SABMag [Sustainable Architecture and Building Magazine]

21/05/2025

Extreme heat bylaws: Perspectives from a building retrofit manager
By Kaitlin Carroll
As Retrofit Services Manager at The Atmospheric Fund , a non-profit agency working on urban solutions to climate change, I work daily with tenants and housing providers, looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions affordably and to improve tenant comfort in their buildings. TAF’s recent policy brief on maximum temperature bylaws lays out various considerations for municipalities. Electric heat pumps are presented as the most affordable, lowest-carbon way to deliver home heating and cooling. They reduce energy costs because they operate much more efficiently than AC or gas heating. And installing a heat pump is one of the first, most important steps you can take to reduce carbon by getting gas heating out of a building. Read more …

Posted on April 10, 2025April 14, 2025 by Carine De PauwVIEWPOINT: Extreme heat bylaws: Perspectives from a building retrofit manager Photo: The “Field and Tree Sparroway Community” is a project in Toronto, specifically a retrofit initiative led by the Atmospheric Fund (TAF) and Toronto Communit...

21/05/2025

25 St Clair Avenue East Rehabilitation: Deep green retrofit a flagship model of fed’s sustainability commitments
By Charles Marshall, DIALOG
The rehabilitation of 25 St. Clair Avenue East in Toronto is a flagship project for the federal government, signifying its intention to reduce operating carbon emissions across its real estate portfolio while supporting the health and wellbeing of building occupants. Deep green retrofits are major projects that remake an existing building with the result of saving 30-50% or more in operating energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while targeting improved environmental quality and outcomes for human health. Deep retrofits represent an achievable approach to substantially reducing GHG emissions while improving quality of life for building occupants and the members of the surrounding community. The design team at Geo-Xergy Systems (https://sabmagazine.page.link/L7Tg ) worked with the architects to create an integrated geothermal heating and cooling solution which leverages the available energy of the ground source system to provide the highest efficiency in both heating and cooling.
Read more. https://sabmagazine.com/25-st-clair-avenue-east-rehabilitation/

Posted on April 10, 2025April 16, 2025 by Carine De Pauw25 St Clair Avenue East Rehabilitation Deep green retrofit a flagship model of fed’s sustainability commitmentsBy Charles MarshallThe rehabilitation of 25 St. Clair Avenue East in Toronto is a flagship project for the federal government; sign...

21/05/2025

Mackintosh Depot: City facility designed for function and energy efficiency
By Stephen Outerbridge, EXP Architects Inc.
The new Mackintosh Depot of the Halifax Regional Municipality replaces three existing buildings. The original mandate demanded a new 4,149 sq.m facility on two levels. During design the mandate changed by adding a third-floor office level to provide space for a fourth client group within the facility and increasing the footprint to 4,695 sq.m. Sustainability and longevity, low maintenance and high reliability solutions, with minimized effect on the environment, were paramount to the design outcome. Occupant wellbeing, acoustic comfort and privacy were also integrated, with accessible design.

The tilt-up concrete panels can be disassembled and the steel components recycled at the end of the building’s service life. The use of Halifax’s signature blue colours in the Aluminum Composite Panel system from PanelTech Exteriors (https://sabmagazine.page.link/W7XE) adds a contemporary flair to the industrial surroundings. A thermal-mass floor slab for in-floor heating is served by Crest commercial condensing boilers by Lochinvar (https://sabmagazine.page.link/MJXY).
Read more: https://issuu.com/sabmagazine/docs/atlanticspring2025/9

Atlantic Focus Spring 2025

18/11/2024

SABMag’s new 2025 Directory of Sustainable Products and Services for Sustainable, High-Performance Building [link to https://sabmagazine.com/product-directory/ ] has just been launched. Listings are organized by Product Category and by LEED Category. The Directory also offers a quick view of the structure of LEED and is a quick reference for finding products. Examples of featured listings include:
- Alberta Ecotrust: Retrofit Accelerator (https://sabmagazine.com/dir25/sy56 ) - We offer support for sustainable buildings in Alberta through: Free deep-retrofit coaching services for building owners via our Retrofit Accelerator program. Access to free resources for better building practices through our Emissions-Neutral Buildings Information Exchange (ENBIX).
- Evolve Builders Group Inc. (https://sabmagazine.com/dir25/jqby ) - CLIMATE CONSCIOUS CONSTRUCTION – 25 industry leading years; 35+ knowledgeable staff; 100s of inspiring projects. Passive House. Strawbale. Rammed Earth. Renovations. Test our reputation for expertise with costing, carbon calcs & construction on your next custom, high-performance, low-carbon home. Guelph KW – Grey County – GTA – Greater Sudbury.
- Green Building Initiative (GBI) (https://sabmagazine.com/dir25/iymo ) - Start your building on the journey to net zero. Evaluate performance. Implement change.
- Jeld-Wen. (https://sabmagazine.com/dir25/hxw6 ) - One of the world’s largest solution providers to the building products industry and one of Canada's most recognized Window and Door brands. We believe a home is more than just shelter, it’s your legacy. So we design and manufacture products that are innovative, energy efficient and of the highest quality to build lasting value for the homeowners and the professionals who use them.
- Tempeff (https://sabmagazine.com/dir25/plz6 ) - Building on over 20 years of European innovation, Tempeff is pleased to offer air to air Dual Core® energy recovery ventilation equipment with up to 90% energy efficiency in winter without any requirement for an energy robbing defrost strategy. In these times of escalating energy costs, and concern over environmental impact, Tempeff Dual Core® Technology is the highest efficiency solution available for your building ventilation needs.