Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

Wow.  Two weeks ago I posted a short film I did with Patrick Benson on LA's tenuous relationship with water.  And as I often do weekly, I posted the link to most of the LinkedIn groups to which I belong.  From a bird's eye view, the results were interesting:  I think few actually watched the film, but I sure got a lot of comments based on my title, which was "Is water really the next oil?"

This site is a huge fan of dimethyl ether, or DME, and with all the fuss over solar, wind, and even algae, DME is one option often overlooked.  It's clean burning and has applications from cooking fuel to running buses and trucks.  Renewable energy advocates often overlook DME, a by-product of natural gas production, coal extraction, and biomass production.  While the feedstocks necessary are ubiquitous, DME often is not, except in China.  One company in British Columbia, however, has ambitious plans to market DME, and will be a company to watch for the next several years. (more...)

Mention British Columbia, and you might think of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.  There’s so much more to BC:  including more movies that used to be filmed in Hollywood, Okanagan Valley wines, salmon and timber, and yes, Sarah Palin, that long border it shares with Alaska.  But BC is also becoming a leader in a lucrative business:  organic hops.

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I’ve been to most large North American cities, and I have to say Ottawa has one of the more impressive recycling programs.  The city of Ottawa is hard on its citizens:  according to its data, Ottawa residents are in the middle of the pack, behind Halifax and Edmonton but ahead of Calgary and Montreal.  Here’s where I give Ottawa high marks: (more...)

One highlight of Ottawa lies outside of the city limits.  Cross the Ottawa River into Quebec, and less than 10 miles from the city’s center is Gatineau Park, which shocks you with its beauty, tranquility, and recreation opportunities.  Hiking through Gatineau Park on Sunday, I had no idea we were close to a city of one million people. (more...)

There are two things you should try in Canada that are hard to find south of the border.  First, peameal bacon, which is a lean cut of pork, similar to uncured ham, and great on a sandwich or with eggs.  Next, there’s poutine, the most pleasurable guilt:  French fries with cheese curds and gravy.  You’ll either love it or loath it.  A calorie bomb, you should only have it once per trip.  In Ottawa, “chip wagons” are scattered around the city, parked on street corners offering hot dogs and decadent poutine.  Now here’s one question I have:  where does all that used cooking oil go? (more...)

As Ottawa's population grows, districts once in decline are making a huge comeback.  Wellington Village, on Ottawa's west end, was considered gritty and lacked shops and services earlier this decade.  Now, this neighborhood, where I've been staying the past week, is thriving.  Shops and restaurants have moved in, homeowners have purchased homes and beautifully refurbished them, and buildings once vacant are now full of lofts and condos.  On Holland and Wellington is one stellar example of high density building using green construction standards:  The Currents. (more...)

Many cities are begging for stimulus funds for transportation projects, which, I'm afraid, could end up with buses and trains going nowhere.  Ottawa serves as a model of what works when investing in transportation projects.  For a city of 1,000,000, Canada's capital has a transportation system that is relatively cost effective and convenient. (more...)

We are very removed from our food sources.  Few of us have visited a farm.   We almost believe that apples really do come from those perfectly contoured plastic packages, and that uniform slabs of steak in a store's meat section is just the way meat develops.  But imagine if you had a farm in the middle of your city that could clue you in to the daily operations of farms and ranches.  There is such a place in the middle of Ottawa and its one million residents. (more...)

GreenGoPost will be in Ottawa for the coming week.  Yes, that’s Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  Many of us south of the border tend to refer to Canada as a whole, but that would be like saying, “Oh, I’m going to the US,” and therefore lumping Hawaii, Maine, Texas, and the Dakotas together.  You’ve got the oil riches of Alberta; rural prairies of Saskatchewan and Manitoba; sophisticated urban centers like Toronto and Montreal; very British Victoria; very French Quebec City; the remote Maritimes; and St. John and St. John’s, in different provinces that I can never remember. (more...)

The problem with many renewable energy products is that they are just too expensive.  It’s not PC to say this, but in the end, market forces to matter.  Customers rule the market:  and like your economics professor would mention, get those two supply and demand curves to align, and then you’ve got a market.

Take the case of the Canadian wartime homes.  Many of these homes have seen better days, but there are still a million of these homes throughout Canada.  Built quickly to house Canadian manufacturing workers during World War II, they offer a huge opportunity for green-friendly retrofitting.

There’s a problem, however–in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detriot, the average price of these homes are well under CAD$100,000.  The price to remodel a home and make it carbon-neutral is . . . CAD$85,000. Ouch.

But as the news report states . . . go back to what your economics professor said . . . the cost could be brought down significantly if there were economies of scale.  Translation:  volume!  The more solar panels, insulation, LEED-certified building materials, etc., are produced, the more the cost goes down.

Second, government incentives help.  We pay energy taxes . . . why not get those back and even more by having a house that doesn’t sap from the electrical grid–but actually could even ADD to it?

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