Climate Conversations – Toronto Community Housing (TCH) in Regent Park

By Jamelia Parnell
Jamelia is a youth journalist with FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE

Throughout the world urban communities have been suffering from side effects of the climate crisis. These side effects include but are not limited to higher levels of air pollution, extreme weather incidents causing higher heat-related death, and the destruction to infrastructure causing among other issues, greater food insecurity.

In order to get a better sense of what different organizations are doing to help lessen this crisis; the climate crisis team met with Robert Boyd from the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). During the 40 minute long interview, the team learned about the environmental policies that the TCHC follows in order to lessen the amount of carbon that is released into the environment. One of the two programs includes the Toronto Green Standard (TGS). TGS has been Toronto's sustainable design and performance requirements for new private and city-owned developments since 2010. This program has tiers of performance with tier 1 being mandatory and applied though the planning and approval. Higher tiers such as tier two offer financial incentives through the Developmental Charge Refund program.

Robert Boyd was able to share that the TCHC is working to install a geo-thermal system for Phases 4 & 5 of the revitalization. The new buildings will use approximately 80% less energy than a typical building being built today. Currently, Robert indicated that the remaining buildings in Regent Park use a district energy system, which is a “systems or networks of hot and cold water pipes, typically buried underground, that are used to efficiently heat and cool buildings using less energy than if the individual buildings were to each have their own boilers and chillers.”

( reference: www.fvbenergy.com/what-is-district-energy/)