Toronto’s Green Revolution: Harnessing Nature-Based Solutions for a Sustainable Urban Future June 19th, 2023
Via Medium, a look at how Toronto is using nature-based solutions such as green roofs to build a sustainable urban future:
Green roofs offer a multitude of environmental benefits. They serve as natural sponges, absorbing rainwater, reducing runoff, and mitigating urban flooding. By providing insulation, they help in reducing energy consumption and combatting the urban heat island effect. Additionally, they enhance air quality by filtering pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air. Green roofs also contribute to biodiversity by providing habitats for various species, thus creating green oases in urban landscapes.
Apart from their environmental benefits, green roofs also offer social and economic advantages, including job creation, support for local businesses, and improved health and well-being for urban residents. Studies have demonstrated that green roofs positively impact mental health and overall well-being by reducing stress and elevating mood.
Despite their promise, green roofs still face challenges, such as limited awareness and understanding of NBS among decision-makers, which can hinder funding and support for these projects. Additionally, designing and implementing effective, affordable, and long-term sustainable NBS can prove challenging.
Toronto greening its future
The City of Toronto, in its commitment to combat climate change, has instituted grants to encourage the installation of ‘eco-roofs’ — green and cool roofs — on city buildings. Green roofs, or vegetated roofs, include a multi-layered system with vegetation, which offers numerous benefits such as energy savings, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, stormwater management, and habitat creation. Cool roofs, alternatively, reflect the sun’s rays to reduce heat absorption. The grant scheme provides $100/m² for green roof installation and up to $1,000 for a structural assessment, and for cool roofs, $5/m² for a new membrane, and $2/m² for a cool roof coating on an existing roof. This program applies to existing and new buildings with a gross floor area of less than 2,000 m², including those constructed by Toronto School Boards and non-profit organizations.
Meanwhile, the City of Toronto’s Green Roof Bylaw, established in 2009, mandates the construction of green roofs for new developments or additions with a gross floor area greater than 2,000 m². The required green roof coverage ranges from 20–60% of the available roof space, depending on the building’s size. This applies to new commercial, institutional, residential, and industrial buildings. For industrial buildings, the bylaw requires either a green roof covering 10% of available roof space or a roof with cool roofing materials covering 100% of the available roof space. These buildings must also adhere to stormwater management performance measures.
The Take-Out
Green roofs are a versatile and eco-friendly solution to manage water resources while generating multiple co-benefits.
This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2023 at 6:41 am and is filed under Green Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Comments are closed.
ABOUT
Black Swans / Green Shoots examines the collision between urbanization and resource scarcity in a world affected by
climate change, identifying opportunities to build sustainable cities and resilient infrastructure through the use
of revolutionary capital, increased awareness, innovative technologies, and smart design to make a difference in the
face of global and local climate perils.
'Black Swans' are highly improbable events that come as a surprise, have major disruptive effects, and that are
often rationalized after the fact as if they had been predictable to begin with. In our rapidly warming world, such
events are occurring ever more frequently and include wildfires, floods, extreme heat, and drought.
'Green Shoots' is a term used to describe signs of economic recovery or positive data during a downturn. It
references a period of growth and recovery, when plants start to show signs of health and life, and, therefore, has
been employed as a metaphor for a recovering economy.
It is my hope that Black Swans / Green Shoots will help readers understand both climate-activated risk and
opportunity so that you may invest in, advise, or lead organizations in the context of increasing pressures of
global urbanization, resource scarcity, and perils relating to climate change. I believe that the tools of business
and finance can help individuals, businesses, and global society make informed choices about who and what to
protect, and I hope that this blog provides some insight into the policy and private sector tools used to assess
investments in resilient reinforcement, response, or recovery.
