Hogtown Moves on Performance Rules for New and Existing Buildings
This past week, City of Toronto Council approved a Net Zero Existing Buildings Strategy to create a pathway towards mandatory emissions performance standards for buildings. Council also gave the nod to Version 4 of the Toronto Green Standard—the city’s sustainable-design rules for new construction. [Read our blog summary.]
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OPEN Technologies Recognized as Promising Startup
Best Startup Canada, a website and online community that seeks to connect investors with promising up-and-coming companies, named OPEN Technologies one of Vancouver's Top Energy Efficiency Companies for 2021. We're proud to be recognized alongside other Metro Vancouver innovators who are working to improve the built environment through smart technology.
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New Faces and New Roles
We've brought on some new people. Here is the latest from the OPEN Technologies team.
 Theo Christiaanse, Manager of Custom Software Solutions
The joined us following his post-doctoral fellowship at the Energy in Cities Group based at the University of Victoria. There he worked on a combination of physics-based building energy modelling, mixed integer linear programming optimization, data science, machine learning techniques, and evidence based public policy design. He is deeply passionate about sustainability, and developing models that capture multiple aspects of wicked problems in the built environment.
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 Alex Hammel, Director of Technology
Alex is the Director of Technology and OPEN, where he helps to build a diverse, high performing dev team. Originally trained in evolutionary biology, Alex has worked as a software developer and team lead in cancer research, data visualization, business communications and marketing technology. He is especially interested in functional programming, reliability in distributed systems, and building healthy work environments. In quieter moments, Alex enjoys running, chess, cooking for his family, and reading science fiction.
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 Alex Blue, board member, Open Green Building Society
Alex is a professional engineer who recently joined the board of OPEN Green Building Society, the non-profit arm of OPEN Technologies. In her day job as a Principal at Evoke Buildings Engineering, she works with designers and owners across North America to help design or retrofit their buildings to use less energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Her skills and experience in parametric energy modelling and visualization tools are a tremendous benefit to the OPEN team.
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New and Notable Events, Articles, and Reports
A few news stories, reports, opportunities, and other resources that recently caught our eye:
- The Government of Canada and the U.S. Environmental Performance Agency signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement on Energy Efficiency. The deal aims in part to ensure that ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager remains relevant to Canadian users.
- A new Efficiency Canada report argues that Canada's current approach to building retrofits is inadequate. The NGO instead outlines a policy framework “focused on triggering economies of scale and innovations to reduce costs, increase speed, and enhance value.”
- In a policy brief submitted to the Province of Nova Scotia, QUEST recommended the government actively encourage building owners to participate in the voluntary building benchmarking pilot program.
- Passive House Canada, in partnership with Tower Renewal Partnership, will host the first Tower Retrofit Symposium online in September.
- The City of Indianapolis, Indiana (pop. 864,447) will require owners of large commercial, multifamily, and industrial buildings to benchmark and report their energy and emissions.
- Facilities.net, a U.S. digital trade publication targeting facilities managers, published “How Building Performance Standards Are Addressing Climate Change.”
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