The Ontario government is proposing to open up a new financing option for energy and water efficiency upgrades in commercial and multifamily buildings.

Key federal departments are scrambling to catch up with climate risk assessments and response plans after the Auditor General of Canada uncovered gaps in monitoring and a slow rollout of adaptive actions.

A new stream of incentives to extract energy saving potential in Class B and C buildings dovetails with projections about their future competitiveness in a recovering office market.

The costs to achieve deep cuts in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions could crunch more favourably for capital budgeters with the promise of a green premium.

Canadian lenders may be reassessing the urgency of decarbonization, but they still express enthusiasm for the sustainable assets and impact investments that appear to be losing cachet in the United States.

Toronto could join the slate of North American jurisdictions that impose thresholds for allowable greenhouse gas emissions from buildings sometime later this year.

Ontario’s energy efficiency budget has been recharged with a pledged 12-year, $10.9-billion spending strategy that significantly boosts funding for commercial, industrial, institutional and residential electricity customers.

Artificial intelligence is proving useful for teaching old dogs new tricks in the existing buildings sector, finding energy savings and emissions reductions in advance of comprehensive retrofits.

Proposed new provincial legislation would strip municipalities of their ability to request a record of site condition (RSC) in specified circumstances where the risk of site contamination is deemed to be low.

An expanding roster of tech companies aligned with the sustainable and smart buildings market reflects growing demand from end-users and draws support from increasingly enthusiastic investors.

The Canadian government’s newly released green buildings strategy contains little that is actually new for commercial real estate or public sector facilities.

The cost case for salvaged steel looks promising even with an embryonic supply chain and a raft of logistical complexities to recover and then reuse structural members in new construction projects.

Ottawa landlords are contemplating a list of new expectations from a prized office tenant following recently announced updates to the federal government’s green operations strategy.

Real estate operators are looking to consultants, turnkey contractors and software for navigational assistance in developing and implementing decarbonization roadmaps.

Climate change adaptation measures are typically viewed as risk management rather than levers for investment returns, but they are inherently linked to building and portfolio value.

Toronto is backsliding on the upkeep of municipal facilities, with a state of good repair backlog that’s projected to surpass $1 billion this year and then continue accumulating to nearly $1.47 billion by 2033.

Daunting net zero targets in the buildings sector are spurring an all-in approach to decarbonization that assigns roles to finance, engineering, management and operational teams.