Just launched: Carbon Emissions Inventory 2024
Simple payback is often used to determine the attractiveness of an investment – but is it shortchanging you on your energy retrofit decision? Tim Stoate, TAF VP of Impact Investing, explains why you should consider additional financial analysis to make a more informed building retrofit decision and ultimately generate more cash.
TAF’s TowerWise project provides multiple benefits through energy retrofits such as jobs, health, and comfort. Smart thermostats give residents control over their comfort in a way that also maximizes the performance of these existing buildings – a win-win solution for building residents, carbon emissions, and energy savings.
TAF teamed up with ecobee on the TowerWise program to improve resident comfort, reduce emissions, and identify best practices in retrofits across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area. The newly installed smart thermostats make intelligent heating and cooling decisions to reduce energy waste and offer real-time insights to identify other opportunities for future improvements.
How can we reduce emissions from new residential buildings while addressing the housing shortage in the GTHA, especially the gap between high-rises and detached homes? The ZeroHouse, co-developed by Ryerson University students and the Endeavour Centre, shows how to address both issues.
To create something, you must first be able to picture it. Such visions often sprout from a seed that already exists; something you would like to see grow and expand to reach its potential. This is very much the idea behind the current #Picture2050 photo contest that’s inspired by the TransformTO climate plan for Toronto.
Energy efficiency retrofits in Canada represent a multi-billion dollar market opportunity, yet investment levels remain low. TAF’s latest report identifies three market failures that hamper investment and maps out how to overcome them based on international best practices.
Following the announcement of the new $9-million phase, Ontario Construction Report profiled TAF’s trailblazing TowerWise retrofit program, with new energy and emission targets that align closely with TransformTO.
TAF Low Carbon Buildings Manager Ekaterina Tzekova emphasizes how deep energy retrofits in the new TowerWise phase will result in economic, environmental, and social benefits.
We spend the vast majority of our time indoors, but we rarely make the connection between our activities and the fact that buildings are a major source of carbon emissions. We need to significantly improve the way existing buildings perform – and we need to do it quickly. TAF is doing just that with the next phase of its TowerWise retrofit program.
TAF is launching the next phase of its TowerWise retrofit program. It will include four demonstration sites with different building types, demographics, and ownership structures in Toronto and Hamilton, representing the broader multi-residential sector – including social housing.
