Office 365 Groups - How to Add Multiple Email Addresses And/Or Create Office 365 Groups for Secondary Domains

One of the great new collaboration features from Microsoft's productivity cloud offering is Office 365 Groups.  The new "groups" give you a bundle setup option for creating a collaboration space that includes:

• Group Inbox - communication and email in one space
• Group Calendar for scheduling group meetings and events
• Group Sharepoint Library for storing and working on group files and folders
• Group OneNote notebook for taking project and meeting notes
• Planning tool - For managing and assigning tasks

Normally these office 365 groups are created from Outlook, or from the admin portal of O365.  Although, as of this post, there is no way to create a group for a secondary domain... at least with a graphical interface.

So if you have primarycompany.com and you also have secondarycompany.com registered with your office 365 tenant, how do you create these amazing groups for secondarycompany.com?

Powershell of course!

Start by opening up powershell with admin permissions.  You will need your powershell to have your execution policy set to Remotesigned (or less secure).

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Then you can use the below commands to connect to office 365's powershell session.

$user = get-credential

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $user -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $Session

Next setup your variables and create the group! 

$displayName = "desired group display name"

$members = @('member1','member2')

$owner = "owner name"

$primarySmtp = "primary@smtp.com"

$alias = "the alias you want"

$emailAddresses = @("email1@company.com","email2@company.com")

New-UnifiedGroup -DisplayName $displayName -Members $members -Owner $owner -PrimarySmtpAddress $primarySmtp -Alias 'Contact' -EmailAddresses $emailAddresses

That's it!  You can add more options if you like or you can run the above and then manage the group from the admin portal.

One day Microsoft will enable domain select from their GUI... one day..

Electric Vehicles Are Not Just The Future, They Are A Great Present

As LEED consultants, energy modelling professionals and sustainability consultants; we need to practice what we preach. Edge has been using a Nissan Leaf for the past 3 years and we’ve all come to love it. Here are our top 10 reasons for loving electric cars.

Charging at Hillcrest Community Centre

Reason 1: The City of Vancouver gives electric cars priority parking throughout Vancouver. There is Hillcrest Community Centre, Granville Island, and Vancouver Aquarium to name a few. These are great perks when the lots are full during busy time. They also give you free electricity

Reason 2: Electricity is cheaper than gas. In BC 1 kWh is roughly 8 cents. Gas is a 1.15 per litre or 12 cents per kWh. That means in an electric car its costs $3.48 to drive 100 miles. Some people even consider it a free car in comparison to the maintenance requirements of a gasoline engine.

Reason 3: As opposed to ‘filling up the tank’, charging our electric car is child’s play. While the city of Vancouver manages 78 charging ports, there are an estimated 175 other ports managed by shopping malls, hotels, parking garages etc. Apps like Chargehub and Plugshare can help you find the nearest charging station. In addition to the growing availability of charging ports throughout the city, charging at home is also a feasible option. Currently, 85% of electric car owners plug in over night at home. Most electric cars come with a charging cable (sometimes called a trickle charger), which plugs into the same outlet you’d use for your TV or vacuum.

Reason 4: Free charging around Vancouver. The majority of stations are free to use, all you have to do is sign up for the service or become a member. Simply swipe your member card, scan your phone app, or in some cases your credit card. The 3 most common charging providers in BC are ChargePoint, VERNetwork, and GreenLots.

Reason 5: BC’s electricity is 96% carbon free. Most of British Columbia’s electricity comes from Hydroelectric Dams (86%) with most of the remainder generated from Wind Farms, natural gas fueled thermal plants, and biomass power plants. BC Hydro offsets the remainder. This makes it a 100% carbon free car!

Reason 6: It can go well over its range of 135 km. We personally took our Leaf on a 170 km tour to Sechelt for a water audit. We were delightfully surprised that our Leaf was able to travel this distance from a full charge.

Reason 7: The Nissan Leaf has amazing torque and traction on icy roads. It has ABS, traction control, and Vehicle Dynamic Control. VDC is unique to Nissan vehicles. The system can help prevent under and over steering by reducing engine speed and applying the brakes individually on specific wheels. This means it can sense your wheels slipping on the road, and then engage to help you maintain control of your car. The Leaf is also on the heavier side, measuring at 3300 pounds. This is a great characteristic to have if you are worried about sliding out, as it has less body roll while turning and a more balanced center of gravity.

Reason 8: It charges as it goes downhill. Coasting and regenerative braking allow for the Leaf to charge itself. For example, if you got to the top of Mount Seymour with only one bar of charge left, on the way back down you could be back up to four and make it home with charge to spare.

Reason 9: No oil changes and almost no maintenance.  Electric cars have fewer moving parts than gas powered cars. This means less can go wrong. The majority of your time spent at the shop will be for battery inspections and software updates, which will happen about once a year. When you think of all the usual parts that need to be fixed/ replaced in gas powered vehicles such as spark plus, alternator, muffler, exhaust pipe, transmission, timing belt, you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank, and enjoying all the extra free time you will have.

The New Nissan E-NV200 Van

Reason 10: The Nissan Leaf will soon have a sibling, the E-NV200 Van. This will be a great addition as now a zero emission option will be available to taxi services, business, delivery, and much more. 

Our world is already starting to steer more toward electric vehicles, and in no time they will be the new normal. Every year their range gets longer and more charging stations appear in great locations. If you have range anxiety about long trips, the Chevy Volt, Tesla Model 3 and it’s rumoured the 2017 Leaf will have greatly extended ranges at an affordable price. Plus the BC government will give you cash back if you buy an affordable electric car. 

By switching to an electric vehicle, you could be saving 45 g/km-70 g/km of CO2 being emitting into the earth's atmosphere. There is really isn’t any need to wait to switch to electric vehicles. We’ve loved the last 3 years of driving one and will continue to follow and blog about our adventures with our Leaf. 

All smiles as we wait for charge at Hillcrest Community Centre

The Importance of Energy Modelling

In a recent article published by our energy expert Eoghan Hayes, he outlines how plug and lighting energy can have a major impact on building energy use.

In high-rise residential or multi-unit residential building, appliance plug and lighting energy account for 20%-25% of total energy use in the building. Eoghan explains that ‘the by-product of their electrical consumption of heat, which helps heat the suite in winter but becomes a hindrance during the summer, when we want to keep the suite cool.’  Over estimating in these energy modelling simulations can reduce heating energy and increase cooling, while underestimating them will do the opposite.

The article compared four different standards of energy modelling, analyzing the impact of underestimating and overestimating plug and lighting load power densities and schedules. ASHRAE 90.1-1-2007, LEED for Homes, Measured Utility Data, and BC Hydro New Construction Program Energy Modelling Guideline were used to compare the different methods and schedules used to simulate plug and lighting loads in residential buildings. While ASHRAE 90.1-2007 is the most common standard for lighting and plug standards, the LEED for Homes rating system is the most comprehensive for residential situations.

The LEED for Homes appliance calculator is used to calculate the annual energy usage per appliance. In the LEED rating system, points are rewarded for energy savings from appliance energy whereas most ratings systems do not. LEED for Homes requires Energy Star ratings for appliances. This usually accounts for upwards of 8% energy improvement from the baseline.

The results from all four standards ranged from 50.97 kWh/m2/year with Measured Utility Data to 56.16 kWh/m2/year with the BC Hydro guideline. The results indicate that 53.5 kWh/m/2year (+/-5%) would be an appropriate specification for lighting and plug power densities and schedules.

The article outlines how municipalities should state the appropriate energy density to ‘ensure consistency among energy models submitted for code and LEED compliance and prevent mistakes from submitted simulations’.

Water Use In Hospitals

St Mary's Hospital. Photo by Perkins + Will 

Hospitals use a tremendous amount of water. In the U.S hospitals and other health care facilities account for 7% of water usage in commercial and institutional facilities. The EPA Energy Star Portfolio Manager has found that the median hospital uses 350 gallons of water per day per bed. But it doesn't have to be this way. With new incentives and technology emerging, water usage and waste is becoming easier to track and save. 

The Provincial Health Authority of BC commissioned Edge Consulting to conduct a water audit of the St Mary's Hospital in Sechlet, BC. The hospital felt that their water usage was too high and that there was room for improvement. Our report and audit found a number of places to save water as well as places where non-potable water could affordably and safely be used onsite. We also discovered decommissioned meters that were still being charged even though they were not connected to any water source. 

The report's biggest actionable item was the hospital's laundry area, which accounted for 47% of the total water use by the hospital. The amount of water was largely because the facility does healthcare laundry for most of the Sunshine Coast. In comparison, the American Water Works association estimates that laundry facilities in an average hospital only account for 9% of water usage. Edge is currently investigating a water treatment and capture design to use both storm water and grey water in the laundry room to reduce potable water use at the hospital by up to 47%. In addition, the hospital is looking into saving water usage by moving all machines to the most efficient water usage standards. There are often financial incentives such as tax rebates offered for making the switch to more energy and water efficient appliances such as Energy Star or Water Sense. Using these appliances also contributes to LEED for Healthcare points. 

The findings of the St Mary's Hospital water audit are an example of how important these audits are and how the Health Authority is taking a leadership position on water usage. As time goes on, appliances age, infrastructure becomes neglected, and new techniques and technology emerge that allow us to reevaluate water usage, upgrade, and save. Edge recommends water audits take place every few years to ensure that no water is going to waste, water bills are accurate, and new sustainable methods are being utilized to save you water and money.

Microsoft Office 365 Migrate Your Data to Canada Before October 31 2016!

Back in May, Microsoft announced general availability for its new datacenter region in Canada, giving us Canadians a locally hosted and supported datacenter for all of their amazing cloud products.

They are now reminding everyone that if you need/want your data migrated from their other regions to Canada your deadline is October 31st.

From an email from Microsoft:

Customers with data residency requirements who would like to have their core customer data moved to the Canada datacenter region, will need to request a move before October 31, 2016. Data moves will complete within 24 months after the enrollment period. 

If you have regulatory requirements or are concerned about having your data stored in the US or other regions, now is the time to start booking that data migration!

More info here:
http://aka.ms/move

Want to know where your current resources are?

Probably the simplest way to check is to log in to your azure portal:

• https://portal.azure.com

Navigate the left menu and check your "resource groups":

Perception is Reality in Vancouver

In the eyes of most of the world, Vancouver is a hot bed of green building activity, sustainable living and green energy. In reality, it is a city without water meters, a robust compost plan, an enforced energy code, one that dumps partially or untreated sewage into it’s waters, and a myriad of other not so green practices.

 As a Sustainability Consultant, I’ve seen concerted efforts to showcase renewable energy projects in the urban environment. In places across Ontario, PV is often seen on buildings and the side of the road. In Minnesota I’ve seen urban wind projects in St Paul and Minneapolis. Both wind and PV have popped up on co-ops, animal shelters, homes and parks. In the Middle East, Abu Dhabi just finished the largest PV project in the world, and the Saudi’s are about to embark on their own renewable energy boom using the power of the sun.

 Even energy efficiency has become a requirement in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia you now can not get an electrical connection until you have a certain amount of insulation. That’s something that is hard to hid or fake (unlike an ASHRAE “compliance” submission). They had no debates over which version of ASHRAE or other standards to adopt, (and then struggle to enforce) they simply are making people insulate their buildings. Contemplation of minimum requirements for equipment efficiency has also begun in earnest.

 While the Middle East isn’t known for green building, common construction practices will often get you all the LEED water credits. Cisterns, non-potable water usage, and onsite treatment is common at projects of all scales (even though water is heavily subsidized). Drip irrigation is the norm across the region and water conservation is a constant topic in design meetings. After all, when they first drilled wells in the 1930’s they were looking for water, not oil.

 In Vancouver you will be lucky to see renewable energy anywhere in the city. With the exception of a few city projects or start up companies, the low utility rates, lack of government incentive and perception that “we are green already” means you will be hard pressed to see renewable energy systems in the city. The cheap (basically amounts to almost free) water supplied to business’ and homes isn’t even worth sending you a separate bill for. In most cases it’s just tied to your property taxes and the city reads your analog meter once every 3 months.

 What you will see in Vancouver is glass condo after glass condo. This is despite the fact that the city has the highest energy standard in North America, and has had the highest energy standard for many decades now. You’ll also see lots of dead “green” walls. A fad that struck some years ago and would be something you would imagine would be easy to keep green in a rain forest like Vancouver. Usually these dead green walls are attached to buildings with an overall R value (insulation value) of about 1.5 (the energy standard is about 15 for reference).

 While Vancouver has one of the best urban plans in North American, and is blessed with relatively cheap and clean hydroelectric energy (thank you 1960’s provincial leaders), it really hasn’t moved past those two inherited elements in the few years it has decided it will be the greenest city in the world.

 It’s really time the City of Vancouver did some of the basics right rather than just continue to market on garbage cans that they want to be green by 2020. Start either enforcing your own building energy standard, or if you can’t figure out how to do that, just do what the Saudis did and just require insulation (a novel concept in Vancouver I’m afraid). Start metering and charging for water. Abottsford and Calgary have water meters and Vancouver doesn’t. How can these pick up truck towns be more water conscience than one wanting to be the greenest in the world?

 While perception often becomes reality (as it has in the case of Vancouver’s green claims), there needs to be more to Vancouver’s efforts than what City hall buys and what cars their fleet uses. Pretty much every city out there is working in that direction. “Greenest” certainly requires much more strategic and real effort than what is being expended to date.

3 Common Mistakes LEED Project Managers Make By Brenda Martens

I was recently invited to participate on a panel of LEED Project Managers at an event hosted by Recollective Consulting, a green building firm in Vancouver BC. Panellists were asked to share their tips, tricks and lessons on LEED Project Management, and while this is a Canadian perspective, the principles hold true across the border. The following are my top three lessons learned, in reverse order (David Letterman style):

 3. Too narrow a view of LEED. The rating system is open to interpretation, but I have often observed green building consultants in meetings state with confidence what is and isn’t allowed, based on what’s written in the reference guides. As one of the editors of the LEED Canada reference guides I can say that they were not intended to (nor could they possibly) cover all scenarios that might arise on a project. There is a reason that the “intent” of each credit and prerequisite comes before the technical requirements – it describes the overarching goal to be pursued – and its possible to meet the intent of the credit in a manner that couldn’t either be foreseen, or included, in the rating system. Design and construction practitioners can be creative in how they meet the intent (I don’t mean “creative” like “creative accounting” on your tax return). As an example, the University of Victoria uses “recycled” aquarium water from one of their fresh water fish research facilities to offset potable water use for irrigation and toilet-flushing on their campus. Of course aquarium water is not listed as an alternative water source in LEED. Similarly, the Surrey Transfer Station, one of the first projects in British Columbia to certify under LEED, used the light entering from their large overhead doors to meet the requirements for daylight in the space. This is something that is specifically disallowed in LEED, because doors can be closed and the access to daylight is lost – however the Transfer Station has a policy that during operation, the overhead doors must always be open, and the USGBC accepted the policy as proof that the credit intent was met.

 2. Thinking the CaGBC (or USGBC) is a black box. Anyone who works as a LEED Project Manager is familiar with the formal methods of communication with the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), such as project submissions and Credit Interpretation Requests, or “CIRs”. However the CaGBC is much more approachable than most realize. If you have a question about the rating system and how to apply it to your project, and can’t find the answer in the reference guides, on the web site, or in posted CIRs, you can just send the question to info@cagbc.org (do your homework first, the CaGBC doesn’t appreciate questions from consultants where the answer is obvious). The LEED staff will answer the question if they can, and if they can’t, only then will you be directed to submit a CIR. The same is true of certification submission reviews. While it’s true that the CaGBC review team remains anonymous in order to keep the LEED third party validation credible, if you receive a review and don’t understand one of the comments, you can ask the CaGBC for clarification, and they will liaise with the reviewer on your behalf.

 1. Forgetting that a LEED project is about the people, not the building. In this profession we’re often obsessed with points and building performance. You may be able to achieve a LEED Platinum certification, but if the consultants and contractors who worked on the project are disenchanted with the process, or the facilities manager who inherits the building isn’t consulted on the building systems during design and subsequently doesn’t manage these systems properly, then we’ve failed. Its more important to have the people who work on the project buy-in to sustainability than to achieve the highest level of certification, because those people will continue on to work on other projects, and their past experience will determine whether they embrace green building, or try to convince an owner it isn’t worth it. While it’s a joy to work on projects and see skeptics become advocates of green building, it’s heartbreaking to see the mismanagement of the process turn people away from sustainable design and construction.

 I hope these observations will be helpful to those who are navigating their way through LEED projects, and that while sitting in that meeting talking about the score card, you remember the spirit in which the rating system was intended to be used – one of creativity, openness and inclusivity.