Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

TAF provides a critical spark for the development of urban climate change solutions. With an independent endowment of $23 million, TAF provides grants to non-profit and community organizations, and loans to business and public sector projects that can reduce global warming pollution, often with co-investors to amplify the impact. TAF also incubates and advances innovative solutions – including policies, technologies, services, and behaviours -- to reducing key sources of greenhouse gas emissions. TAF leverages its 20 years of experience through partnerships with other organizations, agencies, companies and co-investors, with a focus on extending the reach and ramp up of solutions in and beyond Toronto.

History of Organization

In 1988, Toronto welcomed world leaders and scientists for the first-ever international conference to address the threat posed by human-induced climate change. Concerned about how growing greenhouse gas emissions would affect cities, Toronto City Council took far-sighted action and set a 20% emissions reduction goal. In 1991, to help implement this commitment, the City established the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, the world’s first municipally focused climate solutions agency. Functionally, TAF operates as a non-profit corporation, accountable to the City for its endowment. Recently TAF expanded its activities to focus strategically on specific sectors with high potential for emission reductions.

Accolades and Accomplishments

TAF works on the cutting edge, supporting innovative ideas or approaches, helping overcome significant barriers, and scaling up solutions that can deliver significant emission reductions. Over the past 20 years TAF has helped bring Toronto the world’s first urban wind turbine, deep lake water cooling, Canada’s largest solar photovoltaic installation and its largest community-based solar thermal project. London replicated the TAF model with our help, and various other cities including New York have learned from TAF’s programs including LightSavers (which focuses on high-efficiency outdoor lighting), TowerWise (described later), and SolarCity (which pioneered new municipal rules for rooftop solar thermal installations). TAF has been featured as a ‘social innovation’ organization and recognized by politicians, entrepreneurs and community activists as a key reason that Toronto has a leadership position on the climate change file nationally and internationally TAF has supported hundreds of community climate action projects and has provided millions of dollars in financing for private sector and institutional projects that reduce GHG emissions, while earning a return for our endowment. While TAF has a very small staff, we are privileged to attract dozens of extremely well qualified volunteers to our Board of Directors, Investment and Grants committees, and through internships.

Programs

>Low-Carbon Finance
>TowerWise
>FleetWise

TAF supports and advances innovative, market-transforming action on climate change and air quality.  

Our mandate-related finance program (loans) operates on a double bottom line principle – projects that we finance must help us to increase our endowment while also contributing to significant greenhouse gas reductions.  

Grants provided to the community aim to catalyze action and have supported numerous creative projects such as the impressive zero-energy Now House, the deep green Brickworks revitalization, solar buying clubs and greening sacred spaces.

TAF implements strategic programs targeting key sources of emissions, taking an integrated approach that includes policy reform, technology deployment, community engagement and financial investment. The current programs are:
•    SolarCity -- unleashing the City’s solar potential by sharing best practices and reducing barriers to green energy
•    TowerWise -- reducing the sky-high emissions of condos and apartment towers by improving energy efficiency
•    FleetWise -- integrating electric vehicles in fleets so that high mileage doesn’t have to mean high emissions
•    LightSavers -- smarter lighting for streets, parks and garages and other open spaces.

Low-Carbon Finance

Access to capital is one of the biggest barriers to improving energy efficiency, whether it is for individual homeowners, institutions or developers. TAF has an important track record of developing creative financing approaches to overcome the lack of conventional finance available for everything from building retrofits to solar energy installations. Our Green Condo Loan, for example, bridges the divide between condominium builders who want to keep costs down and the eventual unit buyers who will pay the ongoing utility costs of a less efficient building. Similarly, TAF is working to create new loan products for the solar power industry to help jumpstart the development of multiple projects while reducing lending risk. TAF is very interested in working with companies, communities and institutions to develop new finance approaches and with other funders to extend the reach of our finance program.

Program Impact

TAF financing has helped various innovative projects get off the ground. Our Green Condo Loan has led to the development of top efficiency buildings in Toronto; we structured the financing for a appliance upgrade program in Toronto Community Housing units that is saving money, improving people’s services and reducing our City’s emissions; and we are demonstrating to commercial lenders that Toronto’s nascent solar industry has bankable projects. Each of these leading-edge projects provides another demonstration of game-changing ‘green’ finance which commercial lenders can learn from and adopt.

Funding and Program Partners

TAF is plugged into a diverse network of public and private organizations with mutual interest in advancing solutions to climate change.  For instance, TAF worked with Tridel and Bay St. law firms to develop the Green Condo Loan Program; with the City to develop and then finance two City-wide re-lamping programs (traffic lights and streetlights); with Toronto Community Housing on a major appliance upgrade; with an engineering firm to establish Toronto’s first solar hot water utility; and with various institutions on efficiency upgrades.  All projects are vetted by TAF’s Investment Committee, which includes 14 blue-chip investment experts and practitioners. 

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

“The Toronto Region has yet to meet 2010 standards for Air Quality: On 19 days in 2007, ground-level ozone in the region exceeded threshold levels.”

“An estimated 1,700 early deaths and 6,000 hospital visits every year are the result
of air pollution in Toronto.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

Tridel is committed to improving the environmental sustainability of its buildings, but it is also conscious of the need to ensure affordability. With high-rise living becoming one of most popular and affordable forms of habitation in Toronto, TAF worked with Tridel to find a way to make its buildings energy efficient while not increasing unit costs. The answer was the Green Condo Loan, a loan that allowed Tridel to incorporate a number of energy saving features into its construction plans. However, the loan is actually being paid back by the building residents, who enjoy the utility cost savings that result from the building upgrades. Everyone wins, including our environment.

TowerWise

Toronto has the second highest concentration of high-rise buildings in North America, after New York. Many apartment towers were built in the period of the 1950s-1970s when energy efficiency was not even on builder’s radar screens. Even now, new condo towers are often energy inefficient as builders strive to keep unit costs down. The TowerWise program is an outreach and education program designed to inform high-rise building owners (apartment building owners and condo residents) about opportunities to save money while helping the environment. Our Conservation Advisor Service helps building owners create effective plans for saving energy and access incentive programs. TowerWise fills an important gap in serving a community – high rise dwellers – often ignored by other energy conservation programs.

Program Impact

TowerWise is helping to make Toronto’s high rises more energy efficient, more comfortable and more affordable to operate.  High rises are an important way of accommodating our growing population in high-density nodes that reduce our overall environmental impact.  Improving life in these buildings by improving their energy efficiency is key to making high-rise living a viable and environmentally friendly option for more Torontonians.  Energy efficiency improvements can also often free up critically important cash flow to support other building repairs.  The high rise sector is the source of 10% of Toronto’s greenhouse gas emissions and has a much higher level of emissions per square foot than single family dwellings, meaning there is an immense opportunity for improvement in this area.

Funding and Program Partners

TowerWise is supported by a range of partners including the City of Toronto’s Better Buildings Partnership, Enbridge Gas Distribution, the Greater Toronto Apartment Association, the Canadian Condominium Institute and the Association of Condominium Managers of Ontario.  TAF convened the TowerWise Education and Action Committee (TEEAC), a group of public and private players interested in improving high-rise living, to guide and make direct connections to the high-rise sector.  Both federal and provincial environment departments are funding a special project aimed at creating ‘green’ condo board champions to advance efficiency in this sector.

TowerWise is helping to make Toronto’s high rises more energy efficient, more comfortable and more affordable to operate. High rises are an important way of accommodating our growing population in high-density nodes that reduce our overall environmental impact. Improving life in these buildings by improving their energy efficiency is key to making high-rise living a viable and environmentally friendly option for more Torontonians. Energy efficiency improvements can also often free up critically important cash flow to support other building repairs. The high rise sector is the source of 10% of Toronto’s greenhouse gas emissions and has a much higher level of emissions per square foot than single family dwellings, meaning there is an immense opportunity for improvement in this area.

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

“Green building initiatives will save energy and reduce City costs and emissions.”

“The affordable options available to Toronto’s low-income renters are narrowing,
and the percentage of rental housing stock in need of major repairs is growing
rapidly.”

“Toronto's rental apartment stock largely dates from 1955 -1980. In 2009, 20% of
rental apartments in the City are 50 years old or older; only a decade from now, almost 60% will be. The City risks an even greater squeeze on affordable housing unless these apartments can be refurbished without the landlords raising rents.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

Direct Properties owns a pair of older apartment buildings in Toronto. As a small company, they were not sure they had the means to undertake energy retrofits of their buildings. TowerWise’s Conservation Advisor worked with the company to show them how energy retrofits could pay off and how to access the confusing menu of financial incentives. As a result, the company undertook a major lighting retrofit in both buildings that will reduce GHG emissions by more than 25 tonnes per year. Direct is so excited by these results that they are now looking at installing new boilers and radiator panels that will save money and emissions while making their buildings’ heating systems more reliable for residents.

FleetWise

Transportation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Toronto.  It is also a major source of other air pollutants that affect the air quality in our communities, especially those adjacent to arterial roads or highways.  If we are going to meet Toronto’s 2050 emission targets, we must get 60% of conventional cars off the road.

Electric vehicles (all-electric or plug-in hybrid) can dramatically reduce transportation emissions.  Building on our previous support for transportation demand management programs, our Fleetwise program looks at what can be done to reduce emissions from high-mileage vehicle users – public and private fleets.  These users are less able to shift to other modes (e.g., transit), but have the interest and the means to lead the shift to electric vehicles.  Through the FleetWise EV300 program, we are helping fleets to take some of the risk out of going electric by sharing knowledge, making collective purchasing decisions and collaborating with utilities and others to address infrastructure needs. The goal is to make the Toronto region a vibrant hub for electric vehicle use in North America.

FIT IN THAT IS 43% OF TORONTO EMISSIONS!

Program Impact

Electric vehicles can reduce greenhouse gas and smog emissions from vehicles by 80% or more. Fleets are an ideal place to deploy these vehicles because they have fewer suitable alternatives than other users and are sophisticated vehicle buyers who focus on lifetime costs and not just purchase cost. By demonstrating real-world electric vehicle use, fleets can also set an example for other users and drive the development of needed infrastructure, such as charging stations.

Funding and Program Partners

FleetWise has already attracted commitments from a number of public fleets and interest from private fleets is growing.  We are also working closely with vehicle manufacturers to market Toronto as a destination for their vehicles.

Current fleet partners include City of Toronto Fleet Services, Ministry of Transportation Ontario, Toronto Hydro, Hydro One Networks Inc., Bullfrog Power, Toronto District School Board, Fleet Challenge Ontario, Rocky Mountain Institute’s Project Get Ready, Electric Mobility Canada, Capgemini

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

“Congestion is costly, and reducing commute times would boost productivity and
prosperity:
The estimated excess cost of congestion to City of Toronto residents in 2006 was $555 per capita, in lost time, additional vehicle operating costs, collisions and emissions.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

Toronto Hydro is both a fleet operator, with a wide variety of vehicles making a wide variety of trips on Toronto roads every day, and a key infrastructure supplier for electric vehicles. Toronto Hydro worked with TAF on a pilot program for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and has now joined its Fleetwise EV300 program both to help it with deployment of electric vehicles and to gain a window into the infrastructure needs of electric vehicle operators.