OnTrack: Our Journey to Net Zero

In the last few years, several ominous phrases have crept into our daily lexicon including “atmospheric rivers”, “quarantining”, “social distancing”, and “air-quality index.” Oxymorons are also taking over our headlines such as “stormy California” and “rainy Arizona.” Spurred by the pandemic and climate crisis, the world is changing faster than ever before – and our ...

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Cypress Challenge 2026: Riding for Progress

In 2025, a record 906 cyclists across 65 teams participated in the 18th Annual Cypress Challenge. Founded by Geoffrey Glotman and Myriam Glotman in 2008, the event has raised more than $6 million for research and care initiatives. Last year, participants raised an unprecedented $825,000 for BC Cancer, continuing the event’s legacy of community-driven impact. …

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Balancing Visitor Experience and Long-Term Resilience in Banff

Following a competitive international design process, six multidisciplinary teams were shortlisted for the Banff 200 Block Redevelopment. Glotman Simpson, led by Paul Raff and Kengo Kuma + Associates were named the winner of Parks Canada’s international competition. Our role as the structural engineers was to support the architectural vision with practical, resilient, and technically integrated …

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OnTrack: The Low-Carbon Sweet Spot: How This Hotel Leads the Way

What actually drives lower embodied carbon in high-rise buildings? In February’s post, we reviewed a dataset of 26 projects issued for construction in 2025 and one particular project stood out. Not because it used new materials or unconventional systems, but because of how deliberately it was refined. Across the dataset, three strategies consistently led to …

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OnTrack: ECAP Recap: Our Commitment to SE2050

Just like tax season, our sustainability commitments involve annual reporting each spring. This provides an opportunity to reflect on both progress and constraints of the previous year, and to take stock of all that was achieved. Glotman Simpson is proud to be a signatory of the Structural Engineering Institute’s SE2050 movement and the Climate Smart Buildings …

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OnTrack: From Basements to Benchmarks: What Drives Embodied Carbon

We analyzed twenty-six projects – ranging from 9,000 m2 to 115,000 m2 – to calculate our firms Embodied Carbon intensity (ECI) in 2025. These projects varied in building typologies and the chart below summarizes the key ECI measurement compared to primary building use (data point colour), the building height (x-axis), and the size of the …

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OnTrack: 2026 | Building On Solid Foundations

2025 was a real turning point at Glotman Simpson. Over the past year, we built a solid foundation for our sustainability work, particularly around how we measure and understand the embodied carbon of our projects. With 2026 underway we are ready to add another level of progress — expanding our efforts in measuring, reporting, and …

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