The New Buildings Institute and Ecotope, Inc. recently found that poor operations and maintenance practices can increase the projected energy use by more than 50% in some climates. Though the maintenance operations were classified as poor, they were by no means atypical. Most interestingly, these researchers also found that occupant behaviour can increase the predicted … Continue reading
A recent Government Services Administration Study, in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, on 22 federal buildings found that green buildings use 25% less energy and 11% less water than standard federal buildings. They also found that occupants were 27% more satisfied in the green building. For more information see Inhabitat’s article here. For … Continue reading
Over 23,000 people attended Greenbuild this year in Toronto, the first time the U.S. Green Building Council’s annual conference and tradeshow took place outside of the US. After long discussions with the USGBC, this year also marked the first time there was a dedicated research track that included research and talks on the link between … Continue reading
Developers are concerned about the new green roof requirements just passed by the City of Toronto in May 2009. Part of their concern is that the green roof requirement will force them to forgo other green options. They are also concerned about the increasing height of many Toronto office and residential towers and the fact … Continue reading
Faced with competition from new office space which will be LEED accredited, many Toronto landlords are retrofitting their office buildings in an attempt to remain competitive. Landlords and building managers are responding to both increased tenant interest in a buidings environmental performance and energy and operation savings. Toronto currently has more retrofitting in its downtown … Continue reading
