David Premi has been invited to be a panel guest at the 2011 Retrofitting and Planning Sustainable Suburbs Conference.  David will participate on a panel which will include Toronto City Councillor Adam Vaughn; Karl R. Walsh, Director of Community Design, Planning Design and Development Department, City of Brampton; and Michael Whelan, Vice President, Development, Build [...]

Hamiton’s Raise the Hammer had a very good article recently, “The Cost of Sprawl“, written by David Steele and originally published in Buffalo Rising.  The article breaks down and compares the cost of sprawl-based development versus the cost of dense urban-based development of residential streets.  The numbers presented are definitely food for thought.

On November 10th, 2010  the CaGBC- Greater Toronto Chapter will be hosting a Green Building Tour!  PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. 
 This is a great chance to explore 4 different green sites in the GTA!  Sites on the itinerary are the Honda Headquarters, the Edithvale Community Centre, the Earth Rangers Centre, and a LEED Platinum Archtype House.  The [...]

The Hamilton Economic Summit is taking place today at the Hamilton Convention Centre.  For more information visit the Summit website.   While you’re there, don’t forget to participate in the poll which asks the question, “Does Hamilton Have Momentum?”

In 2009, Hamilton was selected as one of only five cities in Canada to participate in the Canada Walks Master Class Study.  An international team of experts arrived in Hamilton that summer to look at ways to ”support local action to deliver enhanced walking environments and enable people to walk more.”  The findings of this study was presented [...]

Edward Mazria, founder Architecture 2030, and John Podesta, president and CEO, Center for American Progress, co-chair Obama-Biden Transistion Project recently talked about the impact of sustainability on politics and the building industry.  THe discussions raise a number of interesting issues obout the future in general, and the importance of the construction industry in playing a [...]

A May 29th article by Ned Potter on ABC News’ website describes a vision of what cities might look like in the future. Future cities are predicted to be green: both on the ground and on the roofs, providing acreage for growing crops, reducing the need for storm sewers, and improving air quality. Further agricultural [...]

The United States Green Building Council today announced that it has posted a draft copy of the new LEED 2009 rating system to their website, with the intention of collecting public feedback over the next month.
The new and improved version of the often criticized LEED rating system, will increase the it’s emphasis on a building’s [...]

Yet another zero carbon city is planned, this time in Dubai. The architect is Sir Norman Foster, and the name of the 50,000 person community is Masdar City. It is a significant move for Dubai, who boast one of the largest per-capita carbon footprints in the world. Other similar projects are planned in China and [...]

As has been the case for some time, the perceived cost premium of building sustainably is largely fictional. The actual premium is negligible when considering all the life cycle cost benefits.
Read Full Article