Capital Upgrades & Retrofits

healthcare facilities 

Guidelines inform resilient healthcare facilities 

Newly released guidelines offer a standard for approaching the planning and designing of healthcare facilities from a resiliency perspective.
healthy

How to provide healthy environments & meet climate goals

Three key lessons for making buildings energy- and carbon-efficient and healthy.
campus

Campus high-rise brings health to new heights

Dingy is a word that conjures thoughts of old institutional spaces. Academic buildings with dimly-lit hallways and windowless classrooms punctured with fluorescent glare. Rarely are
status quo stymies innovative retrofit options

Status quo stymies innovative retrofit options

Prevailing approaches for incentivizing, financing and implementing retrofit projects deemed unlikely to propel the existing building inventory to net-zero emissions by 2050.
Retrofit proponents must contribute 20 per cent equity capital to tap into the Canada Infrastructure Bank's fund for commercial buildings

Retrofit funds tied to equity capital prereq

Retrofit proponents unable to contribute at least $6.25 million in equity capital will have to look to third-party interveners in order to tap into the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s $2-billion fund for commercial buildings.
net zero

Reaching net zero in the age of COVID-19

Optimizing ventilation and air handling systems is key to achieving net zero energy performance goals.
Indigenous

Indigenous voices hushed in planning processes

Indigenous communities across Canada continue to be sidelined or completely excluded from initial planning phases of new developments and renovations.
zero carbon

Ottawa hockey facility a zero carbon first

How AMPED Sports Lab and Ice Complex in Ottawa, Ontario, became the first Zero Carbon Building Performance Standard certified arena.
VRCA trades

Vancouver’s largest seismically safe school underway

Construction has begun on Eric Hamber Secondary school, the largest seismic school replacement project in Vancouver’s history.
FM

Pandemic intensifies evolving role of FM

Facility managers are no longer viewed as a back-office function, but rather “a strategic instrument to attract and retain talent and create a great experience,”
low-carbon

Can purchases help reverse global warming?

When considering products with recycled content, pay attention to the types of recycled materials that are in them.
Mass retrofit model set for low-rise trial

Community buildings targeted for retrofit funds

Two distinct, but complementary new federal programs promise funds for community buildings. Both are focused on meeting GHG reduction targets and are aligned with a pledge to invest $15 billion to address climate change and boost the green economy.
COVID-19 related investment announced in fall economic statement

COVID-19 related investment unveiled

The commercial real estate, facilities management and construction/retrofit sectors appear poised to capture a share of the spending announced in the Canadian government’s fall economic statement.
energy retrofits

Feds to invest $2 billion in energy retrofits

A promised $2 billion investment in large-scale building retrofits will be central to the Canadian government’s job creation ambitions. Energy efficiency champions have plenty of ideas of how and where the funds could be best leveraged.
circadian lighting

Circadian lighting improves seniors’ daily routines

Circadian lighting plays a special role in facilities management as long-term care homes and schools increasingly look to enhance wellbeing among seniors and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
embodied carbon

An embodied carbon primer for facility managers

Facility management affects a significant component of total lifetime embodied carbon.
zero carbon

Blazing a trail for zero carbon in Nova Scotia

The zero carbon project marks an evolution in warehouses and, more broadly, the potential for a lower-emitting industrial sector.