REMI

Conservation Measures

energy retrofits

Canadian Property Management

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.
summer peak demand unexpected in electricity system models

CondoBusiness

COVID-19 confounds electricity system models

After scrambling to recalibrate their models in the early days of COVID-19-related shutdowns, analysts with Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator faced more uncharted territory when the hot weather arrived.
circadian lighting

Canadian Facility Management & Design

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.
zero carbon

Canadian Facility Management & Design

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.
Input sought on quantifying life cycle GHGs

Canadian Property Management

Ontario consults on next conservation framework

Residential consumption is identified as a primary concern and opportunity for the 2021-24 period, along with a continued emphasis on reducing system-wide peak demand
Many hydro accounts for common areas in large multi-residential buildings will no longer qualify for the Ontario Electricity Rebate as of November 2020

CondoBusiness

Ontario Electricity Rebate applied unevenly

Many hydro accounts specifically tied to the common areas of multi-residential buildings will no longer qualify for the 31.8 per cent rebate beginning in November 2020.
energy management paybacks

Canadian Property Management

Ontario stalls energy management paybacks

A temporary adjustment to Ontario’s electricity pricing scheme eliminates cost-saving opportunities that many operators of large commercial buildings were anticipating this summer.
Sunnybrook Hospital

Canadian Facility Management & Design

Sunnybrook Hospital abuzz with beekeeping first

Sunnybrook Hospital has become the first healthcare facility in Toronto to welcome honeybees to its 100-acre property.
Toronto

CondoBusiness

Are condos prepared for climate change?

While many condos haven’t yet experienced the major effects of climate change, statistics and case studies foreshadow the impacts that could come.
Public disclosure of energy use and GHG intensity holds little appeal for building owners concerned about uninformed scrutiny

Canadian Property Management

Public disclosure could foil energy reporting

The City of Winnipeg has invited commercial building owners and institutional facility managers to affix their Energy Star Portfolio Manager results on a publicly accessible map.
Proposal for mandatory airtightness testing withdrawn from pending 2020 version of National Energy Code

Canadian Property Management

Canada wavers on airtightness testing

The timing might have been opportune for uptake of the measure — provided it was adopted into provincial and territorial building codes — because it would have applied broadly in what is currently Canada’s most buoyant commercial real estate sector.
COVID-19 repercussions driving up global adjustment costs for commercial electricity customers

Canadian Property Management

COVID-19 incubates global adjustment 2021-22

For Class A consumers, cost-saving potential will be diminished even if they successfully curtail demand during the five peak hours since those peaks are expected to be lower than usual.
Ontario to offset electricity costs with fixed rate for global adjustment in April, May and June

Canadian Property Management

Ontario to temporarily offset electricity costs

Commercial and industrial electricity customers will pay the differential above 11.5 cents per kilowatt-hour in added monthly increments beginning in January 2021.
Ontario electricity prices hold steady despite dropping demand

Canadian Property Management

Ontario electricity prices flout sliding demand

Despite a steep drop in province-wide energy consumption due to COVID-19 triggered business shutdowns, many building owners/managers expect a more modest flow-through dip in operating costs.
first responders

Canadian Facility Management & Design

A new home for first responders in Delta, B.C.

The facility brings together a multi-purpose satellite fire station, a live-fire training building, and a municipal emergency operations centre.
energy demand load

Canadian Property Management

Energy demand load shifts to residential base

The energy demand load has shifted in sync with much of Ontario’s workforce from commercial to home offices, prompting calls for suspension of time-of-use pricing during the current COVID-19 related upheaval
permacity

Design Quarterly

Permacity: the next generation buildings

A2M shared their vision for the future of architecture – a concept called the permacity – at the Buildex architecture keynote in Vancouver.