PRESS RELEASE

Mike Holmes breaks ground in Edmonton

Cisco Smart+Connected Communities Solutions Foster Environmentally, Socially and Economically Sustainable Project in Alberta

EDMONTON, AB, March 27, 2012—Phase II of the Boyle Renaissance development officially began construction today in a groundbreaking ceremony hosted by The Métis Capital Housing Corporation (MCHC) in Edmonton's Boyle neighbourhood. 

Attending the event were Mayor of Edmonton Stephen Mandel, Mike Holmes, Darlene Lennie, executive director of the MCHC, ENMAX Energy CEO, Charles Ruigrokand, and representatives of various project participants, including Cisco Canada and the MCHC.

"This development is about building quality, energy efficient homes and making them affordable for the people who need them most," stated Holmes.

The Holmes Group will spearhead the construction of 90 residential units, which will provide senior-friendly, barrier-free housing for Métis seniors and the disabled. Select suites will benefit from Cisco's "Cisco Smart Home System", allowing a person to control advanced home applications from a single touch pad interface.

"This collaboration is helping us improve the standard of living for individuals and communitiesthrough ambitious projects, such as The Boyle Renaissance," stated Rick Huijbregts, vice president of Cisco® Smart+Connected Communities for Cisco Canada. "This development is a fine blueprint for how future communities will be designed, built and managed to achieve social, economic, and environmental sustainability."

ENMAX Energy will provide the necessary infrastructure for district energy and combined heat and power (CHP), allowing the facility to benefit from advanced heating and power systems that use cleaner burning natural gas.

"ENMAX's vision for corporate responsibility includes cleaner energy choices for consumers and investing in the communities we serve," said Charles Ruigrok, interim president and CEO, ENMAX Corporation. "The Boyle Renaissance project allows us to focus on both of these mandates."

Ensuring the development meets efficiency performance levels has been a top priority. "Working together as a team towards this one goal makes all the difference," added Holmes. "When we all step in the right direction, moving forward is easy."

About The Holmes Group

The Holmes Group is an international brand with operations in independent media production, new home building and inspection divisions with expansion into product development. It is entirely owned by Mike Holmes and it is responsible for developing and managing HOLMES branded entities, including HOLMES Homes, HOLMES Inspections, HOLMES Workwear, Make It Right Releasing Inc. and The Holmes Foundation.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go tohttp://newsroom.cisco.com.

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Verizon Announces Aggressive Sustainability Goal

Verizon Announces Aggressive Sustainability Goal: Cutting Carbon Intensity in Half by 2020

Company Issues Its First Combined Annual and Corporate Responsibility Report; Outlines Strategy for Delivering Long-Term Shareholder Value by Addressing Social Issues Such as Health Care and Energy

News Release ShareThis

NEW YORK – March 19, 2012 –

Verizon announced today that it will cut its CO2 intensity in half by 2020, as part of the company's broad sustainability efforts.  Sustainability is a key aspect of the company's new strategy for delivering shareholder value.  The other aspects are developing marketplace solutions to address social issues like health care and energy, and aligning the company's philanthropic work with these issues to maximize community benefits.
"This is the era of big data," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam. "Our business continues to grow at a rapid pace, but we're committed to innovating our way to growing responsibly by becoming more energy efficient, even as our business expands."  McAdam also took part in a "CEO Sit-Down" with Bloomberg TV correspondent Alix Steel today at the fifth annual Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit.
Carbon intensity - the amount of energy needed to move data across Verizon's network - is a measurement of energy efficiency. It is improved by reducing the absolute amount of energy and by moving more data with the same unit of energy. Verizon is using its 2009 carbon intensity level as the benchmark for the company's 50 percent reduction by 2020.
To reinforce its commitment to its new shareholder-value strategy, the company today issued its first combined annual and corporate responsibility report, which is available at http://responsibility.verizon.com.

Fueling Social Innovation

Verizon believes that creating healthy, sustainable communities is the surest path to creating a healthy and sustainable business. 
"For Verizon, our most exciting growth opportunities occur where business and social interests intersect," McAdam said in a shareowners letter in the report. "As we look at how technology is transforming business and society, we see expanding opportunities ahead for us to use our unique network platforms to make a difference in the world. We believe we can become an even bigger force for good in the world - and, in doing so, extend our legacy of growth and shareowner value for many years to come."
By focusing on mobility, broadband and global connectivity, Verizon is breaking down old technology barriers and empowering businesses and communities.  Verizon's annual report describes the following initiatives:

Removing Barriers to Health Care

Neurologist Andy Southerland, M.D., participates in telemedicine encounter made possible by a Verizon Foundation grant to develop one of Virginia's first telehealth nursing curricula at the Department of Nursing at the University of Virginia-Wise. Telehealth is emerging as a way of providing patients in rural locations with access to specialty consultations.

Some 200,000 Americans die every year from treatable chronic disease, many because they lack ready access to medical care due to barriers of distance, time or availability of doctors and nurses. In one example of how Verizon is using 4G LTEtechnology to overcome these barriers, the company is working with health insurance provider WellPoint to change the model for delivering patient services via secure videoconferencing. WellPoint subscribers will soon be able to use their smartphones and tablets to consult with nurse managers for help in managing chronic conditions.
Through a grant from the Verizon Foundation, the University of Virginia launched its first telehealth nursing program to train medical personnel at the school's Wise County campus on the use of emerging telehealth technologies to improve health care access and services in rural regions of the state.
(NOTE: To view a video of just some of the ways that Verizon is transforming the way health care is delivered, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ck6XX0qeNc.)

Making Education Accessible

Using technology to prepare students for success in the 21st century has long been a focus of the Verizon Foundation. Rapid deployment of 4G LTE mobile networks will be a game-changer in education, as it enables the adaptation of various technologies in the education setting. At St. Phillips Academy in Newark, N.J., for example, a VGo telepresence robot helps solve several classroom challenges including helping a homebound student undergoing medical treatments stay involved with the class.
And Verizon's award-winning educational website, Thinkfinity.org, will evolve into more than just one of the most popular Web resources for teachers. The foundation is working to develop an integrated solution that brings education to life on smartphones and tablets.

Verizon worked closely with Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School in Baltimore, MD, where teachers like Ryan Kloetzer use 4G LTE tablet computers to build excitement for learning science. Studies show that increasing student engagement with mobile learning devices such as tablets and smartphones brings improved academic achievement.	Verizon provided St. Philip's Academy in Newark, NJ, with a VGo telepresence robot to solve a variety of classroom challenges, including helping a homebound student stay involved with his teachers and peers while recovering from medical treatments. The VGo robot was developed with support from the Verizon LTE Innovation Center.

For more information about how Verizon is helping to make communities stronger and more sustainable and building on a foundation for long-term growth, visit http://responsibility.verizon.com/. Information on the Verizon Foundation is available at www.verizonfoundation.org.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with nearly 108 million total connections nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 194,000.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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Smart Cities News from IBM

Miami Dolphins Transform Sun Life Stadium Into an Entertainment Destination for Fans With IBM Solutions for Smarter Cities

IBM's Intelligent Operations Center Helps Miami Dolphins Enhance Game Day Experience

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ARMONK, N.Y. and MIAMI GARDENS. Fla. - 28 Feb 2012: Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced a collaboration with the Miami Dolphins to integrate analytics technology into Sun Life Stadium, enhancing the overall experience for fans of sports, music and media with IBM solutions designed for Smarter Cities.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please clickhttp://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/miami-dolphins-transform-sun-life-stadium-into-an-entertainment-destination-for-fans-with-ibm-solutions-for-smarter-cities-140680853.html  

As a result, officials can gain real immediate insight into all stadium operations including visitor traffic, fan spending preferences and weather patterns, as well as social media sentiment, allowing them to predict and adjust accordingly based on real-time events.  

Sun Life Stadium is a premier venue that hosts a variety of entertainment, media and business events, as well as marquee sports events including the Super Bowl and Orange Bowl. With millions of visitors in over 1.5 million square feet of space, coordinating 24,000 parking spaces and over 75,000 seats can lead to logistical and management challenges for the staff.  

In collaboration with IBM business partner, Flagship Solutions Group, Sun Life Stadium is using IBM's Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) for Smarter Cities, supported on the IBM SmartCloud, to address these challenges while also engaging fans by delivering an unmatched experience at an event. Stadium staff can now offer a unique fan experience by enabling event specialists to more effectively manage visitor traffic, monitor inclement weather and analyze visitor spending habits on concessions, merchandise and dining services to better target the fans with premium products and services.  

IBM's Intelligent Operations Center, which helps manage and view interconnected operations across a city or a stadium, is designed to drive sustainable economic growth by helping organizations deliver more innovative services that exceed their citizens or customers' expectations. 

"Our challenge is to continue to make it exciting for people to come to our stadium as we compete with a constantly morphing entertainment industry that is increasingly interactive," said Tery Howard, Chief Technology Officer, Miami Dolphins, "This collaboration with IBM will provide analytics capabilities to collect insight into massive amounts of data we generate every second to look through the eyes of the fan and develop unmatched services to create meaningful experiences for our visitors."  

IBM's IOC provides Sun Life Stadium a complete interconnected view of stadium activity, from weather alerts, to real-time security, to traffic flow into the stadium creating a seamless flow of visitors attending a game, to insights into whether visitors prefer a full dining experience or buy food at concession stands prior to a big game.   

Real-time analysis also enables staff to predict consumer preferences and plan concession and merchandise needs for current or future events. For example, as concession and dining service sales contribute a significant amount of revenue for a stadium, anticipating a fan's preference for a full dining experience or purchasing food at a concession stand during an event is key to increasing business profitability. Advanced crowd control management with geospatial intelligence and audiovisual notifications, supports security personnel to immediately shift the flow of fans to minimize crowding.  

Reducing inefficiencies and cost requires smarter technologies. With embedded intelligence in the physical assets of an organization, Sun Life Stadium can create a command center to manage not only their data center and IT design, but also their physical assets to manage diverse parts of the facility. Delivered as a cloud computing service, IBM's IOC enables better scalability and aggregates disparate back-end IT systems for a comprehensive view of the organization.  

"Stadiums such as Sun Life are microcosms, akin to cities, with similar requirements for services such as water, energy, transportation, communication and public safety," said Gerry Mooney, GM, IBM Smarter Cities. "IBM is working around the world to make stadiums smarter by infusing intelligent automation that senses and acts to improve conditions including rerouting traffic, predicting overflows, ensuring public safety and preventing outages." 

Enhanced Services for Today's Socially Savvy Mobile Fans  

There is a growing number of sports and entertainment-related social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to engage fans. IBM is enabling Sun Life Stadium to compete in this increasingly interactive and social entertainment environment to not only engage with fans locally but with fans around the world. Sun Life Stadium is further enhancing the fan experience with new mobile applications for fans to access the latest game scores and stats, and to share images and view videos of games or other events no matter where they are. While still at home, or on the way to the stadium, fans will be able to also receive mobile alerts about the game or an event, including travel and parking instructions, information about the football teams or entertainers and targeted promotions for a concert.  

For more information on IBM Smarter Cities, please visit www.ibm.com/smartercities. 

For more information about cloud offerings from IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com/smartcloud.  Follow us on Twitter at @ibmcloud.

For more information about Sun Life Stadium, visit http://www.sunlifestadium.com/. 

For more information on how Flagship Solutions Group is providing comprehensive technology business solutions to clients in the Mid Market and Enterprise space, visit:http://flagshipsg.com/.