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Business Journals
02-05-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
How Cordia is powering downtown Phoenix's Biomed Core and future growth with carbon-free cooling
As downtown Phoenix continues its rapid growth as a center for health care, education, and innovation, Cordia is expanding its energy infrastructure to meet the rising demand for reliable, sustainable cooling. The company's latest project — Plant 4 — will support the expanding Phoenix Biomedical Core (PBC) and help ensure that Phoenix's future is powered by clean, efficient energy. Since 2001, Cordia has played a critical role in downtown's development. Through its Energy Center Phoenix (ECP), Cordia provides chilled water district cooling services to 47 buildings, including the Phoenix Convention Center, ASU's downtown campus, and Chase Field. But with the downtown area experiencing a surge in development, the ECP system is nearing its maximum capacity. Meeting demand through expansion To address projected growth, Cordia is building a new 10,200-ton chilled water plant — Plant 4 — at the PBC. This plant will directly support major new developments, including the ASTRA Towers (2 million square feet), University of Arizona's CAMI (220,000 square feet) and ASU's new Health Headquarters (200,000 square feet). Plant 4 will be constructed on land owned by the University of Arizona through a 50-year ground lease, strengthening an already collaborative relationship between the institutions. Construction is expected to begin in early 2026, with operations anticipated by early 2028. In addition to increasing system capacity, Cordia will implement critical piping improvements as part of the project, including closing the chilled water loop at Fillmore Street. This upgrade will improve operational flexibility, reliability, and resiliency across the network — essential for supporting the region's long-term growth. 100% carbon-free power Plant 4 will be fully powered by carbon-free electricity from Arizona Public Service (APS), supporting Cordia's goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. This initiative marks a major step in decarbonizing downtown Phoenix's energy supply. Cordia remains one of APS's top key accounts in Arizona and is the highest localized power user in downtown Phoenix. The collaboration between Cordia and APS ensures this growth is not only feasible but sustainable. A legacy of sustainability and innovation Cordia's Phoenix system has evolved from its roots with Chase Field to a dynamic energy infrastructure solution that reflects innovation and environmental responsibility. It was born from a vision to create a scalable, efficient, and sustainable district cooling system for Arizona's largest central business district. Over two decades, Cordia has enabled expansion of the city. Projects like CityScape, Central Station, and the Phoenix Biomedical Campus have benefited from Cordia's ability to grow its network and adapt to evolving customer needs. A notable example includes the company's integration with the Chase Field plant and a unique underground installation beneath city streets at the Convention Center — showcasing a track record of strategic and creative planning. One of Cordia's hallmark innovations is its use of ice storage tanks, holding 96,000 ton-hours of cooling capacity, to shift energy use to off-peak nighttime hours. These tanks reduce daytime electrical demand, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and deliver reliable cooling even during the hottest months. This strategy also helps avoid costly peak demand charges, allowing Cordia to deliver savings to its customers — averaging 13% in energy costs. Water conservation and system reliability Sustainability extends beyond electricity. Cordia has also invested in water-saving technologies, including the installation of a water softening system at Plants 2 and 3. This system is projected to save approximately 25 million gallons of water annually — a meaningful contribution in a desert city where water conservation is critical. With a total of 27,500 tons of chilled water capacity and a 99.99% reliability record, Cordia's infrastructure has silently supported downtown Phoenix's transformation for more than 20 years. From large-scale public events to daily campus and hospital operations, its role in maintaining the city's momentum is indispensable. Collaborating for a greener future Cordia's partnerships with organizations such as the University of Arizona, RED Development, and the city of Phoenix are central to its success. These collaborations allow the company to deliver tailored energy solutions that serve not just individual buildings, but the broader community. The construction of Plant 4 is more than a capacity upgrade — it's a reflection of Cordia's long-term vision. It supports the city's economic development, aligns with environmental goals, and ensures Phoenix is prepared for a more sustainable future. As downtown continues to thrive, Cordia remains a reliable and forward-thinking energy partner. With Plant 4, the company is reinforcing its mission: to deliver resilient, efficient, and sustainable district cooling to one of Arizona's most dynamic urban centers. Cordia is a leading provider of safe, reliable, and sustainable energy solutions. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Cordia serves over 700 customers with heating, cooling, and electricity throughout the U.S. Cordia is committed to driving change toward a more resilient, sustainable energy future and empowering people and communities to reach their full potential. Learn more at
Winnipeg Free Press
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Singh's ‘joyful struggle' campaign ends as his future hangs in the balance
BURNABY – After spending much of the election campaign working to keep staffers' morale high in the face of grim polls, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh paused his campaign Sunday to confront a shocking tragedy — a vehicle attack on a Vancouver community event that left 11 people dead. Singh left the Lapu Lapu Day event, a Filipino cultural festival, about ten minutes before the attack took place. He'd taken photos with families and danced with festival goers. 'I keep on thinking about the joy. I was there literally minutes before this happened, and I can't stop thinking about, how much happiness was there, how much it was a family event,' Singh said in Penticton, B.C. on Sunday while holding back tears. 'People were so positive and so joyful, and then to have such a horrific thing happen … I keep on replaying it.' For New Democrats, it was a bleak coda for a difficult campaign. Singh has spent many days since the campaign began pursued by questions about the NDP's future — and his own. But the NDP leader has been working hard to keep his team's energy level high. When the campaign plane stopped in Ottawa on Saturday to pick up extra staff, Singh led them in chants of 'NDP' and 'joyful struggle' before takeoff. On the plane and on the campaign bus, Singh keeps the mood light and collegial, with core campaign staffers trading jokes and talking about favourite movies and music. At no point does the atmosphere suggest a campaign on the ropes. The polls do, however. Multiple surveys have suggested the NDP has been bleeding support to the Liberals during the campaign and could lose official party status in the House of Commons in Monday's vote. Some polls suggest Singh himself risks losing his own riding of Burnaby Central. In one of his final press conferences of the campaign, Singh said he always sought 'joy' during the tough times he experienced growing up — when, for example, he had to take in his teenage brother at age 20 as his dad struggled with addiction. 'In all those struggles I found you could either laugh or cry, right, in those tough, tough times. I always choose that you've got to have joy in the struggle,' Singh told a Toronto press conference on April 25. As always, the NDP will review and reflect on what they could have done differently once the campaign is over. But NDP candidates, volunteers and supporters all know that their biggest obstacle this time was fear — of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war and his threats against Canada's sovereignty. 'I understand that people are scared, right, and there's the Trump effect. They're worried about their jobs. We lost a whole bunch of CAMI jobs. We lost 450 CAMI jobs,' London-Fanshawe NDP candidate Lindsay Mathyssen said on April 25, referring to recent layoffs at the General Motors assembly plant. Toronto resident Jean Golden — who described herself as a friend of the late NDP leader Jack Layton — said she fears the party might lose official status. 'We'll see what happens. Or if they're not there, then they're going to have to go back to grassroots and working outside of the Parliament,' she said. 'It seems that they might be growing recently, but we'll see.' The NDP says it's buoyed by internal polls conducted late in the campaign that suggest its support is growing in Ontario and B.C. But with a record-setting 7.3 million votes cast in advance polls this time, any momentum shift may come too late. Singh shifted his central message about midway through the campaign. He started calling on Canadians to elect more New Democrats to hold the balance of power in the House of Commons. He ruled out supporting a Conservative minority government but left the door open to again lending support to the Liberals. Singh has said throughout the campaign that the NDP's 25 MPs had enough leverage over the minority Liberals to compel the government to introduce legislation for dental care and pharmacare. During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. More than one million people now qualify for government-subsidized dental work, while diabetes medication and contraceptives are available in three provinces and one territory at government expense. Liberal Leader Mark Carney has promised to expand the number of people eligible for dental care if his government is re-elected, while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said that people already receiving benefits will continue to do so if he wins on Monday. New Democrats say they aren't taking those promises at face value — which is why Singh has been campaigning on the pitch to elect more New Democrats to protect and expand these programs. 'Our goal is to lift up people. Our goal is to make people's lives better. We want to take better care of each other. So it motivates you in a very different way … it's hard not to be filled with joy when you're surrounded by incredible people, fighting for such a great reason,' Singh said Friday. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2025.
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
GM drowning in unsold BrightDrop vans as mounting EV inventory sparks mass layoffs
General Motors' all-electric CAMI Assembly plant in Ontario is halting production of BrightDrop delivery vans, Unifor said Friday. Unifor is Canada's largest private sector union, representing 320,000 workers. The company will initiate temporary layoffs starting April 14 and production will stall for three weeks, Mike Van Boekel, plant chair for Unifor Local 88, which represents hourly workers at CAMI, told the Detroit Free Press. Workers will return for two weeks in May for limited production, and then the factory will close for another 20 weeks. During this downtime, GM plans to complete retooling work to prepare the facility for production of the 2026 model year of commercial electric vehicles. CAMI Assembly had run two shifts while producing Chevrolet BrightDrop vehicles. When production resumes in October, Unifor said the plant will operate on a single shift for the foreseeable future — a reduction expected to impact 450 workers. 'This is devastating for our members,' Van Boekel told the Detroit Free Press. 'We are losing these shifts indefinitely.' About 1,200 Local 88 members work there assembling Chevrolet BrightDrop EVs and constructing battery modules and packs. 'This is a crushing blow to hundreds of working families in Ingersoll and the surrounding region who depend on this plant,' Unifor National President Lana Payne said in the statement. 'General Motors must do everything in its power to mitigate job loss during this downturn, and all levels of government must step up to support Canadian autoworkers and Canadian-made products.' GM Canada confirmed CAMI is making operational and employment adjustments to balance inventory and align production schedules with current demand. In case you missed it: GM storing poor-selling Canadian-made electric vans on Michigan lot 'GM remains committed to the future of BrightDrop, and the CAMI plant and will support employees through the transition,' the company said in a statement emailed to the Free Press. 'This adjustment is directly related to responding to market demand and rebalancing inventory. Production of BrightDrop and EV battery assembly will remain at CAMI.' GM's struggles with BrightDrop inventory come less than a year after the company folded the commercial vans into its Chevrolet brand in a bid to boost its performance. GM has tried and failed to gain ground against competitors, including Ford and Rivian, in the electric van space, an effort further hindered by the vehicle's high price tag. Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, said the opaque trade environment spurred by President Donald Trump's vacillating tariff announcements hardly aided the company's U.S. sales projections. 'If there's a tariff with Canada, how do you build any vehicle of volume there to be sold in the U.S.?' Fiorani asked. Tariffs with Canada currently stand at 25%, though the auto industry is still seeking clarity about whether vehicles and parts compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are included. GM produces BrightDrop 400 and BrightDrop 600 vans at CAMI Assembly, Canada's — and GM's — first full-scale all-electric vehicle manufacturing plant, which required massive investment to retool for EV production, including funding support from both governments. As the Free Press first reported, a glut of those slow-selling delivery vans has built up on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. CAMI produced 3,500 electric Chevrolet BrightDrop delivery vans last year — compared with nearly 200,000 Chevrolet Equinox crossovers the plant produced five years earlier — according to the Automotive News Data & Research Center. Of those, GM sold only 1,529, compared with Ford's 12,610 E-Transit vehicles and Rivian's 13,243 EDV. GM reported sales of just 274 Chevrolet BrightDrop vehicles so far this year, up 7% from 256 sold in the first quarter of 2024. Last month, a Free Press photographer captured images of hundreds of vehicles lining a Flint storage lot. Reuters published similar photos from CAMI in Ingersoll, Ontario. CAMI reopened in late 2022 following a retooling period outfitting the facility for electric vehicle production. Production stalled again this year with a scheduled two-week shutdown to 'align production schedules and balance inventory,' a GM spokesperson said in a statement. Part of the reason BrightDrop sales are lagging in the U.S. is the comparatively high price tag to nearest competitors. Before incentives, the vehicles cost about $74,000. Ford's E-Transit van with extended battery range, for example, is $51,600 — more than $20,000 cheaper — even before applying incentives. GM launched BrightDrop in 2021 as a wholly owned subsidiary with expectations its revenue would top $10 billion by 2030 with low-20% profit margins. BrightDrop CEO Travis Katz said in 2022 that the company expected to be making 50,000 trucks a year starting in 2025 and bring in 'a lot of revenue.' Katz left the company in late 2023 without specifying why as GM began reorganizing BrightDrop to function less independently and reduce costs. 'Make no mistake — the world is moving rapidly towards electrification. If Canada and the U.S. hit pause now, we may never catch up,' Payne said in the statement. 'We risk surrendering our future unless we act decisively to support our own industry.' The economics, and the lack of charging infrastructure, likely made it difficult for the company to find a foothold in the U.S. market, Fiorani said. 'It should be easy to convince a business that you can drive this thing. On paper, it's a good idea. But business owners that are not used to taking risks won't buy something they don't understand fully,' he said. 'In early 2020, when everybody was delivering things directly to their homes, this was a perfect vehicle for that market.' Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Reach her at jcharniga@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GM faces BrightDrop EV crisis: Overflowing lots and mass layoffs
USA Today
13-04-2025
- Automotive
- USA Today
GM drowning in unsold BrightDrop vans as mounting EV inventory sparks mass layoffs
GM drowning in unsold BrightDrop vans as mounting EV inventory sparks mass layoffs Show Caption Hide Caption General Motors: History, innovation, and legacy Learn about the rich history and notable innovations of General Motors, from its founding in 1908 to its leadership in electric and autonomous vehicle technology. GM Canada confirmed CAMI is making operational and employment adjustments to balance inventory and align production schedules with current demand. About 1,200 Local 88 members work there assembling Chevrolet BrightDrop EVs and constructing battery modules and packs. General Motors' all-electric CAMI Assembly plant in Ontario is halting production of BrightDrop delivery vans, Unifor said Friday. Unifor is Canada's largest private sector union, representing 320,000 workers. The company will initiate temporary layoffs starting April 14 and production will stall for three weeks, Mike Van Boekel, plant chair for Unifor Local 88, which represents hourly workers at CAMI, told the Detroit Free Press. Workers will return for two weeks in May for limited production, and then the factory will close for another 20 weeks. During this downtime, GM plans to complete retooling work to prepare the facility for production of the 2026 model year of commercial electric vehicles. CAMI Assembly had run two shifts while producing Chevrolet BrightDrop vehicles. When production resumes in October, Unifor said the plant will operate on a single shift for the foreseeable future — a reduction expected to impact 450 workers. 'This is devastating for our members,' Van Boekel told the Detroit Free Press. 'We are losing these shifts indefinitely.' About 1,200 Local 88 members work there assembling Chevrolet BrightDrop EVs and constructing battery modules and packs. 'This is a crushing blow to hundreds of working families in Ingersoll and the surrounding region who depend on this plant,' Unifor National President Lana Payne said in the statement. 'General Motors must do everything in its power to mitigate job loss during this downturn, and all levels of government must step up to support Canadian autoworkers and Canadian-made products.' GM Canada confirmed CAMI is making operational and employment adjustments to balance inventory and align production schedules with current demand. In case you missed it: GM storing poor-selling Canadian-made electric vans on Michigan lot 'GM remains committed to the future of BrightDrop, and the CAMI plant and will support employees through the transition,' the company said in a statement emailed to the Free Press. 'This adjustment is directly related to responding to market demand and rebalancing inventory. Production of BrightDrop and EV battery assembly will remain at CAMI.' Many hurdles GM's struggles with BrightDrop inventory come less than a year after the company folded the commercial vans into its Chevrolet brand in a bid to boost its performance. GM has tried and failed to gain ground against competitors, including Ford and Rivian, in the electric van space, an effort further hindered by the vehicle's high price tag. Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, said the opaque trade environment spurred by President Donald Trump's vacillating tariff announcements hardly aided the company's U.S. sales projections. 'If there's a tariff with Canada, how do you build any vehicle of volume there to be sold in the U.S.?' Fiorani asked. Tariffs with Canada currently stand at 25%, though the auto industry is still seeking clarity about whether vehicles and parts compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are included. GM produces BrightDrop 400 and BrightDrop 600 vans at CAMI Assembly, Canada's — and GM's — first full-scale all-electric vehicle manufacturing plant, which required massive investment to retool for EV production, including funding support from both governments. As the Free Press first reported, a glut of those slow-selling delivery vans has built up on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. CAMI produced 3,500 electric Chevrolet BrightDrop delivery vans last year — compared with nearly 200,000 Chevrolet Equinox crossovers the plant produced five years earlier — according to the Automotive News Data & Research Center. Of those, GM sold only 1,529, compared with Ford's 12,610 E-Transit vehicles and Rivian's 13,243 EDV. GM reported sales of just 274 Chevrolet BrightDrop vehicles so far this year, up 7% from 256 sold in the first quarter of 2024. Last month, a Free Press photographer captured images of hundreds of vehicles lining a Flint storage lot. Reuters published similar photos from CAMI in Ingersoll, Ontario. CAMI reopened in late 2022 following a retooling period outfitting the facility for electric vehicle production. Production stalled again this year with a scheduled two-week shutdown to 'align production schedules and balance inventory,' a GM spokesperson said in a statement. Part of the reason BrightDrop sales are lagging in the U.S. is the comparatively high price tag to nearest competitors. Before incentives, the vehicles cost about $74,000. Ford's E-Transit van with extended battery range, for example, is $51,600 — more than $20,000 cheaper — even before applying incentives. Falling far short of projections GM launched BrightDrop in 2021 as a wholly owned subsidiary with expectations its revenue would top $10 billion by 2030 with low-20% profit margins. BrightDrop CEO Travis Katz said in 2022 that the company expected to be making 50,000 trucks a year starting in 2025 and bring in 'a lot of revenue.' Katz left the company in late 2023 without specifying why as GM began reorganizing BrightDrop to function less independently and reduce costs. 'Make no mistake — the world is moving rapidly towards electrification. If Canada and the U.S. hit pause now, we may never catch up,' Payne said in the statement. 'We risk surrendering our future unless we act decisively to support our own industry.' The economics, and the lack of charging infrastructure, likely made it difficult for the company to find a foothold in the U.S. market, Fiorani said. 'It should be easy to convince a business that you can drive this thing. On paper, it's a good idea. But business owners that are not used to taking risks won't buy something they don't understand fully,' he said. 'In early 2020, when everybody was delivering things directly to their homes, this was a perfect vehicle for that market.' Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Reach her at jcharniga@
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
GM drowning in unsold BrightDrop vans as mounting EV inventory sparks mass layoffs
General Motors' all-electric CAMI Assembly plant in Ontario is halting production of BrightDrop delivery vans, Unifor said Friday. Unifor is Canada's largest private sector union, representing 320,000 workers. The company will initiate temporary layoffs starting April 14 and production will stall for three weeks, Mike Van Boekel, plant chair for Unifor Local 88, which represents hourly workers at CAMI, told the Detroit Free Press. Workers will return for two weeks in May for limited production, and then the factory will close for another 20 weeks. During this downtime, GM plans to complete retooling work to prepare the facility for production of the 2026 model year of commercial electric vehicles. CAMI Assembly had run two shifts while producing Chevrolet BrightDrop vehicles. When production resumes in October, Unifor said the plant will operate on a single shift for the foreseeable future — a reduction expected to impact 450 workers. 'This is devastating for our members,' Van Boekel told the Detroit Free Press. 'We are losing these shifts indefinitely.' About 1,200 Local 88 members work there assembling Chevrolet BrightDrop EVs and constructing battery modules and packs. 'This is a crushing blow to hundreds of working families in Ingersoll and the surrounding region who depend on this plant,' Unifor National President Lana Payne said in the statement. 'General Motors must do everything in its power to mitigate job loss during this downturn, and all levels of government must step up to support Canadian autoworkers and Canadian-made products.' GM Canada confirmed CAMI is making operational and employment adjustments to balance inventory and align production schedules with current demand. In case you missed it: GM storing poor-selling Canadian-made electric vans on Michigan lot 'GM remains committed to the future of BrightDrop, and the CAMI plant and will support employees through the transition,' the company said in a statement emailed to the Free Press. 'This adjustment is directly related to responding to market demand and rebalancing inventory. Production of BrightDrop and EV battery assembly will remain at CAMI.' GM's struggles with BrightDrop inventory come less than a year after the company folded the commercial vans into its Chevrolet brand in a bid to boost its performance. GM has tried and failed to gain ground against competitors, including Ford and Rivian, in the electric van space, an effort further hindered by the vehicle's high price tag. Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, said the opaque trade environment spurred by President Donald Trump's vacillating tariff announcements hardly aided the company's U.S. sales projections. 'If there's a tariff with Canada, how do you build any vehicle of volume there to be sold in the U.S.?' Fiorani asked. Tariffs with Canada currently stand at 25%, though the auto industry is still seeking clarity about whether vehicles and parts compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are included. GM produces BrightDrop 400 and BrightDrop 600 vans at CAMI Assembly, Canada's — and GM's — first full-scale all-electric vehicle manufacturing plant, which required massive investment to retool for EV production, including funding support from both governments. As the Free Press first reported, a glut of those slow-selling delivery vans has built up on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. CAMI produced 3,500 electric Chevrolet BrightDrop delivery vans last year — compared with nearly 200,000 Chevrolet Equinox crossovers the plant produced five years earlier — according to the Automotive News Data & Research Center. Of those, GM sold only 1,529, compared with Ford's 12,610 E-Transit vehicles and Rivian's 13,243 EDV. GM reported sales of just 274 Chevrolet BrightDrop vehicles so far this year, up 7% from 256 sold in the first quarter of 2024. Last month, a Free Press photographer captured images of hundreds of vehicles lining a Flint storage lot. Reuters published similar photos from CAMI in Ingersoll, Ontario. CAMI reopened in late 2022 following a retooling period outfitting the facility for electric vehicle production. Production stalled again this year with a scheduled two-week shutdown to 'align production schedules and balance inventory,' a GM spokesperson said in a statement. Part of the reason BrightDrop sales are lagging in the U.S. is the comparatively high price tag to nearest competitors. Before incentives, the vehicles cost about $74,000. Ford's E-Transit van with extended battery range, for example, is $51,600 — more than $20,000 cheaper — even before applying incentives. GM launched BrightDrop in 2021 as a wholly owned subsidiary with expectations its revenue would top $10 billion by 2030 with low-20% profit margins. BrightDrop CEO Travis Katz said in 2022 that the company expected to be making 50,000 trucks a year starting in 2025 and bring in 'a lot of revenue.' Katz left the company in late 2023 without specifying why as GM began reorganizing BrightDrop to function less independently and reduce costs. 'Make no mistake — the world is moving rapidly towards electrification. If Canada and the U.S. hit pause now, we may never catch up,' Payne said in the statement. 'We risk surrendering our future unless we act decisively to support our own industry.' The economics, and the lack of charging infrastructure, likely made it difficult for the company to find a foothold in the U.S. market, Fiorani said. 'It should be easy to convince a business that you can drive this thing. On paper, it's a good idea. But business owners that are not used to taking risks won't buy something they don't understand fully,' he said. 'In early 2020, when everybody was delivering things directly to their homes, this was a perfect vehicle for that market.' Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Reach her at jcharniga@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GM faces BrightDrop EV crisis: Overflowing lots and mass layoffs Sign in to access your portfolio
