TAF supports innovation — three ways

The TAF Board recently approved three new grants all representing innovative approaches to problem solving. Evergreen Brick Works received $100,000 over one year for its City Works Transportation Lab. The lab will examine “wicked” urban sustainability problems — starting with building multi-stakeholder support for investments in regional transit. Pembina Institute also received $100,000 to conduct research and consultation on urban freight patterns with an eye to creating efficiencies to cut air pollution and congestion. And TAF is supporting Ryerson University Centre for Urban Energy with $138,000 over two years to test an innovative solar technology that has the potential to improve cold weather performance of air source heat pumps with the goal of developing a net-zero heating/cooling solution for homes in Toronto.

Photo: Evergreen Foundation

TAF grants program on hiatus for a strategic review

TAF is not currently accepting proposals through its regular grant application process. Following an evaluation of granting practices and strategic priorities, applications will be accepted in the first quarter of 2014. Please subscribe to The Atmospheric e-newsletter for more information about TAF's work and announcements regarding funding opportunities.

Low-carbon social ventures keep on winning

ClimateSpark finalist Rooftop Gardens Inc. won first place and $25,000 from the inaugural Ontario Centres of Excellence Social Enterprise Student Competition. The goal of the business is to design and install modular and scalable kits that enable rooftop vegetable gardening in urban areas. Venture leader Heather Wray met Denise Brennan from OCE at the ClimateSpark launch gala and learned about the social enterprise student competition. TAF VP Impact Investing Tim Stoate pitched in as a mentor on the winning project. “We were working on a pretty tight timeline and yet he still made it a priority to meet with me in person several times,” says Wray. “Really I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor than Tim.”

Meanwhile, Summerhill Impact Shuttle received $48,645 from OCE’s Social Innovation Program. Shuttle, also supported with a $150,000 contribution from TAF, is a multi-year pilot project to gather and analyze information on individuals’ off-peak driving habits. Once this baseline data is captured, Summerhill will test intervention strategies to improve driver behaviour and reduce vehicle kilometres traveled to address off-peak transportation emissions.

Photo: Rooftop Gardens Inc.

New financing option for home energy retrofits

Proposed amendments to the City of Toronto Act could pave the way to finance energy and water efficiency measures through the property tax bill. Traditionally this “local improvement charge” approach was reserved for financing of larger, neighbourhood-wide improvements such as laying a sidewalk or a sewer pipe, but the proposed amendment could allow this mechanism used to support energy efficiency improvements in individual homes.

TAF attracts quality help

TAF is pleased to welcome recent graduate students Kristy Kilbourne and Christine Furtado to provide 12 weeks of research into public sector green innovation and green economic development opportunities. Also welcome to University of Toronto Masters student Fangzhou Su, who is coordinating our health sector freight consolidation research project.

TAF on the Green Hospital Champion Fund Selection Committee

Tim Stoate, TAF's Vice-President, Impact Investing, has been selected to serve as a member of the Green Hospital Champion Fund Selection Committee. The GHCF implementation program that will select up to five green projects that provide an innovative approach to environmentally and fiscally beneficial improvements and will inspire further adoption of environmental programs in health care.

Photo: UHN

Urban Freight Consolidation Brings Efficiency and a Cleaner City

Urban freight Consolidation uses logistics principles to gang up smaller individual shipments for more efficient local delivery. Along with saving businesses time and money, the process cuts the number of delivery vehicles used in downtown cores, reducing both congestion and air polluting emissions. Urban freight consolidation centres are already used in Europe. In the United Kingdom, freight consolidation for the 240 retail outlets in the Heathrow Airport has reduced congestion, decreased supplier delivery time by two hours per trip, and reduced CO2, carbon monoxide and particulate emissions.  Freight consolidation for the construction sector through the London Construction Consolidation Centre has more than doubled the reliability on the deliveries of materials, and reduced CO2 emissions by 74% throughout its two year trial.

TAF currently has a grant from Metrolinx and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation to examine how freight consolidation might work in downtown Toronto’s busy hospital corridor, including University Health Network (UHN), Mount Sinai Hospital, SickKids Hospital, Toronto Rehabilitation Centre, and the Princess Margaret Hospital. These hospitals are massive consumers of goods, with over $80 million in medical supplies shipped annually to UHN alone. The study will review delivery patterns and current practices and identify opportunities to improve efficiencies.

Photo: London Construction Consolidation Centre