CityLimits.org
April 13, 2011

Reducing NYC’s Carbon Footprint: Do We Know Our Shoe Size?

Ahead of this week’s Regional Plan Association annual assembly on “Innovation and the Global City,” an environmental thinker says more data is needed to direct efforts at greening New York and other cities.

There is much talk these days of a low-carbon economy, creating green jobs, and a new market in energy efficiency retrofit funding. For all the good intentions, many programs are having trouble getting off the ground. There is a lack of infrastructure but, most importantly, an absence of underlying data, indexes, and benchmarks that are essential for the development of any modern economy or market.

When a government sets out to develop an economic policy, among the first things it usually looks at are indexes. If a government is setting interest rates it will look at inflation, the rate of increase in the Consumer Price Index. If it is taking measures that will affect jobs, the government looks at unemployment indexes. If it is adjusting state benefits or pension fund rates, it will look at the retail or Consumer Price Index.

Canadian Design and Construction Report
March 29, 2011

If asked to name major climate change contributors, most people could easily name a few things - cars, for example, or deforestation. These certainly play a role in global warming. Most people, however, would overlook a large contributor of greenhouse gases in many countries: buildings. The operational inefficiency of buildings, especially commercial ones, is often overlooked as a major part of out climate change problem. While SUVs, the poster-child of wastefulness in recent years, account for about three per cent of North America’s CO2 emissions, the ongoing operation of buildings accounts for about 40 per cent on average. In New York this number is as high as 79 per cent.

While buildings are a significant part of the problem, this also means they are a key part of the solution. The creativity and expertise of the professionals that make up the building community is an important asset in mitigating global warming, particularly their ability to design and advance new technologies. Rebuilding entire cities is not the most practical, nor the greenest solution - besides being disruptive, it also creates a lot of building waste - but technological innovations can reinvent cities without having to rebuild them. 

Inside Toronto
Jun 01, 2010

Agents of change colour Jane-Finch green, By: Danielle Milley

The Jane and Finch neighbourhood has been busy creating agents of change - green change. The Jane-Finch Community Family Centre began the Green Change project a year ago and it has gone very well. “It’s been a very successful year because residents embraced the project so well,” said Rosemarie Powell of the centre.

Air Canada and Zerofootprint Expand Voluntary Carbon Offset Program

TORONTO, ONTARIO—updated 06/08/10—Air Canada, the largest full-service airline in Canada, and Zerofootprint, a leading organization in the global fight against climate change, today announced the expansion of the bilingual Voluntary Carbon Offset program, providing customers that want to minimize the environmental impact of their air travel with two new carbon offsets projects.

Canadian Green Tech
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 08:17

Zerofootprint enables Toronto community to significantly reduce carbon emissions, Energy Conservation
Written by Perry Hoffman

From: http://www.canadiangreentech.ca (Subscription Required)

Last month, the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre won the Green Toronto Award in Community Projects for being able to abate 2,000 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2009. By winning the award, the low-income, densely populated area of about 80,000 residents showed that with the proper tools, fighting climate change can be done on a shoestring budget.

Zerofootprint Partners With UN Habitat
03.25.10, 03:05 PM EDT

TORONTO and RIO DE JANEIRO, March 25 /PRNewswire/—(World Urban Forum 5)—Zerofootprint, a leading organization in the global fight against climate change, today announced it is one of the first seven partners chosen to join the United Nation-Habitat’s World Urban Campaign (WUC).

treehugger
03.29.10

First Re-Skinning Awards From Zerofootprint
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto in Design & Architecture

Aidlin Darling Architects: “an historic and previously derelict turn-of-the-century industrial building now refurbished to be as beautiful as it is energy efficient.”

inhabitat
03/25/10

Stunning Zinc-Skinned Office Wins 2010 Zerofootprint Award
by Bridgette Meinhold

Zerofootprint holds an annual competition for renovated buildings that showcase the most successful, holistic retrofitting projects of the year.

bustler
Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010

Winners of ZEROprize / Re-Skinning Awards 2010 Announced

Zerofootprint recently announced the five winners of the Re-Skinning Award 2010. The Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Award is meant to attract state-of-the-art retrofitted and re-skinned buildings that are exceptional, but do not meet the performance standards of the ZEROprize.

lfpress.com
January 20, 2010

Mayor’s State of the City Address - London Convention Centre

[Excerpt:] While we are designing a range of new programs, now is the time to hear from you. We need your input on our proposed ideas, and your own suggestions about what we can do in our homes, our communities, our transportation and our economy. RETHINK Energy London is supported by a wide range of tools, including an on-line discussion forum, web surveys, videos and a great tool for measuring your carbon footprint, which was launched last year.