Green Building & Design

Office properties set high ‘Green Standards’

Green Standards, a Toronto-based initiative that helps divert used office equipment from the landfill, is helping properties report sustainable efforts.

Race to Reduce reveals trailblazing results

CivicAction’s Race to Reduce, one of the largest smart energy office challenges in the world, honoured its top performers and revealed its stunning results.

Sustainable leaders rethink the ‘chase for points’

In the race to move from one building certification level to another, some industry leaders wonder if subscribers of such programs are truly being green.
REMI

Why LEED certification is becoming an essential

As LEED certification increasingly matters to tenants’ employees, sound environmental stewardship has moved from a nice-to-do to a must-do for many companies.

Tenant demand propels sustainable measures

The more human aspect of sustainability was the focus of a recent discussion on tenant demands for green space, at Toronto’s Green Real Estate Conference

Cultivating wellbeing in the built environment

Mental health, including depression, is the leading cause of short-term disability in the global workplace. In Canada, 50 per cent of short-term disability claims are

Extended phase-in for new LEED certification

LEED proponents will now have an extra 16 months to register projects under current criteria before the more rigorous LEED version 4 becomes mandatory in November 2016.

Energy-efficient glass in the “battle for the wall”

Since the introduction of legislation, like the Ontario Building Code’s SB-10 supplementary standard for large buildings and the B.C. Clean Energy Act, what once was

Green architectural style born of performance

Performance-driven design is taking shape in a new architectural style reflective of the green building movement.

The evolution of active design

Active design, the philosophy of designing to encourage physhical activity, responds to concerns about an increasingly unfit and overweight population.

Lights, cameras, repurpose

Although many of Toronto's historic theatres have closed, a significant number have new lives as party venues, retail stores and even fitness centres.

Creating a regenerative building in the GTA

Developers and designers of York Region's new Forest Stewardship and Education Centre aim to join a select group of just six properties worldwide to be fully certified through the Living Building Challenge.

The buzz around urban beekeeping

With more than 100 registered hives in Toronto alone, people are seeing the environmental benefits and economic possibilities around urban beekeeping.

Green roof benefits for buildings

Green roof benefits include better air quality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved storm water management and economic advantages.

Privately owned public spaces in Toronto

As density increases in cities and land for new parks becomes scarce, areas including Toronto are now looking to privately owned public spaces.

Outlining Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020 plan

Vancouver's Greenest City 2020 Action Plan aims to reduce solid waste going to the landfill and require new building to be carbon neutral from 2020 onward.

Competition driving green building momentum

Experts speaking at the Green Real Estate conference in Toronto said that green building competition is leading to incremental change in the suburbs.