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CaGBC makes financial case for building to zero carbon

5 years ago

While zero-carbon buildings can be a major contributor to Canada meeting its international commitment of a 30-per cent reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions below 2005 levels by 2030, they also make financial sense for developers, building owners and operators.

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Okanagan College now has two of the 14 LEED, Platinum-certified buildings in all of Canada’s post-secondary sector. Its new trades building in Kelowna is the second to be certified by the Canada Green Building Council, the first was the Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence in Penticton.

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When Canadian cleantech boosters talk about the opportunities a low-carbon economy can create, they often have in mind events like Prime Minister Trudeau’s press conference in Saguenay, Quebec, last May.

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Petro-Canada says it will begin to build fast-charging stations for electric vehicles from Nova Scotia to British Columbia this spring. It will install more than 50 of the stations along the Trans Canada Highway that will offer the highest levels of charging, called fast or level 3.

Energy Profiles

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The City of Montreal has announced two new programs aimed at protecting the environment and stimulating the economy. Land decontamination subsidies will be available for both municipal and private projects until the end of 2022, covering up to 70 per cent of their cost.

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A grassroots group has launched a petition that calls for the Décarie Expressway — a busy multi-lane trench that cuts through the city’s west end — to be covered with an eco-friendly roof topped with housing, parks, businesses and a bike path.  Mouvement Couvrons-Décarie suggests covering the congested, 55-year-old highway.

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Vancouver’s city council took another step towards the construction of a permanent plaza on the 800-block of Robson Street voting to approve over $5 million toward the project.

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The Lower Mainland’s food security, transportation links and power supplies are at risk if an estimated 42 percent of the Fraser Valley floods as a result of climate-change-induced spring runoffs, government documents say.

Green Alleys Montreal The softening our cities movement
Rachael Schutz just had to figure out how to remove the pavement. Doing so introduced her to a soften-our-cities movement in which cities are rethinking all that cement.

Alternet, February 20, 2019

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To more effectively combat climate change, it is past time that we rethink zoning. Late last year, Janna Levitt and Drew Adams began a conversation about this urgent question within the broader context of how our cities, neighbourhoods and buildings are created.

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The Alberta government has signed a 20-year deal that will see a private company build three solar power facilities that will double the province’s capacity. It will supply government properties with about 55 per cent of their electricity needs.

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Canada’s world leading renewable energy and clean technology capital markets offer a wealth of opportunity, with their access to local and global investors, finance opportunities for companies at all stages, and sophisticated technical know-how.

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Twenty-one state and private universities in New York State banded together to form a renewable energy purchasing coalition that plans to consider large-scale solar photovoltaic, wind, hydroelectric, and energy storage development projects.

BOMA BEST

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Amazon expects that 50% of all its shipments will be net zero carbon by 2030. “Shipment Zero” was announced this week in a blog post by Dave Clark, the company’s SVP of worldwide operations where he described how innovations can create a path to net zero carbon delivery of shipments.

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Yoder, 71, is deputy director of the county’s water and sewer department; his job is to think about how to defend the county’s fresh drinking water against the effects of climate change. A large man with an ambling gait, Yoder exudes the calm of somebody who’s lived with bad news for a long time.

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Swytch, a blockchain-based clean energy platform, recently conducted a survey of 1,000 employees in the U.S. who either currently work for or have worked for a company with over 5,000 employees to explore their sentiments around employers’ corporate sustainability activities.

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The Green New Deal has unleashed gale-force winds in Washington. President Trump immediately incorporated it into his new “socialism” riffs about Democrats, telling a crowd in El Paso, “I don’t like their policies of taking away your car, taking away your airplane flights,” or “you’re not allowed to own cows anymore.”

BOMA BEST - Building on Zero

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Buildings accounting for approximately one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions and consuming 40 per cent of global energy, there is an incredible opportunity to reduce the real estate industry’s overall environmental footprint – – placing investors and fund/asset managers at the forefront of impactful decision making.

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With the heightened awareness of climate change, wage disparities, gender inequality and the like, the effects of these and other environmental and social (E&S) issues are widespread, extending as far as topics like corporate governance and investing.

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