Canada’s home energy retrofit funding woefully inadequate
Retrofitting existing buildings is one of the only tools for mitigating climate change that virtually everyone can agree on. There are large numbers of poorly insulated buildings using fossil fuels for water and space heating. Abandoning those buildings would be a…
2 high-rise towers in India demolished for violating laws
Two high-rise apartment towers in India were leveled to the ground in a controlled demolition on Sunday after the country’s top court declared them illegal for violating building norms, officials said. They became India’s tallest structures to be razed to the…
Nearly complete London, Ont., development put into receivership
A nearly complete mixed-use retail and residential rental project has been pushed into receivership in London, Ont., as its lender alleges construction delays blew up an initial $18-million construction budget and dozens of contractors claim millions in unpaid work. London’s Applewood…
Applications for Toronto’s Deep Retrofit Challenge are now open
The Deep Retrofit Challenge (the Challenge) is a competition-style program funded by the Federal Government, which will support deep retrofit projects that significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in approximately 10 to 16 buildings in Toronto. Participating buildings will receive a grant…
Construction industry says new bylaw changes will impact all
The Construction Association of Nova Scotia is frustrated by the outcome of the Halifax Regional Municipality’s Community Planning Economic Development Standing Committee (CPED) meeting on June 16. The HRM has changed the operating hours for construction projects from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.…
How Ottawa plans to launch a climate-friendly construction boom
Seven years after construction started, a 34-acre plot of once-contaminated industrial land in the middle of the Ottawa River is being celebrated as the most sustainable community in Canada. The master-planned development between downtown Ottawa and Gatineau, Que. uses post-industrial waste to heat…
Chinese propose to build a dam with a distributed 3D printer
A study recently published by a team of researchers at Beijing’s Tsinghua University has revealed plans to construct a 594-foot-tall dam using robots, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence. The researchers claim that no human labor needs to be directly employed in building this…
Report: Construction Industry Emission Targets Demand Electric Machines
Many major construction firms are now publishing both medium-term and long-term targets to reduce their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, outlining their commitment to support international efforts to mitigate global climate change. Though the carbon dioxide emissions from off-road construction vehicles…