According to Ron Bain, Co-Chair of the Southeast False Creek Stewardship Group, the City of Vancouver recently adopted tough green building standards for new civic buildings. Vancouver City Council approved the Green Building Strategy for the City of Vancouver at the Planning and Environment meeting on July 8, 2004. Vancouver City Council adopted a minimum requirement of LEED Gold for all new civic buildings greater than 500 square meters funded out of future Capital plans and a target of LEED Gold for Southeast False Creek, starting out with LEED Silver, and with the intent to move to formal LEED certification as a requirement as soon as possible. Just as significant was the addition of a resolution to ask staff to prepare a strategy to address current privately initiated green building applications outside of Southeast False Creek. LEED is a green building standard endorsed by APEGBC as the preferred method of environmental assessment for buildings in BC. See the links below for more information on LEED.
• from: City of Vancouver • in detail • see also: US Green Building Council XlnkS69B XlnkC178F

The USGBC is accepting poster submissions for Greenbuild, the USGBC’s Conference and Expo to be held November 10-12, 2004 in Portland, Oregon. Making the world a sustainable community is incumbent on the sharing of the best ideas. Your submission of a poster helps to ensure that worthy examples can be seen and spark critical discussion. Take advantage of this important opportunity to share your work and ideas with thousands of peers and potential clients. The selected Posters will receive considerable attention and prestige at Greenbuild and will be considered first by the 2005 Greenbuild Atlanta program committee for presenting in our 2005 learning sessions. All poster presenters will be afforded the opportunity to have their presentation (graphic representations or papers) included on the Greenbuild conference CD and each presenter will receive the reduced poster presenter registration rate of $350.00. See the weblink for more information.
weblink: Greenbuild Expo • from: USGBC – US Green Building Council • in detail XlnkS68F XlnkC180B

OTTAWA, May, 2004 – The Honourable Stephen Owen, Minister of Public Works and Government Services (PWGSC), announced today a series of initiatives and targets to transform the department’s operations and support the government’s commitments to sustainable development. The department is implementing a number of short- and long-term initiatives to demonstrate leadership in the area of sustainable development. “The guiding principle of these initiatives is sustainability which involves far more than ecological integrity, said Minister Owen. “It means adopting a global approach that supports our common economic, environmental and social objectives and that fundamentally changes the way we do business. By taking the lead on these measures, I am confident that we can obtain for Canadians the dividends they deserve.” Public Works and Government Services Canada will provide national leadership in the greening of government operations by: – ensuring that PWGSC’s real property holdings are 40 percent more energy and greenhouse gas efficient by March 2008 than in 1990. – aiming to achieve the LEED Gold/BREEAM Four Leaves or equivalent standard for all new PWGSC buildings by 2005. – introducing “green leases” to help move towards achieving the same environmental standards as for Crown-owned facilities, particularly in large, long-term leases. – beginning with orders for 2005 model vehicles, we will be phasing in low-emission vehicles as part of the normal replacement of the government fleet. “The Government of Canada’s goal is to become a model of environmental excellence in its own operations, said Minister Owen. “PWGSC will lead by example by taking the lead on many key initiatives. We are determined to build on our leadership role within government to become a nationally and internationally recognized leader in the promotion and implementation of innovative sustainable development and environmental practices.” PWGSC is the primary provider of common services to more than 100 federal departments and agencies. The department is committed to ensuring that the principles of sustainable development are reflected in all aspects of its role as a provider of services to its colleague departments and agencies, as a custodian of real property and in its own internal operations.
weblink: Public Works and Government Services Implement Sustainability • from: Government of Canada • in detail XlnkS68E XlnkC1908

Henry Hengeveld is a Senior Environment Canada Scientist and expert on Climate Change. Follow the link below to view the presentation he gave at the APEGBC Annual General Conference in October of 2003.
• from: Environment Canada • document: Hengeveld Climate Change presentation • in detail XlnkS61A XlnkC18A4