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Shopify buys 50,000 tonnes of carbon offsets

2 years ago

E-commerce giant Shopify has purchased 50,000 tonnes of carbon offsets over a 100-year period from the reforestation company DroneSeed.

Creative Energy has begun drilling to install a geo-exchange community energy system at Minto’s North Oak Towers at the Oakvillage development in Oakville, just west of Toronto.

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The governments of Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta have put forward a nuclear plan they say will move them toward cleaner energy. The first 300-megawatt plant is to be built in Darlington, Ont., east of Toronto, by 2028.

Canadian electric vehicle technology company FLO has introduced a Level-2 charger which it says is the most powerful on the North American market, charging vehicles up to 2.7 times faster than existing systems.

Sustainable Biz Canada

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A U of T expert suggests that policymakers and planners need to look for ways to incentivize and design lower carbon structural materials as builders constructing energy-efficient buildings continue to search for assistance and product to lower their footprint.

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Steel and cement — the next big challenge over the next decade or more facing the construction industry is how to wrestle those emissions to net-zero without causing the price of building anything larger than an outhouse to soar beyond reach.

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OPINION: Because of a false choice between two extreme design philosophies: either build impossibly expensive earthquake-proof buildings or accept inexpensive ones and damage short of collapse, developers ignore the resilient middle road balancing upfront cost with long-term risk reduction.

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A new report that examined the impact of extreme weather-related floods on housing sales in five Canadian communities over the past eight years concluded they pushed down prices of the dwellings by an average of 8.2 per cent.

Energy Profiles

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Worldwide — and in Canada — there is a fledgling architectural movement that is pushing the envelope of green construction beyond simply structure or mechanical elements and right into the bushes in a bid to moderate climate change impact.

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Global food systems haven’t been spared from disruption as international crises persist. Now more than ever, solutions to reduce emissions and increase sequestration in agriculture need to be leveraged — that is, if more companies step up to the plate.

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Ontario conservationists are criticizing recommended changes to Greenbelt protections, saying they don’t go far enough. The province is proposing the addition of 13 urban river valleys to the Greenbelt, a horseshoe-shaped swath of protected farmland, wetlands and watersheds around Toronto.

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According to Michael Pidwirny, a climate scientist from the UBC Okanagan, projections suggest coastal mountains — including Mount Washington, Cypress Bowl and others — will face steep declines in snowfall by mid-century. Now, B.C. resorts are trying to flip the script.

Anchor Corp

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Most investors understand that the energy market is susceptible to unpredictable swings. That holds double for the renewable energy sector, which isn’t just sensitive to overarching energy price swings but to political support for greener technologies.

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Carbon emissions from electricity will fall in the U.S. through 2050, according to the EIA. It also predicts that coal’s share of US energy-related carbon emissions will decrease from 22 per cent in 2021 to 13 per cent in 2050.

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Bimbo Bakeries has signed a deal with GreenStruxure to design, build, own, operate and maintain microgrids at six of its locations. Made up of solar arrays and battery storage, the installation will reduce carbon emissions by 25 per cent.

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Renewable energy is emerging as an increasingly economically viable alternative for countries like Indonesia, where large fossil fuel plants that burn coal and natural gas doesn’t make economic sense.

Social Purpose Real Estate Financing

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Commercial building owners and their tenants are taking steps to meet employees’ shifting needs in a nearly-post-COVID world that is also confronting social and environmental change. Like many things, data is playing a critical role in return-to-work policies.

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As we witness an industry of sustainability professionals exploring new opportunities, interviewing at multiple places for multiple competing offers and counteroffers, companies look at ways to retain ESG talent. Here are 10 ways companies can pass the test.

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While focusing on big urban sources of pollution has helped scale up solutions like green bonds and reveal the need for new technologies such as green concrete, it has obscured the energy issues in rural America, according to a report.

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In some cases, the overbuilding of solar technology without consideration for rural communities is one of several factors that transformed wind and solar from one of the costliest ways to make electricity into the cheapest in most of the world.

Industry Events