After announcing its intention to reduce the carbon footprint of its housing stock by 35% by 2025, the real estate subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec has just demonstrated that it is possible to do so. The next step is to move from words to deeds, with a view to achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 at the latest.
Ivanhoé Cambridge has teamed up with the Californian company Turntide Technologies to carry out a pilot project, that of improving the efficiency of the air conditioning system of two of its shopping centers: the imposing Vaughan Mills, located in the suburbs of Toronto, and CrossIron Mills, on the outskirts of Calgary. Each housing more than 200 stores, they respectively occupy approximately 1.2 million square feet, which in both cases is equivalent to more or less the area of the Galeries d’Anjou, another Ivanhoé Cambridge property, located there in the east end of Montreal.
“Achieving carbon neutrality will require a multitude of concrete actions. With this pilot project, we tested what seemed to us the best application to eliminate as quickly as possible the greatest part of the emissions of a building”, explains to the To have to Karine Trudel, Director of Innovation for Ivanhoé Cambridge.
Wasted air conditioning
Turntide Technologies, formerly Software Motor Corporation, has developed software and a small motor that aims to optimize a host of mechanical systems, ranging from air conditioning systems for such buildings to motors for electric vehicles. The company calculates that 30% of the energy used to air-condition shopping centers is simply wasted by poor management: they operate continuously, regardless of traffic, weather, etc.
The real estate sector produces 40% of the total carbon dioxide emissions generated by human activity. Turntide claims to be able to eliminate much of this waste. Its pilot project with Ivanhoé Cambridge has led to a 35% reduction in the energy consumption of the air conditioning systems of the two targeted shopping centres.
For each of the two sites, there are 39 tonnes of CO2 less that have been issued. Applied to more of these systems used by a good part of the buildings that make up Ivanhoé Cambridge’s portfolio, the technology will therefore have a significant effect on its total carbon footprint, estimates Karine Trudel. Without necessarily incurring additional costs, she adds. “In Quebec, we could amortize the technology in five years. Elsewhere in the world, where electricity is more expensive, it can be done in three years or less. »
The next step will be to extend their use to all the air conditioning units of the two centers, then to extend the partnership with Turntide to the rest of the buildings managed by the subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt.
Stimulate Quebec climate technology
The Caisse’s strong attachment to the Québec economy will also eventually have to be reflected in Ivanhoé Cambridge’s carbon footprint reduction strategy. In this emerging sector called climate technologies, or climate techaccording to the English name often used, there is at least one small Montreal pearl, BrainBox AI, which remarkably reduces, and without massive investment, the energy demand of large buildings.
The young Quebec shoot embodies particularly well the adage that no one is a prophet in his country. The interest shown by the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and his delegation of business people in BrainBox AI’s property management solution during their visit to Montreal last Monday illustrates how the climate emergency is not being felt. in Quebec as well as elsewhere on the planet. The company has a strong presence in Oceania, Asia and Europe. It is much less so in Quebec.
Why didn’t Ivanhoé Cambridge choose this solution created just a few blocks from its own head office? Karine Trudel says her company had a specific need as part of its pilot project that made Turntide’s technology easier to apply. Going forward, she still emphasizes the growing interest that she and her colleagues have in Quebec businesses. She cites in particular the Cycle Momentum accelerator, which specializes in the spin-off of technologies contributing to the fight against climate change.
“Ivanhoé Cambridge will have to be very active” in the search for clean technology solutions by 2040, and “we definitely have a strong interest” in Quebec technologies, she said.