Capital Upgrades & Retrofits
A recap of IFMA’s World Workplace
In the past, cleaning suppliers, landscapers, and pest control companies dominated FM shows. Not anymore.
Ontario boosts energy efficiency spending
The Ontario government has pledged $342 million in additional energy efficiency spending to be rolled out between the spring of 2023 and the end of 2024.
Designing the shopping experience of the future
New theories on retail centre on how experiences, convenience and a sense of community can draw people to a physical site.
Deep retrofit logistics trip up on key products
Few of the existing building technologies projected to help dramatically curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have yet conquered their market categories
Quebec budget boosts climate action spending
The budget also includes $232.5 million over five years to help universities and colleges rent additional space and $43 million to underwrite an extra 1,600 subsidized units in private rental housing.
Canadian school districts build for healthier environments
The schools installed future-ready infrastructure improvements for healthier, more sustainable learning environments.
York Region piloting Passive House at new facility
A new men's emergency and transitional housing facility, set to rise in Aurora, Ontario, has opened the door to pilot-testing Passive House in York Region.
Accessibility carries a simple business case
Many commercial real estate operators are making the simple business case for buildings that are functional for all potential users. It’s a quest that can begin with simple investigations, simple low-cost measures and simple mindfulness.
Guidelines inform resilient healthcare facilities
Newly released guidelines offer a standard for approaching the planning and designing of healthcare facilities from a resiliency perspective.
How to provide healthy environments & meet climate goals
Three key lessons for making buildings energy- and carbon-efficient and healthy.
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
Prevailing approaches for incentivizing, financing and implementing retrofit projects deemed unlikely to propel the existing building inventory to net-zero emissions by 2050.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.