Dunrobin offers a model for community solar in Canada

Dunrobin offers a model for community solar in Canada

A large-scale project in rural west Ottawa is quickly becoming a model for community solar. The roof of a large storage facility near the village of Dunrobin features an installation of 1140 solar panels capable of generating 250 kilowatts. The facility is designed to help power a nearby high school and subdivision.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Calgary’s Lord Shaughnessy the greenest school in Canada

The Career and Technology Centre (CTC) at Calgary’s Lord Shaughnessy School has been named the Greenest School in Canada. The school received the award from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and the Canada Coalition for Green Schools.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Calgary plan earns LEED-ND Platinum in Canadian first

Calgary’s University District is not even built yet and already it’s scored one of the highest green certifications available. The 200-acre development in northwest Calgary, which will ultimately be home to some 17,000 people, became the largest residential project in Canadian history to earn LEED for Neighbourhood Development Platinum certification.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Five Canadian communities in danger from climate change

An island crumbling into the ocean. A city that could go up in flames. A traditional lifestyle at risk. Climate change is already having an impact in cities and towns across Canada.

CBC News

Canada fares poorly on sustainable city index

For all the conveniences that cities have to offer — from shorter commutes to neighborhood farmers markets — many are failing to meet the challenges of sustainable development, including three of Canada’s major urban centres.

Financial Post

Developer unbowed by B.C. utilities rejection of district energy

Developer Ian Gillespie says the B.C. Utilities Commission’s latest rejection of his proposed low-carbon district energy system for downtown Vancouver is but a “minor blip” in his overall plan to dramatically rewrite how homes and businesses are heated in the city. Gillespie bought a legacy natural gas central heat distribution system two years ago with a grand scheme to expand and convert it to biofuel.

Vancouver Sun

Vancouver looks to “green” gas for new construction

The City of Vancouver is clarifying its position on the use of natural gas in the construction of new homes and buildings. The response comes after accusations that the city had “banned” all natural gas from use in future buildings.

CBC News

Canada’s green building future is bright

In response to international climate change negotiations and mounting public pressure, provincial and federal governments have recently announced climate change plans that include green building as an essential part of their emission reduction strategies. This is in addition to over two dozen municipalities across Canada who have embraced green building as a part of their building policies over the past decade.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Top marks to Bentall Kennedy for sustainability in GRESB

When it comes to sustainable investing, Bentall Kennedy is far ahead of the curve. For the sixth consecutive year, the real estate services firm ranked among the top companies globally for its commitment to sustainable investing. Each year the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) measures the environmental, social and corporate governance of listed and private property funds.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Data management agency makes it mark on real estate

$271 Billion or 21 per cent of North American commercial real estate assets reporting to GRESB’s annual sustainability assessment used Measurabl for data management in 2016, making the real estate technology startup GRESB’s largest data contributor in North America.

PR Web

Business benefits are driving investments in healthier buildings: report

A Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and Dodge Data & Analytics report titled Healthier Buildings in Canada 2016: Transforming Building Design and Construction is revealing new information about the factors influencing Canada’s building owners, architects, designers, contractors and public health professionals in their decisions for adopting healthier building practices and features.

CaGBC News Release

Canada’s most sustainable buildings honoured

A redesigned century home, a new library and an urban high-rise that acts as a safe shelter for women fleeing abusive relationships are among the nine buildings cited as the most sustainable in Canada.

Sustainable Biz Canada

Event showcases energy efficient projects in Ottawa

Architect Mark Rosen is hoping that hundreds of strangers will tromp through his beautiful new “passive urban” house this weekend.

Ottawa Citizen

SaskPower ramps up solar power for communities

SaskPower says between 10,000-12,000 homes in Saskatchewan will be run on solar power by 2021, from a project aiming to deliver 60 megawatts. Some of that electricity should be reaching the grid by 2018.

CBC News

Edmonton Sustainable Development launches infill design competition

From skinny homes to garage suites, infill housing has proven to be one of the most divisive development issues in Edmonton. But the city is giving you a chance to cast your vote on how the city can best curb urban sprawl.

CBC News

Products, Technology and Design

Introducing the solar roofers

Solar shingles are now gaining increasing traction in the renewable energy landscape. They are architecturally distinctive, more so than traditional rooftop photovoltaic panels.

Green Building Elements

Smart electric meter market growing quickly

A new report from Navigant Research analyzes the global market opportunity for smart electric meters, with a focus on advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) communications technologies, including forecasts for smart electric meter installed bases, as well as shipments and associated revenue, through 2025.

Building Design + Construction

Market Trends and Research

More hard data needed on benefits of green buildings

There isn’t enough data available to indicate that, on average, “green buildings” save more energy than conventional buildings.

Green Biz

Healthy buildings priority for architects, developers

Almost three out of four of U.S. architects say the health impacts of buildings are influencing their design decisions, according to a survey by Dodge Data & Analytics in partnership with Delos and the Canada Green Building Council, and with assistance from the American Institute of Architects.

Building Design + Construction

Urban farming one trend ready to grow

Will the U.S. urban agricultural movement become mainstream? It’s certainly about to garner far more visibility, thanks to legislation proposed this week by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), a ranking member on the Senate’s committee for Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Green Biz

Municipal Policy and Urban Issues

Finance for tech slowing smart city growth

From the energy sources powering skyscrapers to the water flowing through underground sewers to food growing on urban plots of land, cities are increasingly a focal point of the resource scarcity challenges facing society at large.

Green Biz

Commercial Green Buildings

Biomass heat may replace oil at Yukon schools

Three Yukon schools could soon be burning wood chips instead of heating oil, as the territorial government considers a switch to biomass.

Yahoo News

NFL’s first LEED Platinum stadium scheduled for Atlanta

New sports stadiums and arenas are quickly becoming beacons of new technology, modern design, and sustainability. Take Mercedes-Benz stadium, for example. 

Building Design + Construction

Residential Green Buildings

Will green features sell a house?

Sumit Ajwani is gutting a house down to the studs. He wants the home, in Toronto’s Beaches, to be as energy efficient as possible. “When I say energy efficient, I don’t mean putting giant solar panels on the roof,” he says. “Quite the opposite. I mean not using that power in the first place.”

Globe and Mail

Passive technology comes to small house design

Small homes can have a bit more widespread appeal relative to tiny homes.

Treehugger

Green building ratings

New Westminster community centre project obtains LEED Gold

The city of New Westminster has received LEED gold certification for the Queensborough Community Centre expansion, three years after the project was complete.

Proud Green Building

Government Programs and Incentives

Ontario halts renewable energy procurement

Ontario will immediately suspend the second round of its Large Renewable Procurement (LRP II) process and the Energy-from-Waste Standard Offer Program, halting procurement of over 1,000 megawatts (MW) of solar, wind, hydroelectric, bioenergy and energy from waste projects.

Ontario Newsroom

Competition encourages energy efficiency in industrial buildings

Late last week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) announced that 12 companies met their goals in the Better Buildings, Better Plants program.

Energy Manager Today

Government Programs and Incentives

Green energy initiatives linked to rising power costs in Ontario

Wind farm opponents are telling companies jockeying for new Ontario green energy contracts to enjoy the moment — it’ll likely be their last chance.

National Post

Corporate Sustainability

Corporations discover community-scale solar

A new option for corporations interested in fuelling their operations with clean energy is arising: community-scale solar.

Green Biz

Cities and Towns

Solar, wind energy pitched for Arctic communities

A University of Waterloo study says bringing solar and wind energy to Canada’s remote Arctic communities is not only possible and environmentally beneficial, but it will also mean big savings.

CBC News

How to make cities more sustainable

Last year, all 193 countries represented at the United Nations formally agreed to a set of “Sustainable Development Goals.” These 17 “SDGs” are a non-binding framework to coordinate global development efforts over the next 15 years.

Citiescope

Transit, bikes and transportation

Newfoundland electric vehicle dealer wins top honours

Green Rock E.V.S., the only electric vehicle dealership in Newfoundland and Labrador has captured the Canadian Electric Vehicle Dealership Inspiration Award for the second year in a row from the Canadian Electricity Association.

The Telegram

Electric vehicles will reduce gas demand

According to a report released earlier this year by Wood Mackenzie, Tesla’s Model 3 will spur widespread adoption of electric vehicles, which will in turn reduce U.S. gasoline demand by 300,000 barrels per day by 2035.

Green Tech Media

U.S. releases new policy on driverless vehicles

“Automated vehicles have the potential to save thousands of lives, driving the single biggest leap in road safety that our country has ever taken,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Monday, announcing the federal government’s new policy for the safe testing and deployment of automated vehicles.

Environmental News Service

Self-driving cars some time off yet

When I was a kid, I loved Arthur Radebaugh’s wonderful series Closer than we think,with its predictions of what he thought was the relatively near future. It seems that we are living through an era of significant change that is closer than we think, particularly when it comes to issues like self-driving cars or autonomous vehicles (AVs).

Treehugger

Transportation gets a futuristic make-over

In the Scandanavian nation of Finland, an experiment on the future of transportation is underway. Think of it as Netflix for transportation options and you start to get the picture.

Green Biz

Water Management

More, natural stormwater management ponds needed

The more people go to the Ottawa River, the more we should care about its water quality, and the more we should think about the stormwater pipes that lead into it. There is a long way to go to bring the waters back to full health.

Ottawa Citizen

Canadian Rivers Institute dedicated to protecting Canada’s water

“There are real challenges facing our rivers,” said Deborah MacLatchy, Provost & Vice-President: Academic and a Professor of Biology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and member of the Canadian Rivers Institute (CRI).

Water Canada

Dartmouth fights unprecedented drought

Nova Scotia continues to experience the effects of a drought that’s been ongoing for the last two to three months. In Dartmouth, the Lake Major Water Treatment plant supplies a number of communities.

Water Canada

Canada should lead in ocean sustainability

Oceans feed the world. We often forget that for many emerging markets in Africa and Asia, fish represents more than 50 per cent of the total animal protein intake. Such a diet affects well over half the world’s population.

Waterloo Region Record

Waste Management

Ontario faces nuclear waste debate

It’s always a controversial topic and it’s headed our way. But North Bay City Councillor Mac Bain is confident that safety is top of mind as far as the transportation of nuclear material through North Bay is concerned.

Bay Today

Composting plant grapples with air quality concerns

The number of complaints about foul smells from a Richmond composting plant has increased in recent months, even as the facility’s owners have been in talks over a new permit that hinges on air-quality concerns.

Globe and Mail

Conference hears importance of recycling organics

Organics recycling is a “home run for the environment” and a national conference scheduled for Niagara Falls will outline why, says Susan Antler, executive director of the Compost Council of Canada.

Niagara Falls Review