Sheena was at the Pembina Institute’s unGALA last Thursday. It was held in he Fermenting Cellar in the distillery district: a beautiful example of post-and-beam architecture. The theme was “Cowgirls and Cowboys ride herd on climate policy“ and there was certainly a lot to talk about what with an unusually mild — and grey — January.
Sustainable architecture encompasses the energy a building uses, as well as the materials used. Any reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions required to product a building will contribute to the global effort to fight climate change, immediately. This is the idea of doing things efficiently: accomplishing the same task with less energy allows us to either store, or…
Recent news (at least from our perspective) from Brazil: a drought stretches across their most populous province, Sao Paulo. Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira has said the country’s three most populous states are experiencing their worst drought since 1930. Expert consensus is building around deforestation as a major driver of this year’s drought and other…
This Thursday Sheena Sharp, a principal at Coolearth, and Trevor Nightingale, the Program Leader, High Performance Buildings at National Research Council will present a seminar entitled “Making Net-Zero Commercial Buildings a Reality”. From the Construct Canada Website: For the early adopters, it is typically not a simple ROI but rather there are often less tangible…
“Thank you for all your hard work. We have really enjoyed the process with you and we are pleased with the final plans. You are truly professionals and very knowledgeable in your field, and it has been more than pleasant dealing with you and your firm throughout.” Quote from the owners of this house. If…
Last week members of Coolearth visited Ryerson’s Rye’s HomeGrown, a roof top farm located on an Engineering building in downtown Toronto. The roof top farm was implemented in 2011 after an existing green roof became a pile of weeds and scrub. The students and administrators at Ryerson saw this as an opportunity to…
Expert architects wanted to inform National Building Code development on future wall design As innovation occurs in the field of wall design, research baselines supporting the Building Code and low carbon design require updating to reflect current practices. As part of a research project from the NRC, this is your chance to contribute your knowledge…