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RioCan, Granite REITs issue $850M in green bonds

3 years ago

RioCan and Granite REITs have issued $850 million in green bonds as commercial real estate owners increase emphasis on environmental, social and governance initiatives. “It’s absolutely a growing field in Canada,” said RioCan senior vice-president and CFO Qi Tang.

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With federal plans being drawn up for unprecedented levels of public investment to help us recover from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, there is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to set Canadian businesses up for success.

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Elizabeth Yeampierre is co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance, a coalition of more than 70 organizations focused on addressing racial and economic inequities together with climate change, and for more than two decades has been engaged with this issue.

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The Government of Canada is at the forefront of critical international efforts to protect the marine environment. As the country with the longest coastline in the world, Canada spearheaded the Ocean Plastics Charter under its G7 presidency in 2018.

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Evidence is mounting for another form of COVID-19 virus transmission – through polluted air. This finding was first reported in March by a team of researchers in Italy. They found minute particles of the virus attach to particles in polluted air.

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The American Institute of Architects (AIA) released new resources to support employers, public officials, and design professionals with re-occupying buildings more safely after COVID-19 shutdowns. The initiative included a team of architects, public health experts, engineers, and facility managers.

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The BDC Network contacted 40 AEC and commercial real estate firms to get their experts’ thoughts about how their industry might come out of the pandemic. They were, in the main, cautiously optimistic, despite having seen projects delayed or postponed.

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Making our buildings future-ready calls for retrofitting with an understanding of climate change impacts. To protect occupant health and assets, a building retrofit must take into account both climate adaptation and mitigation measures, as well as how they interact.

Smart Density

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Urban planner Andy Yan senses an opportunity for cities to consistently decrease greenhouse-gas emissions, intrigued by the pandemic’s impact on a wide range of employees who no longer have to commute to work.

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Harnessing a build site’s stored energy can be achieved with the construction of geothermal systems which draw heat energy from deep below a building’s footprint, a technology currently being incorporated into two GTA condo developments.

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Municipal governments across Canada are moving quickly to create clearly marked bicycle lanes in order for people to travel safely through cities. Several cities have approved road closures, either partial or complete, as an emergency alternative to public transit.

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Canada has joined a small but growing group of countries, states, provinces, and cities pledging to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. And with transportation responsible for a quarter of the carbon pollution Canada produces, it represents a major area in need of smart solutions.

Yardi

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The coronavirus pandemic forced layoffs and spending cuts across the solar industry and hammered global electric vehicle sales. But startups serving the EV charging market have continued pulling in new investments in spite of the uncertainty.

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Global energy demand from cooling technologies is expected to triple by 2050, but the companies that make air conditioners and refrigerators are not innovating to rein in the sector’s monster carbon footprint, nor are they promoting their most energy-efficient products.

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The data centre industry consumes about as much power as the entire global airline industry. Research estimates ongoing power costs are growing at least 10 per cent per year due to cost-per-kilowatt-hour increases and underlying demand.

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Pandemic-fuelled online shopping and the massive amount of packaging involved has highlighted the substantial impact of paper-based packaging on the environment.  So 11 new companies, including Telus, have joined the initiative to increase the use of recycled and alternative fibres.

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Google will partner with WWF Sweden to help create an environmental data platform enabling more responsible sourcing decisions in the fashion industry, which accounts for 20 per cent of wastewater and two to eight per cent of global GHG emissions.

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Calls for economic recovery grounded in climate action are growing louder, from the head of the International Energy Agency to the International Monetary Fund chief, who said “we must do everything in our power to make it a green recovery.”

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With its reliance on heavy industry and its financing of coal-fired power, South Korea is an unlikely poster child for the low-carbon economy, but the East Asian nation is staking its claim to a leadership role in the transition.

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Climate change poses a systemic threat to the stability and competitiveness of U.S. financial markets, and regulators have the responsibility to better protect against that threat, according to a report from the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets.

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