Archives
Five birds, one stone: Improved transportation in Ontario
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on December 15, 2015
The adage ‘two birds with one stone’ is a bit outdated with the decline of hunting, and really, who uses a sling shot today? But the...
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UOIT Event: Post-COP21 Breakfast Briefing and Electric Vehicle Workshop
Posted by Michelle Cholak on December 10, 2015
On Thursday, January 7, 2016, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and Durham Strategic Energy Alliance (DSEA) are hosting a...
Filed under: Sustainability 101 Students on Sustainability
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We'll always have Paris
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on December 09, 2015
Two weeks ago, in a Paris café not unlike La Belle Equipe where 19 people died during the terrorist attacks of November 13, I sat with...
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Lost and Found: Thank you Maurice Strong
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on December 07, 2015
Everyone has a special spot, a place they feel most at home; their querencia. For Maurice Strong it was Lost Lake and his ‘cabin’ near...
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Banting and Best for Canada?
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on November 09, 2015
Quick: name the world’s largest diabetes company. It should be Canadian right? After all it was Frederick Banting and Charles Best at the...
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A call to arms: Report by world's largest oil and gas development company says climate change is irrefutable
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on November 04, 2015
What if Smith and Wesson or Remington Arms wrote a report calling for gun control? Or Philip Morris suggested the banning of cigarettes; would we...
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Canada and the Seven Cs
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on October 23, 2015
Canada’s incoming Liberal government campaigned on a program of support to cities and new infrastructure spending. There are several ways to...
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Giving Thanks
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on October 06, 2015
October 10, Thanksgiving Day, 2050. An open letter to the people of Toronto in 2015, Thanksgiving Day is a wonderful time to pause and reflect on...
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Looking before I Leap
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on September 16, 2015
A colleague – actually more than a colleague, a kindred spirit in this sustainability business – sent me ‘The Leap’...
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Remembering a City Worker Who Made a Difference
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on September 09, 2015
People wandering through the labyrinth of booths of yet another UN urban conference in Nanjing (2008) or Rio de Janeiro (2010) may have stumbled...
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Reports support objectives of Toronto Climate Summit
Posted by Michelle Cholak on July 08, 2015
Ahead of this week’s Climate Summit of the Americas, two new reports have been released which support the importance of reducing greenhouse...
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Two Sides to the Transportation Equation
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on July 02, 2015
By now most people are aware of the new HOV lane restrictions on local highways. Many of us fume as we sit in traffic, maybe watch a car with one...
Filed under: Sustainability 101
Driving for a Better Greater Toronto Area
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on June 24, 2015
In 1947, the first stretch of Highway 401 was completed from West Hill, Scarborough to Oshawa. The last stretch of the 818 kilometre highway...
Filed under: Students on Sustainability
Coal consumption and district heating in China
Posted by Asiful Hai on June 02, 2015
In 2014, coal accounted for 64% of China’s total energy consumption[i]. The country is responsible for burning half the world’s coal...
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How to reduce your refrigerator energy usage without breaking the bank
Posted by Daniel Kupchak on May 27, 2015
Did you know at 12 cents per kWh it costs roughly $140 every year to run a ten year old refrigerator? And you can almost double that cost if you...
Filed under: Students on Sustainability
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Renewable energy investments growing in emerging economies
Posted by Robert McIntosh on May 20, 2015
To get to where they are today, the world’s developed nations relied heavily on fossil fuels during industrialization. The focus for most of...
Filed under: Students on Sustainability
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Advancing strategic electrical infrastructure in developing nations with microgrids
Posted by Luigi Buenavista on May 13, 2015
Although sub-Saharan Africa is incredibly rich in potential power-generation capacity, a recent McKinsey and Company report revealed only seven...
Filed under: Students on Sustainability
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Think Snow
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on May 06, 2015
Truth be told, when I was a kid I found my dad’s constant grumbling about winter annoying. He would complain incessantly about the cold and...
Filed under: Sustainability 101
Exploring Solar Options for a Sustainable Energy Future in Republic of Chad
Posted by Glen Courtis on April 29, 2015
More than one-third of people in the world start life without access to electricity and clean fuels for cooking, heating and lighting, according to...
Filed under: Students on Sustainability
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Are smart grids in developing countries a reality?
Posted by Corey Martin on April 22, 2015
One of the more recently hyped energy technologies in developed countries is the “smart grid”. Smart grids give intelligence to...
Filed under: Students on Sustainability
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Electric Vehicles: When Do They Make Sense?
Posted by Gabriel Aversano on April 15, 2015
Electric vehicles have made a grand resurgence in recent years. In 2009, United States President Barack Obama announced a USD $2.4 billion...
Filed under: Students on Sustainability
The Long Goodbye: A Life of Loss and Plenty
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on April 08, 2015
Last week, after a long fight with Alzheimer’s, my mother passed away. A few weeks earlier, sitting in the seniors’ home looking on...
Filed under: Sustainability 101
Field trip to Kawartha Ethanol
Posted by Michelle Cholak on March 24, 2015
Energy Systems Engineering students in this semester's fourth year Emerging Energy Systems class had the unique opportunity to visit Kawartha...
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Linking Up - Getting There Is Key
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on March 05, 2015
A few recent news items might seem unrelated, but they are linked in just the same way the Toronto area needs to be. Nowhere in Canada is linking...
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A Big Hope – A Bigger and Better Toronto
Posted by Daniel Hoornweg on February 18, 2015
Toronto passed a major milestone last week. Statistics Canada stated the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) population is 6,055,724. For the...
Filed under: Sustainability 101
