NEW YORK and SAN RAFAEL, CA - The first annual sustainable design-trend watch survey jointly commissioned by the American Society Mechanical Engineers and Autodesk found that two-thirds of respondents have worked on designing sustainable products.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Excellence in Education Award honours secondary and post-secondary educators in Ontario who have encouraged students in the development of sustainable communities by integrating sustainable concepts in housing and community development into their curriculum.

Canada’s commercial building sector can contribute up to nearly 10 per cent of total Canadian greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions in 2050 if a proposed policy pathway recommended by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) and Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) is adopted.

Autodesk, Inc. and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) have announced the results of the 2008 Autodesk/AIA Green Index, an annual survey that measures how AIA members are practicing sustainable design, as well as their opinions about the green building movement. This year’s index shows an increase in the implementation of sustainable design practices from architects and building owners. In addition, it shows that architects’ clients have experienced a doubling in the market demand for green buildings over the past year as well as positive shifts in architects’ attitudes toward their ability to impact climate change.

Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated, the integrated financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate, recently announced the acquisition of the environmental consulting firm, ECD Energy, best known as the developer of technology underlying environmental rating systems for buildings, including Green Globes for the Green Building Initiative (GBI) and Go Green for the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Canada.

Promoting the green design, construction, renovation and operation of buildings could cut North American greenhouse gas emissions that are fuelling climate change more deeply, quickly and cheaply than any other available measure, according to a new report issued by the trinational Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).

North America’s buildings cause the annual release of more than 2,200 megatons of CO2 into the atmosphere, about 35 per cent of the continent’s total. The report says rapid market uptake of currently available and emerging advanced energy-saving technologies could result in over 1,700 fewer megatons of CO2 emissions in 2030, compared to projected emissions that year following a business-as-usual approach. A cut of that size would nearly equal the CO2 emitted by the entire U.S. transportation sector in 2000.