BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA
AHMED AZHARI, DIRECTOR OF UTILITIES, SUSTAINABILITY & GROUNDS AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA, DISCUSSES HOW HIS ORGANIZATION IS DEVELOPING TOWARD A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
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roviding one of the largest further education facilities in Canada, the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) holds the
reputation of a leading organization in the country. The university is accelerating its prestige with significant growth over the past few years through 04
the development of new facilities, and is home to over 25 buildings with more on the horizon. With sustainability recognized as a top priority at UTM, from both an environmental perspective and as a boost to its reputation as a sustainable organization, the university has formed key plans to meet the challenge head-on. Tasked with enabling the university to achieve a more sustainable future, Ahmed Azhari, Director of Utilities, Sustainability & Grounds at UTM, believes student engagement is key to realizing this important ambition. “Staff and student engagement is incredibly important because sustainability isn’t just one person’s job,” he affirms. “It’s our job collectively as the UTM community to ensure everything we do reduces the impact on the environment and help mitigate climate change.
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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA
“ STAFF AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT BECAUSE SUSTAINABILITY ISN’T JUST ONE PERSON’S JOB” 06
— Ahmed Azhari, Director of Utilities, Sustainability & Grounds at UTM
We’ve conducted lots of student engagement activities to educate both students and faculty members, ensuring they are aware as to how they can use the buildings in a more efficient manner.” The university has installed energy dashboards into a number of the key buildings on campus to equip students and staff members with the knowledge to understand how much energy the building is using on a real-time basis. To accelerate this project, the university has established a ‘Grow Smart, Grow Green’ strategy which focuses on key topic areas such as green
buildings, natural areas, transportation,
“We’re trying to create an educational
water management, energy manage-
campaign in the community to
ment, waste and recycling. “As part
encourage our students and staff
of this scheme, we’ve introduced a ban
to recycle things properly,” remarks
on bottled water,” explains Azhari.
Azhari. “It’s a big engagement project
“Bottled water isn’t available to buy
that will help standardize all the waste
anywhere on campus and we’ve
bins we have on campus, as well as
replaced the single-use plastic with
producing new recycling schemes and
water fountains that allow those on
educating the faculty and community
campus to refill their bottles instead of
on how to dispose of waste properly.”
purchasing new ones. This is key to our sustainability strategy moving forward.” Operating with a clear goal in mind,
With many buildings across campus recognized with a silver standard minimum in Leadership in Energy and
the university is engaging with students
Environmental Design (LEED), the
to develop waste and recycling plans.
university’s buildings – which are made
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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA
08 from recycled and regional materials – include features such as green cleaning programs, low-flow fixtures, energy efficient mechanical and electrical systems, low-emitting materials and green roofs. “The construction policy that we have in place is that any new buildings must meet our requirements of being a minimum of LEED silver,” says Azhari. “However, we can’t stop there; we’re always looking to achieve more.” UTM’s HMALC (Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre), instructional building, Deerfield Hall and innovation complex all meet this requirement, as well as the
“ IT’S OUR JOB COLLECTIVELY AS THE UTM COMMUNITY TO ENSURE EVERYTHING WE DO REDUCES THE IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND HELP MITIGATE CLIMATE CHANGE” — Ahmed Azhari, Director of Utilities, Sustainability & Grounds at UTM
minimum target of the upcoming
campus,” notes Azhari. “It’s targeted
North Building. In addition, the Health
to be a minimum LEED silver that will
Sciences Complex and David building
incorporate two major renewable
third floor renovation have both
energy systems; geothermal system
achieved LEED gold status, while the
for building heating and cooling as well
new science building is also anticipat-
as a solar photovoltaic system to offset
ed to achieve this goal. “I have heavily
some of the building electrical require-
participated in the design of the New
ments. We will ensure that it utilizes other
Science building at UTM, which is set
sustainability measures that qualify it to
to house of the majority of the wet and
be certified above the minimum target
dry lab research that takes place on
under the LEED program.”
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Ahmed Azhari Ahmed Azhari has a diverse range of primary skills such as Sustainable Design, Facilities Management and Energy Management. Professionally, Ahmed manages the design of progressive disciplinary building systems; oversees the installation, operation and monitoring for the safe, comfortable, and environmentally friendly operations of modern buildings. He has delivered designs that play a significant role on the sustainability and energy demand of buildings while utilizing renewable energy, sustainability, low carbon technologies, LEED strategies, and energy management techniques. Ahmed is currently registered with Professional Engineers Ontario as a Professional Engineer (P.Eng.), with Canada Green Building Council as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP), and with Association of Energy Engineers as Certified Energy Manager (CEM).
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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA
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— Ahmed Azhari, Director of Utilities, Sustainability & Grounds at UTM w w w.ut m.uto ron to. ca
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13 The university formed a key partnership with EXP, through a competitive public procurement process, to help with the design retrofit for two projects on campus; the Recreational Athletics and Wellness Centre (RAWC) and the Kaneff Centre. “EXP designed the system and helped us put the tender out for public pricing. They currently help us on the construction administration and the project management to help successfully deliver,” he says. “The RAWC is an athletics building, it has a swimming pool and a sauna, with significant heating demand
“ MY VISION FROM A SUSTAINABILITY PERSPECTIVE IS TO DESIGN AND ENABLE ALL FUTURE BUILDINGS TO BECOME CARBON NEUTRAL” — Ahmed Azhari, Director of Utilities, Sustainability & Grounds at UTM w w w.ut m.uto ron to. ca
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA
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requirements. We realized a solar hot water system would be an ideal installation in a building like this to help offset some of the building heating demand and fulfil our commitments to utilizing renewable energy sources in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” Looking to the future, Azhari has a clear vision of how UTM can continue the promising start it has made. “We haven’t finished – we’re always looking to grow. We’ve signed up for the University Climate Change Coalition Challenge (UC3 Challenge), which aims to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 37% by 2030, against a 1990 baseline. My vision from a sustainability perspective is to design and enable all future buildings to become Carbon Neutral in order to help remediate our environmental impact and help mitigate climate change.”
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3359 Mississauga Rd Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6 Canada T +1 905 301 1839 www.utm.utoronto.ca