sun

Adding solar panels to your roof is great, but they can’t harvest the sun’s energy at all times of the day. Or can they? Casas em Movimento (which translates to Moving Houses), solve this problem since they are designed to move with the sun, much like the sunflower does. The home was developed in collaboration with a team of architecture faculty members at the University of Porto in Portugal.

Jets on Green

Green building ratings

ILFI launches biophilic design initiative

The International Living Future Institute has seen a demonstrated need among the Living Building Challenge community for Biophilic Design resources that can take the practice from theory to reality. While progress has been made to communicate what Biophilic Design very little progress has been made determining how to achieve it.

The Living Future Institute

Connect, learn, engage with the Canada Green Building Council

Canada Green Building Council video

Acoustical challenges in green buildings

For much of its history, the LEED^® rating system has paid little attention to acoustics, weakening the overall performance of green buildings. In fact, post occupancy surveys performed by the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) show that the higher the LEED certification level an office building achieves, the lower occupant satisfaction with acoustics. USGBC is attempting to address this weakness.

SHP Online

Sustainable products & materials

Natural materials are coming to dominate green building

One of the buildings that inspired me to become an architect was the Monsanto House of the Future, built at Disneyland in 1957. “It was the permanence, the durability of plastic that made the Monsanto house a marvel,” writes Bernard Cooper in his book Maps to Anywhere.” It was an era where we believed in “Better living through chemistry”, that our problems could be solved with plastics.

TreeeHugger

Government Programs and Incentives

Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau to join forces on climate change

Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau will commit to work together to fight climate change and protect an Arctic experiencing the mildest winter ever recorded, sources familiar with the initiatives said.  The two leaders were expected to announce a number of common climate measures at a meeting at the White House this week, from a 45% cut in methane emissions from the oil and gas industry to protections for a rapidly warmingArctic.

The Guardian

British Columbia’s Water Sustainability Act comes into effect

On February 29, 2016, the government of British Columbia brought the new Water Sustainability Act  into force along with a first phase of regulations. The Water Sustainability Act updates and replaces the old B.C. Water Act and delivers on the government’s commitment to groundwater and surface water security. 

Water Canada

Corporate Sustainability

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Cities and Towns

Paris prepares possible ‘flood of the century’: Video

Globe and Mail

Waste Management

UK uses 33% less stuff than in 2001

IKEA made headlines when it openly mused about Western economies “reaching peak stuff”, but there is fresh evidence the insatiable appetite for more stuff might finally be leveling out.  New figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that the amount of raw materials consumed by the UK economy fell from 15 tonne per person in 2001 to just over 10 tonnes in 2013.

TreeHugger