NATIONAL OBSERVER – “By 2025 Toronto Green Standard will be strong enough to ensure most new buildings have heat pumps. For existing buildings and repairs, there’s no such policy requirement, but we want to see heat pumps everywhere possible,” Bryan Purcell
Author: TAF
Finding pathways out of Ontario’s hydro and climate mess
POLICY OPTIONS: New ground has been broken in thinking about electricity systems, but there needs to be transparent and accountable planning for implementation.
Toronto city council voted against more gas-plant production. The province is making it happen anyway
TORONTO STAR: “The pace that electricity sector emissions are rising is going to offset a lot of the gains made elsewhere. We’re a little further behind every year,” says Bryan Purcell.
How a downtown Toronto condo defied the odds to save energy and money
TORONTO STAR: “This particular project, we were interested right off the bat because of the emission reduction potential for sure, but also because of this particular use of technology: A drop-in replacement for a chiller really has the potential to scale and we wanted to do what we could to make sure the project was a success,” said Keith Burrows, TAF’s Director of Low-Carbon Buildings.
Putting high-rises on a low-carbon diet
GLOBE AND MAIL: Policy paper published last year by U of T, City of Toronto, The Atmospheric Fund and Mantle Developments calls for the regulation of embodied carbon as well as the development of standardized ways of measuring these emissions.
TAF Newsletter: May 2023
This edition highlights priorities for Toronto’s next mayor and the latest council climate roundup, market opportunities for heat pump bulk buys, new retrofit projects, advocacy for Canada’s Green Building Strategy, and summer internships.
Ontario wants new gas plants to boost the province’s electricity system
“We’re quite concerned about where Ontario’s electric grid is going,” says Bryan Purcell.
Ontario’s carbon emissions rose only slightly in 2021 and pandemic-driven shifts could be why
“Climate action really is going to create a lot of benefits, and it’s important to make sure that the government follows through,” said Ekaterina Tzekova, director of research and innovation for The Atmospheric Fund
Could offshore wind in the Great Lakes provide the cheap, clean power Ontario needs?
Offshore wind farms in the Great Lakes could provide enough carbon-free energy to meet all of Ontario’s growing demand at nearly half the cost of new nuclear reactors. There’s just one problem: Ontario declared a moratorium on offshore wind projects in 2011.
Toronto Parking Authority begins operating its own EV charging network
Eight chargers in a single lot mark the start of a plan that will see the TPA — the largest parking operator of its kind in North America — install over 300 off-street and 100 on-street chargers by the end of 2023.
