sustainability : In The News

The Toronto Star writes on restaurant green roofs, the growing trend in Toronto's culinary scene. Featuring four celebrated Toronto restaurants -- Beast, Parts and Labour, Vertical and Weezie's -- the article looks at the challenges and the joys of growing your own food. An excerpt on Beast's green roof:

"Beast, 96 Tecumseth St."

"Growers: Rachelle and Scott Vivian, spouses and co-chefs, formerly of Church Street's Wine Bar."

"What they grow: Tomatoes, chili peppers, strawberries, edible calendula and nasturtium flowers, herbs and "corn by accident," said Rachelle. Planted on a whim, the cornstalks quickly shot up, and now the plants are flowering. The duo don't think they'll actually get cobs � but then again, they might."

"Challenges: Raccoons. One ate an entire plant of chili peppers. "I don't feel sorry for him," said Scott, "but I kind of do. Those things were spicy." Cucumbers and coriander just wouldn't grow, despite their best efforts."

"Joys: "Not having to go into the walk-in and open up a bag of herbs," said Scott. "That's definitely the most satisfying part."

"What they grow: Hard-to-find heirloom varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, hot peppers, peas, beans, and Swiss chard. Shehata is particularly proud of the more than 40 varieties of heirloom lettuce."

"How he grows it: McAuley trawls construction sites for leftover wood hoarding, which he builds into bins. The upcycled greenhouse is entirely made from found and salvaged windows and doors."

"Challenges: "This year we went full tilt and failed," said Shehata. "Which is fine." Blasting heat wilted many of the plants, a problem exacerbated by a spongy soil mixture that didn't allow fledgling plants to properly root."

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original source Toronto Star

The Energy Report interviews Vikas Ranja, co-founder and Managing Director of Toronto-based research firm, Ubika Research. In the interview Ranja discusses the importance and promise of the cleantech market segment that has a "whole range of technology that will enable humankind to basically conduct life in ways that are more eco-friendly and sustainable." An excerpt from the interview:

"TER: Are you noticing any trends in the [cleantech] market segment?"

"VR: Yes, absolutely. A couple of years ago when you talked about cleantech, the discussion mostly centered on alternative energy with a focus on wind, solar and, to a certain extent, geothermal companies. But in the last three years or so, there's been an acknowledgment that cleantech is much more than renewable power generation. This move toward a broader classification is a really big change."

"Another big change would be the growth of a whole set of companies that focus on very basic problems, for example, methods of providing clean drinking water to the vast majority of the global population, and more efficient technologies for waste management, especially in developing countries."

"We are seeing a growing acceptance of clean technologies in these areas, and you can see increased participation among the governments, especially in the developed world. Governments are actively supporting this sector through various programs and some subsidies."

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original source Energy Report

The Globe & Mail looks at the "greening" of Canada's largest cities; municipal governments across the country continue to take bold steps to create cleaner more sustainable urban environments. In Toronto this has meant, among other initiatives, an increase in green architecture and more downtown bike lanes.

"Concerns about the environment have topped opinion polls for the last five to 10 years, says Pascoal Gomes, a spokesman for Montreal's Urban Ecology Centre."

"But in ever-increasing numbers, people � and cities � are acting on those concerns."

"I think people are waking up to the fact that while we might still be OK, our children and grandchildren might not be," said Beate Bowron, a consultant with the Canadian Institute of Planners."

"...Some buildings in Toronto are being built without any parking whatsoever. There's a building on University Avenue, a condo development, that's being built with no parking. That's fairly radical," she said."

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original source Globe & Mail

The Toronto Star writes on Keep Leaf, a Toronto company that designs stylish eco-friendly products. Founded by Torontonian Jaswinder Salh, Keep Leaf sells a range of green products but is best known for its reusable bags, currently sold at more than 50 stores across Ontario.

"Salh launched Keep Leaf with two products. The Shopper is a polyester reusable shopping bag, which conveniently folds up into a small pouch. It comes in a variety of solid colours from navy to pink and retails for $6.95."

"The Produce Bag, used for storing fruits, vegetables and bulk items, comes in mesh and solid weave fabrics, two different sizes and either polyester or cotton. A set of four cotton produce bags costs $16.95."

"Early on, Salh turned to her contacts in the retail and fashion industry for feedback, which helped shaped the brand. She ensured Keep Leaf products had streamlined packaging and stylish display options. "In order for consumers to choose reusable over the convenience of disposable, the reusable product must entice with more than just its green credentials," Salh says."

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original source Toronto Star

As reported by Science Daily, a team of University of Toronto scientists have discovered how to substantially reduce the cost of solar energy. The breakthrough could mean a proliferation of the already inexpensive technology.

"The researchers have invented a solar panel that uses inexpensive nickel in the place of gold, One of the most promising technologies for making inexpensive but reasonably efficient solar photovoltaic cells just got much cheaper. Scientists at the University of Toronto in Canada have shown that inexpensive nickel can work just as well as gold for one of the critical electrical contacts that gather the electrical current produced by their colloidal quantum dot solar cells."

"The change to nickel can reduce the cell's already low material costs by 40 to 80 percent, says Lukasz Brzozowski, the director of the Photovoltaics Research Program in Professor Ted Sargent's group. They present their research in the July 12, 2010 issue of Applied Physics Letters, which is published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP)."

"Quantum dots are nanoscale bits of a semiconductor material that are created using low-cost, high-throughput chemical reactions in liquid solutions. Since their properties vary according to their size, quantum dots can be made to match the illumination spectrum. Half of all sunlight, for example, is in the infrared wavelengths, most of which cannot be collected by silicon-based solar cells. Sargent's group has pioneered the design and development of quantum dot solar cells that gather both visible and infrared light. They have reached a power-conversion efficiency as high as 5 percent and aim to improve that to 10 percent before commercialization."

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original source Science Daily

By the end of next month Toronto will be home to North America's greenest hostel. As reported by the Globe & Mail (and by Yonge Street back in February), Kensington Market's Planet Traveller is on schedule to complete an impressive $160,000 green renovation. The focal point of the project will be its underground geothermal heating-and-cooling system: eight loops of geothermal piping drilled into an adjacent street that will serve almost all of the hostel's energy needs.

"When the doors to North America's greenest hostel opens next month at 357 College St., the most exciting feature won't be anywhere inside, but instead 115 metres below ground in the adjacent alleyway. That's where the glycol liquid in eight geothermal loops will turn the corner and start heading back above ground to heat or cool the hostel."

"Once you get three metres underground, the earth stays a constant 10 degrees Celsius all year. This is a source of relative heat in the winter and cold in the summer. The system exploits the temperature discrepancy by using small amounts of electricity to pump glycol through the underground pipes and collect that heat or cold. Heat exchangers inside the hostel pull the heat or cold from the glycol and send as much as is needed into the rooms."

"The hostel is hoping to attract young visitors from overseas looking for a cheap doss and a communal living scene. Dorms will be $30 a night and rooms will go for $70. Utility bills should follow close on the heels of the first guests, but with expected savings of up to $2,000 a month, the owners expect to have the investment paid off within eight years. After that, it's green gravy. By that time, a geothermal drilling rig might be a more common sight in Toronto. Mr. Rand had to go through 14 city departments to get permits for the pipe installation, but the city has since set up a task force to streamline geothermal development in city-owned alleyways and parkland."

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original source Globe & Mail

The Huffington Post interviews Debbie Baxter, VP of Corporate Sustainability for the Toronto-based company LoyaltyOne. Baxter has spearheaded a number of green initiatives at LoyaltyOne--a company that advises business on customer loyalty prgorams--earning her two green awards in the past year. An excerpt from the interview:

"Tell me about some of LoyaltyOne's sustainability initiatives."

"We have a passionate environmentalist as leader (Bryan Pearson, President and CEO), and that makes all the difference. But much of what we do begins in a grassroots way: people suggest and we respond. All the things you might imagine, like a recycling program that diverts up to 90 percent of all waste, and an environmental fair to help people learn about the issues and green products and services.

We've partnered with local transit authorities so that employees can take public transit to work -- and when our people told us that meetings in the middle of the day meant they still had to drive downtown, we struck a deal with a local autoshare company, and now team members drive around in branded Smart cars. Plus, by the end of this year, 85 percent of our staff will be working in LEED certified spaces (LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council). Our Mississauga-based Customer Care Centre is a LEED gold building. And the solar system on its roof is the largest of its kind in Canada."

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original source Huffington Post

As reported by the Toronto Star a bike parking lot has replaced 2 on-street car spaces along Spandia Avenue. A space that formally served 2 vehicles now serves 16. The new racks, located directly out-front of the Centre for Social Innovation have been well-used by tenants and others since their installation early last week.

"As part of a city pilot project, two on-street car parking spots along Spadina have been converted into a small bike parking lot with two racks, each with eight spaces."

"It's exciting. It looks great. The racks were filled right away," said Tonya Surman, executive director of the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), one of the tenants inside the building where the racks were installed Tuesday."

"You would get to the front of the building and try to park your bike before work, but couldn't find any spots at all. Every indoor rack was full. About 75 to 80 per cent of the tenants bike in the summer. So we requested more racks from the city."

"The CSI and a couple other organizations sent a letter to local city Councillor Adam Vaughan a year and a half ago, suggesting the conversion. The racks, Surman says, will be removed before winter, when demand decreases."

"It's a real look into the future, not just the cycling revolution in this city, but around the world," Surman said. "I drive my car in the winter. This is about people realizing how space and infrastructure need to be used in the new urban future."

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original source Toronto Star

Toronto's Urban Harvest has been supplying Torontonians with locally harvested plants and seeds since the first location opened in the late 1990s. Blog TO writes on the impressive history of the company, "the first urban agriculture business of its kind in Toronto" and the tenacity of its founder and owner, Colette Murphy.

"The Safe Seed Pledge, found right on the main page of Urban Harvest's website, reads like a gardener's ultimate manifesto - advocating for the health, safety and security not just of the food and conditions in which it is grown, but of the individuals and entire communities who consume it. Perhaps equal in mandate is Murphy's own passion for educating and enabling others to nourish themselves by bridging the gap between urban living and healthy, homegrown food."

"Urban Harvest is a supplier of over 270 species of 100% certified organic flower, herb and vegetable seeds. To keep up with demand, Murphy has expanded over time from a modest plot of land into a network of local growers and organic farms, including a greenhouse at Downsview Park."

"Although Urban Harvest has changed locations every year for the past four years, Murphy is dedicated to serving the Parkdale community with its most recent and permanent outpost stationed at Sorauren and Fern Avenues. Since the store's official opening on May 6th, Murphy's most loyal and avid gardeners have already sussed her out."

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original source Blog TO

The Globe & Mail recently featured Young Urban Farmers -- a new Toronto start-up that's bringing urban agriculture to backyards across the city. Co-founded last year by Queen's University commerce graduates, Nancy Huynh, Jing Loh and Chris Wong, the company installs and manages food-producing pre-fabricated garden boxes in clients' backyards.

"Some businesses are born of sheer entrepreneurial grit, determination and competitive drive. Others are driven by innovation, sometimes of the accidental kind. In the case of the Young Urban Farmers, sowing the seeds of success has involved all of those elements � not to mention a healthy collection of actual vegetable seeds as founder Christopher Wong and his two partners seek to change the way urbanites eat, one backyard garden at a time."

"The Toronto-based start-up was founded last year with a mission to not only turn a healthy profit, but to also encourage sustainable practices in households across the city."

"The three of us all had an entrepreneurial passion, we knew we wanted to run our own business and we were brainstorming different ideas," Mr. Wong, 24, recalls."

"We saw there was a real trend towards growing food locally and reducing the local environmental footprint. We thought there was an underserved market in terms of people looking to set up vegetable gardens but not knowing where to start."

"Mr. Wong and his fellow Queen's University commerce graduates, Nancy Huynh and Jing Loh, invested about $5,000 of their own money and launched Young Urban Farmers in early 2009."

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original source the Globe & Mail

The Canadian Opera Company has become the newest Toronto organization to embrace the urban bee-keeping trend. According to the Globe & Mail the COC has installed two honey bee hives on the roof of its home at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. While urban bee-keeping is by no means unique to Toronto, the city has been quick to pick up on the worldwide the movement. Casa Loma, the Toronto Island, Downsview park, New College at the University of Toronto, and at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel all boast operational bee colonies.

"At their summer peak, the new COC hives are expected to attract some 120,000 bees and to generate about 50 pounds of honey annually. It can't be sold, because it won't be pasteurized. But, quipped Mr. Neef, "we might consider giving it away as a bonus to those who subscribe to the opera early."

"Why the urban buzz? There are several reasons. A principal goal is to help offset the effects of colony collapse disorder, a global epidemic that has caused the annual loss of some 30 per cent to 40 per cent of honey bees in many countries, including Canada. Although no specific cause has been identified, most scientists blame a combination of factors, including Varroa mites, insect diseases, exposure to pesticides and, possibly, cellphone radiation."

"Cities often provide a happier bee-scape for honey bees, because there are fewer pesticides being sprayed and a more diverse range of plants and flowers."

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original source the Globe & Mail

According to CBC News, e-Radio-Inc. and CBC Radio "have successfully tested a new technology which uses the FM airwaves to control household appliances at energy-saving times of the day". The technology--which works via a chip inserted into household appliances that responds to radio airwaves--was created to minimize energy use at peak hours. The appliances would be timed to go on during periods of lower energy use.

"The value of a smart appliance is that it can be programmed to start on its own when electricity rates are at their lowest. For example, a homeowner could load his or her dishwasher, washing machine or clothes dryer at 6:00pm, which is peak demand time and walk away. Later in the evening, when electricity rates are lower, a signal would be broadcast from an FM radio station, in this case the CBC, which alerts the appliances that it is now time to turn on."

"CBC/Radio-Canada's FM signals are ideal in Canada since they reach close to 99% of the Canadian population. The company's say the added information has no effect on the quality of the radio signal."

"This is an innovative way for CBC/Radio-Canada to maximize the use of its radio infrastructure for the benefit of both Canadian consumers and the environment, without affecting the quality our radio service," said Michel Tremblay, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Strategy & Business Partnerships. " We're proud to help pioneer this new made-in-Canada innovation."

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original source CBC News

The Canadian Solar Industries Association's annual conference, held this week at Toronto's Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, signals the beginning of significant growth in Canada's solar power industry. According to the Globe & Mail, Ontario's new "Green Energy Act " is acting as a major impetus for this growing industry and is reason for optimism about the future of solar energy in Canada.

"The law, with its "feed-in tariff" that pays big bucks for solar-generated electricity (and other renewables), is prompting individuals and companies to plan new solar energy projects all over the province. To get the higher prices, some of the hardware must be made in Ontario, and that has pushed manufacturers to set up shop in the province. On just one day last week, two companies announced they will build new solar panel plants in Ontario - Canadian Solar Inc. and Opsun Technologies Inc."

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original source Globe & Mail