• TOMORROW
• WINNIPEG'S BUILDING ENERGY DISCLOSURE PROJECT
• NOVEMBER'S LUNCH AND LEARN
• CARBON TAX IN MANITOBA
• NATURAL GAS RATES INCREASE
• FREE BRACE/MCRT COURSERS OFFERED THIS WINTER
• MANITOBA COMMUNITY RECYCLING & WASTE REDUCTION FORUM
• MEIA EMERGING ISSUES CONFERENCE
• MANITOBA WOMEN IN TRADES
• PODCAST RECOMMENDATION
• SBM MEMBERSHIP

TOMORROW

For this year's fourth and final virtual building tour, we're going international and heading down to Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Folks seeking alternatives to LEED certification, this is your chance to learn about the Living Building Challenge.

In the design of the studio, the decision to pursue building within the Materials Petal framework via the Living Building Challenge followed from MSR Design's industry leadership related to healthy and sustainable materials. MSR Design wanted every material choice in their industry to be a good choice and has developed guidelines around transparency, sustainability, and health for the firm’s own materials library.

The team set an initial embodied carbon target of 10 lbs/sqft CO2e and was able ultimately able to achieve 8.67 lbs/sqft.

You'll also hear about the air-quality monitoring that took place during construction - something very relevant now in an age of COVID.

• Building Name: 510 Marquette-MSR Design Studio
• Building Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Year Built: 2019
• Key Sustainable Feature: LBC Petal Certification: Materials, Beauty and Equity
• Building Use: Workplace

Two principles of the Living Building Challenge:

1. Living Building Challenge compliance is based on actual, rather than modelled or anticipated, performance. Therefore, projects must be operational for at least twelve consecutive months prior to an audit to verify Imperative compliance.

2. All Living Building Challenge projects must be holistic—addressing aspects of all seven Petals through the Core Imperatives.

Join to see the materials selected up close. Learn about the planning, the role of embodied carbon calculations and more about the Living Building Challenge.

TOUR GUIDES - Traci Lesneski, Rhys MacPherson, Simona Fischer - MSR Design

Thanks to event sponsor Duxton Windows for helping to make these tours happen.

Members get 50% off. Free for Student Members

WINNIPEG'S BUILDING ENERGY DISCLOSURE PROJECT

• map of all the buildings
• all the information and metrics on Open Data

Participating buildings receive a scorecard once a year.

The 2020 annual report has been released.  It features:

• Detailed results of energy use by building type
• Case studies
  • Kenaston Liquor Mart
  • Canadian Museum for Human Rights
  • Sir William Stephenson Library

• Key Findings & Lessons Learned
  • Leveraging the direct connection and data management capacity of Manitoba Hydro is essential
  • Complete performance data enables easier building to building comparisons
  • Building types with higher EUI values typically have high GHG emissions intensity values - except for buildings that are fully electric
  • To encourage participation, administrative and resource support for participants is critical
• Next Steps
  • Additional initiative outreach and engagement to be conducted, including enhanced partnerships with industry associations and government organizations
  • Leveraging the direct data connection capabilities of Manitoba Hydro and ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager for new participants
  • Continued support and alignment with City's overall sustainability plans and goals and Provincial goals and regulation

Participation is voluntary and is open to multiple types of commercial and institutional buildings that meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Located within the City of Winnipeg limits
• A minimum of 20,000 square feet (smaller sizes will be considered for Public Sector Organizations (PSO) or other interested building types)
• Come under the definition of any commercial or institutional building categorization as defined by the project guide
• Willing to share the full energy profile of participating buildings through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®

NOVEMBER'S LUNCH AND LEARN

Join the next Lunch and Learn
SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION, RENOVATION AND DEMOLITION WASTE
October 18th - noon

Did you know that according to Statistics Canada, construction, renovation and demolition waste accounts for about 12% of all solid waste generated in Canada? Or that only an estimated 16 percent of construction waste is reclaimed?

In July 2009 the Waste Reduction and Recycling Support (WRARS) Program was established to improve Manitoba's waste diversion rate, encourage sustainable waste management practices and enhance municipal waste diversion activities via $10 per tonne levy.

Join to hear some perspectives on how it is working and if there are any plans to change it.

The City of Winnipeg’s standing policy committee on Property and Development, Heritage and Downtown Development, pushed by groups like Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, ordered a report on how to become more robust when it comes to recycling programs for construction waste such as asphalt, pavement and crushed concrete.

Join to learn some thoughts on the outcomes of this report and how it might impact you.

Curious to know more about the broader challenges and opportunities related to Construction, Renovation and Demolition (CRD) waste diversion?

Join to identify and be able to pursue opportunities for reducing, recycling and/or diverting construction, renovation and demolition waste.

SPEAKER BIO

Mike Fernandes owns and operates StrategyMakers Consulting Inc. providing strategic advisory and project management support services to governments, public sector agencies, non-profit organizations and small and medium-sized businesses primarily in two areas of specialty: environmental sustainability & organizational strategy, management and leadership.

Over his 25+ year career, Mike has successfully completed numerous projects in a wide range of sectors both within Manitoba and across Canada. Mike holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Economics from the University of Winnipeg, an M.B.A. from the IH Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, and a “no formal certificate, but plenty of valuable lessons” from the school of running your own small business.

Members get 50% off and are free for students.

CARBON TAX IN MANITOBA

The Manitoba government has lost a two-year-long court battle against the federal government's carbon pricing plan.

A Federal Court judge has rejected Manitoba's argument that Ottawa should not have imposed an escalating minimum price on carbon, because the province was planning its own emissions plan that could have been just as effective.

"The [Ottawa] decisions were consistent with the statutory purpose of reducing [greenhouse gas] emissions by putting a price on them," Justice Richard Mosely wrote in a judgment released Tuesday.

"The inclusion of Manitoba on the list [of provinces subject to federally imposed pricing] was consistent with the statutory purpose and the guideline of ensuring that emissions pricing is applied broadly in Canada."

NATURAL GAS RATES INCREASE

"Natural gas storage levels remain below average, in part due to lower production that was further affected after Hurricane Ida moved through the Gulf of Mexico's oil and gas producing region, As well, there is strong demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to both Asia and Europe. These market conditions are pushing gas market prices upward across North America and globally."

The change does not affect people who have fixed-price contracts with Centra Gas or third parties.

The regulator says this is the biggest increase in many years and Centra Gas should continue to work with customers who might struggle to pay their bills.  Efficiency Manitoba does have an "Energy Efficiency Assistance Program" for free energy efficiency upgrades for income-qualifying households.

FREE BRACE/MCRT COURSERS OFFERED THIS WINTER

• Infrastructure Climate Risk Assessment and How to Conduct an Assessment Featuring PIEVC
• An Introduction to Climate Change through Codes, Standards, and Regulations
• Nature-based Infrastructure Solutions to Enhance Resilience

• Core Principles in Climate Change Risk Assessment
• Indigenous-led Climate Change Solutions
• Communicating Climate Change
• Business Continuity Planning and Climate Change
• An introduction to Cost-benefit Analysis

MANITOBA COMMUNITY RECYCLING & WASTE REDUCTION FORUM

MEIA EMERGING ISSUES CONFERENCE

Wednesday, November 24
8:00 am – 4:30 pm with a cocktail reception to follow
Canad Inns Destination Centre Polo Park 1405 St Matthews Ave

Featuring Keynote Speaker Linda Coady, Executive Director of the Pembina Institute, this year’s conference will focus on pathways to a net-zero future, focusing on the following topics:

• Environmental Social Governance
• Economic and Environmental Recovery
• Indigenous Pathways to Sustainability
• The Next Generation: Students in Environmental Studies
• Local Examples of Net-Zero and Carbon Greenhouse Gas Awareness

MANITOBA WOMEN IN TRADES

PODCAST RECOMMENDATION

It’s official, Minneapolis is implementing a Time of Sale Energy Disclosure program, which takes effect on January 15, 2020. For today’s episode, we invited Structure Tech home inspector and Minneapolis Truth-in-Sale of Housing Evaluator George Ury onto the show to help discuss this new program. We explain why the program is happening, the nuances of the program, the stuff we don’t yet know, and how this will affect people selling their homes in Minneapolis.

SBM MEMBERSHIP