7 minute read
Interview - University of Toronto
CLIMATEPOSITIVE CAMPUSES
THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO RECENTLY ANNOUNCED PLANS TO MAKE ITS ST. GEORGE CAMPUS CLIMATE POSITIVE BY 2050, MEANING IT WILL CURB MORE EMISSIONS THAN IT EMITS. THIS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY AND UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE, ADOPTION OF CUTTING-EDGE BUILDING DESIGN AND RETROFITS, EXPANSION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION, AND OTHER MEASURES. (PHOTO BY THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO) Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Marc Couture, Director of Sustainability and Energy Management at the University of Toronto about sustainability principles, reducing carbon emissions, and empowering individuals to be sustainability leaders.
By Isobel Moss
The University of Toronto (U of T) was founded in 1827 and consists of three campuses: the main St. George campus in downtown Toronto, the Mississauga campus to the west, and the Scarborough campus to the east. The campuses consist of approximately 266 buildings and span 1.8 million square meters, with approximately 900 programs of study and a term-time population of over 100,000 people. Today, U of T is a figurehead in innovative research, the number one-ranked university in Canada, and the 18th globally.
SUSTAINABLE PILLARS
U of T approaches its carbon and energy framework with four key principles. “Firstly, we have a conservation first principle, where the university is looking to conserve and reduce,” says Marc Couture, Director of Sustainability and Energy Management at U of T. “The second principle is to balance carbon with cost. The university’s jurisdictions have many different rates, tariffs, and different fuel and energy options. The third principle is to reach beyond our own assets that are not under our direct control. For example, our district energy system on our St. George campus delivers energy to buildings and assets that U of T does not directly manage. These are either third party clients or affiliates of U of T. The fourth key principle is fostering innovative solutions such as community-engaged learning, following the Campus as a Living Lab model, and incorporating demonstrable technology. This really helps to support core academic and research missions.”
CARBON AND ENERGY MASTER PLAN
With their master plan at the St. George campus, U of T is aiming to create a climate positive campus by 2050. “Our revised target is to go beyond carbon neu-
“MARC COUTURE STANDS NEAR SOLAR PANELS ON THE ROOF OF U OF T’S EXAM CENTRE. THE UNIVERSITY IS IMPLEMENTING MORE RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION AS A PART OF ITS NEW MASTER PLAN, INCLUDING MORE PHOTOVOLTAICS. (PHOTO BY JACKLYN ATLAS)
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trality to essentially reduce more emissions than we emit to actually have a positive impact,” explains Mr. Couture. “The university has three categories within the carbon and energy master plan and the first category is to manage growth. The campus is roughly 1.4 million square meters currently but is forecasted to nearly double by 2050. We are trying to mitigate the impacts of growth by optimizing space utilization, making sure we’re using the existing space efficiently before we create new space. U of T wants the cleanest and most efficient energy and distribution systems available for all new construction.”
The second category is infrastructure renewal. To reach its targets, U of T plans to upgrade existing building infrastructure. “That is going to represent just over half of our total managed assets and campus,” says Mr. Couture. “Currently the average age of our buildings exceeds 80 years – by North American standards that’s an old building. One of U of T’s big challenges is to renew responsibly and to leverage those opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint. A deep energy retrofit program has been implemented, which is focused on existing aged buildings to dramatically reduce the energy use intensity by over 40%. A few techniques that are going to be used are active heat recovery, steam to hot water conversions, and electrification of heating systems.”
U of T is also implementing more renewable energy generation as a part of the new master plan. “This will include looking to double, or more, photovoltaics - solar and solar thermal energy on campus, as well as ground source heat through geoexchange systems,” says Mr. Couture. “The third category is to build resilient systems. We want to take more of a holistic and systems approach for the renewal, and to make sure that we produce, distribute, and consume in a more resilient manner.”
DEEP ENERGY
There are already several geoexchange systems either completed or in the process of being installed on campus. “Currently, U of T is developing roughly 1,400 tons of ground source heat,” says Mr. Couture. For example, 374 holes have been drilled in the historic King’s College circle. Overall at U of T, with the projects that are underway or completed, there will be over 3,000 tons of ground source heat available through geoexchange. This will make us Canada’s largest operator of urban geoexchange systems. Another project almost complete is the residences in the Huron Sussex neighborhood, which will be one of the lowest-carbon residences on the St. George campus. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) intensity is a very low six kilograms of CO2 emissions per square meter per year. This is one of the first buildings to be implemented using our new performance standards, with excellent results.”
Most recently, U of T is developing Project 50, a new project intended to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions at the St. George campus by 50%. “This project is meant to accelerate change towards our 2050 targets,” says Mr. Couture. “The university is going to look at doing six deep energy retrofits on existing buildings. We’re looking into a partial electrification of our central heating plant and incorporating some energy storage around our district network. Technologies such as electrical battery storage, we’re also going to be looking at ice storage, and possibly some thermal heat storage, to create a more resilient, low carbon, district network.
THE LANDMARK PROJECT IS U OF T’S BOLDEST OPEN-SPACE PROJECT IN THE PAST 100 YEARS. IT WILL FEATURE CANADA’S LARGEST URBAN GEOEXCHANGE IN THE CENTRE OF OUR DOWNTOWN CAMPUS, WHICH WILL GENERATE MUCH-NEEDED RENEWABLE ENERGY, REDUCE CARS ON CAMPUS, AND TRANSFORM CENTRAL LOCATIONS INTO GREEN COMMUNITY SPACES WITH GARDENS, WALKWAYS, GATHERING AREAS, AND MORE. (PHOTO BY MATTHEW VOLPE)”
U of T is aiming for this to reduce our emissions by a minimum of 45,000 metric tons by the end of 2025.”
WORKING TOGETHER
U of T fosters local and global partnerships that aim to grow from each other’s success. “In terms of partnerships, U of T wants to play a leadership role both locally and globally,” says Mr. Couture. “U of T is involved in a number of different coalitions, namely the U7+ Alliance and the University Climate Change Coalition (UC3), as well as local organizations, which allow us to share best practices and discuss initiatives with our peers. These forums allow us to discuss initiatives, best practices, the scope of projects we are working on, and to share findings and results. It’s really important to share all the wins and challenges. That way, everyone in these different groups can learn from each other’s missteps, as well as our successes. It is important to build on each other’s successes, rather than to repeat failures. One of the ways the university collaborates is through meetings and workshops, but also in the development of different tools, techniques and frameworks to help accelerate decarbonization. For example, U of T co-developed, with the U7+ Alliance and the University of Edinburgh, a greenhouse gas reduction and energy efficiency framework.”
“It is our role to empower change at multiple different levels,” says Mr. Couture. “We have a new series of five programs for action called the Sustainable Change Programs: Sustainable Labs, Sustainable Offices, Sustainable Events, Sustainable Courses, and Sustainable Residences. These programs are focused towards educating and empowering students, staff and faculty across our campus to be the change agents who will drive behavioral changes in these five categories. They are given the resources and a checklist of initiatives that they can implement. Once these changes have been implemented and encouraged, a certification is awarded from bronze to platinum, based on accumulated points. We are hoping to empower each of our 100,000 plus community members at U of T to take a look at their behaviors and to provide them with the guidance and the expertise to modify their behaviors and collectively help us achieve our targets.” c
