Indoor air quality business to boom

Indoor air quality business to boom

Green buildings rely on good indoor air quality to maintain the health and productivity of staff.  Technologies that allow building owners and managers to measure and verify  workspace conditions can serve as proof of a healthy building.  A Navigant Research study predicts these technologies will generate $55.4 billion from 2015 to 2024.

Proud Green Building

Ontario to implement sweeping climate change plan

The Ontario government will spend more than $7-billion over four years on a sweeping climate change plan that will affect every aspect of life – from what people drive to how they heat their homes and workplaces – in a bid to slash the province’s carbon footprint.

Globe and Mail – BDC Network

Ledcor projects receive Living Building certifications

Two Ledcor Construction projects in British Columbia, Burnaby’s SFU UniverCity Childcare Centre and Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitors Centre, have achieved petal certification under the Living Building Challenge Standard.

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LEED gold for U of T research building

The Environmental Science and Chemistry Building (ESCB) at the University of Toronto Scarborough has been recognized with one of the highest levels of achievement in sustainable building design.   The 10,220-square-metre building, which officially opened in January 2016, has received a gold certification from the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED).

University of Toronto – Daily Commercial News – UrbanToronto.ca

Surrey Hospital avoids higher costs with energy-efficient design

Surrey has been one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada for a number of years now. That kind of growth has been great for the city in many ways, but hard on its infrastructure, including its health-care facility. Opened in 1959, Surrey Memorial Hospital was originally designed to accommodate about 40,000 emergency room patients a year.

Business in Vancouver

Circadian rhythms, roman baths transforming Australian cities

Opened in 2002 and costing $400 million, Federation Square’s labyrinth has since paid for itself seven times over, according to Atelier Ten, the global environmental design consultants behind the design. In 2014, when five consecutive days topped 40C, temperatures in the Atrium above it stayed at a comfortable 28C – without any artificial cooling.

Proud Green Buildings

39 Italian municipalities now 100 per cent renewable

Thirty-nine Italian municipalities are now meeting 100 per cent of their energy demands with renewable energy.  The change over the last 10 years has been remarkable largely due to a distributed production model with the addition of over 850,000 generation plants all over the country.

Eco-business

Canada’s largest green building conference coming to Toronto

Building Lasting Change, the Canada Green Building Council’s (CaGBC) annual National Conference and Expo, brings together industry experts from Canada and across the globe for three days of networking, education, and thought-provoking discussion.

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Energy efficiency and roofs

Both the quality of an organization and the energy efficiency of the building that houses it start at the top. In one case, it’s the business plan. In the other, it’s the roof. In an era heavily influenced by the strikingly new it is worth paying attention to less glitzy but vital steps aimed at maintaining and increasing energy efficiency.

Energy Manager

Stop buildings from falling through the ‘green gap’

Sourceable

Big efficiency for small and medium buildings

For those of us working in the green buildings field, it can appear on the surface that all the exciting work is happening in enormous buildings and portfolios in popular coastal cities. The majority of buildings in the U.S. aren’t owned by big-name REITS. They’re small and medium buildings occupied by retail stores, offices, restaurants, nonprofits and other small businesses.

Green Biz

Zero energy buildings closer with thin-film solar technology

Buildings with roofs, facades and windows swathed in solar are a step closer following news that the University of NSW has broken efficiency records for CZTS thin-film solar.  While traditional thin-film solar is made from scarce, expensive and toxic materials, CZTS thin-film technology uses the benign and abundant materials copper, zinc, tin and sulphur/

Eco-Business

4 surprising ways energy-efficient buildings benefit cities

Urbanization presents major challenges: congestion; sprawl; inefficiency; health hazards; and high cost of living, just to name a few. But the choices we make for our cities can transform these challenges into opportunities: mobility; connectivity; economies of scale; healthier lifestyles; and economic opportunity.

Green Biz

REBA shows what it takes to scale corporate renewable energy

Amory Lovins, chief scientist and chairman emeritus of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), has an expression I love: applied hope. It captures that rational middle ground between the unbridled optimism of a noble and vital goal — like taking action on climate — and the practical path to actually doing something toward that goal.  I felt a strong sense of applied hope at the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance Summit (commonly referred to by its country-western-tinged name, REBA).

GreenBiz

How Portugal went 107 hours on only renewable energy (+video)

From the morning of May 7 to the afternoon of May 11, Portugal’s electricity consumption was fully covered by renewable sources.  For 107 hours, Portugal powered all of its electricity from biofuels, hydropower plants, wind turbines, solar panels, and geothermal heat. But this is not the first time that Portugal has boasted an impressive energy statistic.

CS Monitor

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Market trends and research

The Power of Zero (Book review)

The Power of Zero starts with a definition of what they mean by Net Zero Energy: The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) defines Net Zero energy (NZE) as “One hundred percent of the projects energy needs being supplied by onsite renewable energy on a net annual basis.” It represents a radical agenda for eliminating carbon dioxide emissions within the built environment.

TreeHugger

Warming far outpacing climate action: UN meeting

The opening of the United Nation’s annual mid-year climate conference in Bonn Germany offered up dramatically contrasting messages this week: national leaders and political negotiators congratulated themselves, proudly celebrating the “historic Paris Agreement,” while environmentalists warned somberly that the Earth is far worse off than most people realise, with the political will for climate action still falling far behind the fearfully rapid pace of warming.

Eco-business

Commercial real estate

Making data centres more energy-efficient with solar power

With rising concerns about climate change, countries around the globe are looking to alternative energy sources to sustain their future energy needs. In Southeast Asia alone, energy consumption is expected to grow by 80 per cent from 2014 to 2040, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). 

Eco-business

Game-changing business models for green buildings

Air conditioning contributes to a significant chunk of a building’s energy consumption. As building owners are increasingly pressured to be more energy efficient, one company’s unique model is helping to take that responsibility off their hands.  Kaer, pronounced “care” is looking to change the way building owners and the C-suite view air conditioning.

Eco-business

N.Y. arts center revives once-toxic lakefront site

In September 2014, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that allowed for the construction of a new performing arts venue on Onondaga Lake, about five miles northwest of Syracuse. One year later, on September 3, 2015, the Onondaga Lakeview Amphitheater, a gleaming, 74,000-sf outdoor event complex with a seating capacity of 17,500, held its first performance.

BDC Network

Pittsburgh’s Tower at PNC Plaza raises the bar on high-rise greenness

PNC Financial Services Group is among America’s leading corporate sustainability advocates. Six years ago, when it started thinking about a new headquarters in Pittsburgh, PNC’s leadership saw the building as a means to advance the company’s three strategic pillars: to support sustainable urban growth, attract the best talent, and maximize advanced energy opportunities.

BDC Network

Residential Real Estate

Design for ‘flood-resilient’ Miami condo released

A new rendering of Miami’s Monad Terrace, a 54-unit luxury condo complex designed by architect Jean Nouvel, has been released, according to Curbed Miami.  The building is notable for its base: a large infinity pool which Nouvel has dubbed a “reflection machine.”

BDC Network – Curbed Miami

Green building ratings

New LEED pilot credit for health related initiatives

Protecting human health by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change has been a focus of the green building movement since its inception. With changing weather patterns and matured understanding of the relationship between climate change and health, the need for climate change mitigation and adaptation could not be more evident.

US Green Building Council

Sustainable products & materials

Webinar series from DOE on building envelope technologies

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Building Alliance and Oak Ridge National Laboratory(ORNL) are kicking off a new webinar series focused on advancing envelope technologies in commercial buildings. The webinars will serve as an opportunity for commercial building owners, operators and facility managers to discuss and learn about the latest innovations and best practices in increasing efficiency of building envelopes.

US Green Building Council

Corporate Sustainability

Transparency drives sustainability

There are several motivations for companies to make sustainability a business priority.  In some instances, it is a fundamental part of a company’s business model. In others, companies are driven by economic imperatives, or are reacting to adverse events that have already affected the firm negatively, such as allegations of child labour or toxic spills.

Eco-Business.com

Cities and Towns

Park upgrades raise the bar

You would be hard-pressed to find a North American city the size of Winnipeg blessed with a similar number of high-quality cultural organizations and amenities.  The Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the zoo’s Journey to Churchill are the most recent major additions to the city’s cultural scene, but the development is not stopping there.

Winnipeg Free Press

Mississauga’s mayor explains new stormwater Levy

The City of Mississauga in Ontario owns nearly $2 billion in stormwater infrastructure that must be properly maintained if we are to build a stronger and more reliable future for Canada’s sixth largest city. Our stormwater drainage system protects water quality and reduces the risk of flooding that can damage homes, businesses, and our environment.

Water Canada

Barcelona is turning its streets into “citizen spaces”

In 1867 an unknown engineer in Barcelona, Ildefons Cerdà, essentially invented urbanism with his General Theory of Urbanization. His ideas were extreme and unprecedented; he wanted gardens in the middle of each block, equal access to services for the rich and the poor, and wider streets. Marta Bausells, writing in the Guardian,describes his success and prescience:

TreeHugger

Waste Management

AskNature: How do you manage waste?

It’s not pretty, but waste is an inevitable byproduct of life. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and sometimes the outcome is waste. Developments we’re making in health, technology, engineering and practically every other industry have enabled our societies to advance exponentially.

GreenBiz

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