Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

Clean Air Partnership’s mission is to transform cities into sustainable, vibrant, resilient communities, where the air is clean to breathe and Greenhouse Gas emissions are minimized. Clean Air Partnership works with partners to achieve clean air, facilitate the exchange of ideas, advance change and promote and coordinate implementation of actions that improve local air quality. 

History of Organization

Clean Air Partnership (CAP) is a registered charity launched in June, 2000. CAP’s energies are directed at addressing the greening of cities through cleaning the air, stabilizing climate, and protecting people from air pollution and the impacts of climate change.

CAP employs a range of tools to achieve these results. These include research, mapping, policy initiatives, market solutions, and public education. CAP works closely with local communities and others who share the common goal of healthy sustainable cities.

CAP’s strategic focus is to get results, using our resources for targeted efforts concentrated on the critical issues of air quality and climate change.

CAP maintains a local perspective: Our areas of work - fostering livable green cities with healthy air quality, GHG emissions reduction, energy conservation and climate change adaptation – engages us in research and direct work with local decision-makers and communities.

Accolades and Accomplishments

1. We worked to ensure GTA-CAC municipalities set integrated clean air and climate change targets for implementation by 2010 and beyond.
2. In partnership with GTA school boards, we delivered 20/20 The Way to Clean Air to over 400 classrooms and 10,000 families.
3. Start-up of the Southwestern Ontario Clean Air Council.
4. Produced Green Doors website showcasing over 75 green buildings Ontario wide.  
5. Recruited members for Alliance for Resilient Cities from across Canada.
6. Hosted webinars on topics related to climate change impacts and adaptation, attended by communities nationwide.
7. Launched the North/South Climate Change Network.
8. Assisted the City of Toronto in developing its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, adopted by Council in July 2008. 
9. Participated in the Expert Panel on Climate Change Adaptation, to construct Ontario’s climate change adaptation strategy.
10. Delivered the first course for urban planners on Planning for Climate Change, with 19 planners from 10 Ontario communities.
11. Peer reviewed a new national guidebook for local governments on integrating Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation & Sustainability.

Programs

>Idle-Free in the GTA
>Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation
>C3Ontario

Working with local networks, partnerships and capacity building processes the Clean Air Partnership (CAP) is in a unique position to facilitate transformation of Canadian communities to be more liveable and green. CAP’s well established peer to peer learning and applied research capabilities provide unique advantages to our local audience. CAP ensures and accelerates progress on improved urban air quality, reduced Greenhouse Gas emissions and resilient sustainable cities.

CAP’s strength is in convening and participating in networks of community, municipal governments, and experts in the clean air and climate change fields to ensure actions based on sound research and data.

CAP’s networks include local and regional as well as national and international networks. These include the Greater Toronto Area and Southwestern Ontario Clean Air Councils; North/South Climate Change Network; Alliance for Resilient Cities and we actively participate in the international networks such as Urban Climate Change Research Network, which is a consortium around the world formed to facilitate and build the connections between research and policy at the urban scale.

CAP’s focus areas include the following. For more information on each, please visit our website:

Health and Air Quality

20/20 The Way to Clean Air

Annual Summit

Idle-Free in the GTA

GTA Clean Air Council

Adaptation Strategies

Alliance for Resilient Cities

North / South Climate Change Network

Urban Heat Island

Extreme Heat Decision Support System

Fleet Emissions Tool

Green Buildings

Active Transportation

Urban Forests

Green Energy

Green Procurement

Building Evaluation Capacity

Idle-Free in the GTA

Air pollution and its health effects pose significant concerns. In 2008, air pollution contributed to 9,500 early deaths and over 16,000 hospital admissions in Ontario. Idling vehicles unnecessarily contribute to our air pollution problems and the solution is so simple – turn the key on wasteful idling by not idling.

Education and changing of social norms is a key component of reducing the needless pollution caused when we idle our vehicles. CAP is training youth to deliver idle free campaigns through community centres, daycares and schools.

Promoting idle free at school is an excellent way for students to focus on an environmental action they can influence and thereby see that their actions do make a difference. Helping people change their idling behaviour also builds awareness of the connection between everyday actions and air pollution and climate change. To assist schools and their students deliver this message, CAP developed an idle free campaign in a box resource and an outdoor banner promoting the idle free message well beyond the idle free school campaign. 

Program Impact

Since 2003, our idle free in the GTA program engaged 22 municipalities in the GTA and resulted in 11 GTA jurisdictions putting idle free bylaws in place. In addition beyond the GTA, another 13 Southern Ontario municipalities have adopted idle free bylaws.

In the last few years, CAP delivered the idle free message to thousands of young people and supported over 30 schools and 300 students to deliver the idle free message at their schools, reaching an estimated 3000 families. 

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“There were 19 days in 2007 when ground-level ozone in the Toronto Region exceeded threshold levels (the 7-year average was 21 days). Industrial emissions and vehicle exhaust are primary contributors. On 8 days in 2007, levels of particulate matter in the air exceeded the provincial standard that is expected to be achieved by 2010 (the average over 7 years was 11.3 days). Both ozone and particulate matter adversely affect people with respiratory problems, as well as causing damage to vegetation and corroding metalwork.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

"It was amazing to have folks from the Clean Air Partnership come into the school to talk about idling. After the CAP idle free workshop, the students in grades 3 to 6 were inspired to launch their own awareness campaign, and they posted the hallways and classrooms of the school with idle free signs asking parents to “Stop Idling!” and reminding them that “Idling harms our lungs!” ‘I captured the students’ enthusiasm to come up with idle free activities as part of the social studies curriculum. “Students designed surveys on idling and then interviewed the parents outside. These junior social scientists created tally charts to see how many people were idling and shared the results in morning announcements and the school newspaper.” Teacher Ana Neves

"After seeing the success at Hawthorne Public School we wanted to get our students at neighbouring Essex Public School in on the action. Students developed an idle free message to take home to parents. Students also turned themselves into walking billboards promoting the idle free message and they created an outdoor banner declaring “Stop Idling” You have entered an Idle Free Zone”. Parents took it well. Prior to the campaign, there were 15–20 vehicles routinely idling in front of the school. Now there are none." Lauren Renzetti, Essex School Parent 

Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation

The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation  (TCAT) was formed in 2006 and represents a unified voice to over 50 organizations working for a better cycling and pedestrian environment in Toronto. TCAT became a project of CAP in 2008, and now guides the active transportation programming at CAP.

TCAT provides policy analysis, plans and implements research and planning studies, and organizes outreach and training events aimed at sharing innovative practices and increasing the percentage of walking and biking trips in Toronto.

TCAT works closely with other CAP staff to produce original research on active transportation. In 2009 and 2010 CAP released reports that examined the economic impact of reallocating road space currently reserved for on-street parking.

TCAT has organized three successful active transportation conferences: Bike Summit 2008, Bike Summit 2009 and Complete Streets Forum 2010. Featuring leading experts from around the world, these policy conferences profiled new approaches to effectively design healthy cities and streets for all road users with a focus on cycling and walking.

Program Impact

Since 2006 TCAT's work has raised the profile of active transportation in the City of Toronto, helping to advance improvements to the Martin Goodman Trail, the adoption of the City’s Walking Strategy, and increased cycling funding in the City's capital budget. TCAT more than tripled the number of supporting organizations since it began: from 17 to close to 60. 

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“People are more likely to be sedentary (and to suffer health problems like obesity) if they live in a neighbourhood without sidewalks and bicycle paths. Residents in some Toronto neighbourhoods face significant barriers to getting around without driving. A study of 9 neighbourhoods in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke with concentrations of high rises along major arterial routes and large populations of newcomers, seniors, youth and young families (those least likely to own a car) has found that most residents rely on walking, in an urban environment designed for cars.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

“My greatest experience with TCAT was my 2009 internship designed to augment my schooling in the Masters of Environmental Studies Programme in Planning at York University. At TCAT, I worked with professionals in the active transportation field and was given the opportunity to research and write a proposal that was submitted to the City of Toronto for consideration. Not only did this research opportunity allow me to develop insights and skills necessary for work in the field, the completed document is valuable and relevant for both Toronto and other municipalities. I am most appreciative of this opportunity to learn while making a difference.” - Comment from Melanie Walther, TCAT Intern.

Comments from Bike Summit 2008 Attendees:

• Fantastic event!
• The speakers were really interesting and inspiring, and there was a great mix of people in attendance.
• It is nice to see an environmental conference which follows through on the details.

Comments from Bike Summit 2009 Attendees:

• Best conference I’ve ever been too!
• Great job… love the international speakers!
• Very good event, interesting presentations, well-timed and on time. Congratulations, job well done!

Comments from Complete Streets Forum 2010 Attendees:

• Great conference- leading edge
• Very timely, great work!
• Great program, well done!

C3Ontario

In urban areas, the extra few degrees added by the Urban Heat Island (UHI) during Southern Ontario’s already warm and humid summers can impact energy use, costs, and our health. Heating and cooling needs account for about 60% of a home’s energy costs, and associated GHG and air pollutant emissions. C3Ontario is an education and outreach project with the goal of reducing contributions to the UHI from Toronto homes. The program seeks to increase homeowner awareness about the UHI, and to promote the passive cooling measures available to alleviate it. These measures include tree planting, landscaping, cool roofing and permeable paving. CAP will support and encourage homeowners to purchase and install passive cooling measures by working with retailer and contractor partners to create incentives and discounts. To increase awareness about the UHI, we have developed an outreach and education program consisting of a 6-8 page guidebook for homeowners, a website, public displays and short presentations. This targets homeowners in Toronto which contain many ‘hot spots’ as identified during thermal mapping by Natural Resource Canada.

Program Impact

By installing cooling measures on our properties, we are able to minimize the heat absorbed by our homes and decrease the overall summer temperature of our community. This results in lower energy consumption for air conditioning and a decrease in associated greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions. We estimate, based on research, that a household that installs all promoted passive cooling measures will reduce emissions by the equivalent of driving a car for over 3,000 km, while a household that strategically plants trees and other vegetation will reduce emissions by the equivalent of driving a car for 750 km.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“Green building initiatives will save energy and reduce City costs and emissions:
The Mayor’s Tower Renewal program, which aims to significantly improve the energy efficiency of Toronto’s more than 1,000 concrete slab apartment towers, has moved another step forward. Community energy plans are being developed for three pilot sites in the west, east and north areas of the City. Tower renewal planning will also look at enhancing access to parks and natural areas, improvements to active transportation, use of local green technologies (and local employment), and expansion of the tree canopy”. (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

Cooling measures such as permeable paving, tree planting or cool roofing can generate savings whether you are living in a hot area or not. Many of these mitigation measures have multiple applications and no matter where you live, will save you money in the long term due to reductions in energy use. “When we have several cool roofs, trees planted and permeable pavements installed in a single area, the temperature reduction can be as high as 3°c. Such a reduction has the potential to substantially reduce ozone concentrations and improve air quality. Using cool pavements, where we have a 10°c reduction in surface temperature means we can prolong the life of this pavement by 50-100%. If all cities in temperate and tropical regions installed cool roofs and pavements, the equivalent cooling would offset 44Gt of CO². This is the equivalent of 1.5 years of the entire planet’s CO² emissions or the emissions from all of the cars on the plant for 10 years.” (Hashem Akbari, Heat Island Group, Concordia University).