Civic Impact

Toronto's electrical infrastructure is aging and the demand for energy is ever-increasing.

And while the "smart gird" industry continues to offer new technological tools, innovators are often faced with a difficult question, 'How do you incorporate new technology into an old system without having to tear it down and start from scratch?' 

 

A Toronto consortium led by renewable-energy company eCAMION, with Toronto Hydro and the University of Toronto, is collaborating on what could become a important strategy: energy storage boxes installed at the community level. 

 

Toronto Hydro recently announced the completion of the consortium's first energy-storage project, a battery-powered energy storage unit located at a North York's Roding Arena and Community Centre. 

 

This new community-level unit is the first of its kind in Toronto. It differs from Toronto Hydro's traditional energy storage units, which are only used as back-up for particular power stations or transmission centres.

The technical term for the use of neighbourhood storage units is a community energy storage (CES) system. 

 

The Roding Community Centre unit is only the first of three that will be installed as part of CES system pilot program. A program funded by the consortium members and by Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

 

"An opportunity like this comes once every forty years," stated Ivano Labricciosa, vice president of asset management for Toronto Hydro in a press release. "Toronto Hydro's distribution grid is facing a number of challenges and community energy storage can address some of these challenges instead of developing one solution per problem."

 

Writer: Katia Snukal

Source: Toronto Hydro 

Yonge Street recently wrote that the Ontario Tire Stewardship (OTS) had decided to host their Student Design Challenge for a second year-in-row. This year's challenge, aimed at post-secondary students from across Ontario, was to design the interior of a new concourse at the Toronto Central YMCA. 

 

Now, just a month-and-half later, the winning design has been announced.

At an event this past Saturday, a panel of judges awarded the prize to University of Toronto students David Garcia Gonzalez, Jessica Wagner, and Gregory Bunker. Not only will the students be presented with financial scholarships, they will get to see their winning design implemented at the YMCA concourse.

 

"The UofT team brought a mix of creativity and pragmatism to their design," says Andrew Horsman, executive director of OTS. 

 

And they did it all, from the brainstorming to the final proposal, in just 24 hours.

 

The OTS challange used a 'design jam' strucutre, meaning that the eight participating teams worked side-by-side over an intensive two-day period to learn about the project and to come up with their ideas. 

 

"I think overall the designs they came forward with, the fact they could come up with these designs in 24 hours was astounding," says Horsman. "They really were trying to, in a very short amount of time, come up with designs that had some 'wow' to them. They were dynamic and different and also took into account the needs of the YMCA. Overall all of the entries were excellent."

 

Students were asked to use of tire-derived products in their plans, and representatives from the product manufactures were on hand to answer any questions. 

 

"The students were really trying to use the products in ways that were innovative and ways that were different and expand the use of the material by finding these new applications," says Horsman. "That is exactly the kind of the innovation that the project hopefully continues to bring. "

 

The winning design is scheduled to be built and ready for the public by the end of the summer. 

 

"One of things with the designs is that as good as the students are, they have limited amount of time," says Horsman. "So now the winning design will go through a bit of a tweaking process to sort of make sure that it is in fact buildable. We have a professor from UofT that we work with [who] will work with the students on what those tweaks are."

 

Established in 2009, the Ontario Tire Stewardship is an Industry Funding Organization or IFO.  IFOs, as establised by Ontario's 2002 Waste Diversion Act, are organizations comprised of industry representatives tasked with implementing rules to help their industry divert a particular product from ending up in landfills. 

 

Writer: Katia Snukal

Source: Andrew Horsman, Executive Director, Ontario Tire Stewardship

What does it mean to lead responsibly? To lead ethically?

 

A new Ryerson University initiative hopes to help students, faculty, and the wider business community tackle these tough questions directly. 
 

Thanks to a gift from Canadian business leader Jim Pattison, Ryerson University recently established The Jim Pattison Ethical Leadership Education and Research Program. The program, hosted by Ryerson's Ted Rogers Leadership Centre, will begin its ethical leadership programming as early at this fall. 

 

 

Writer: Katia Snukal

Source: Chris MacDonald

Toronto charity Adventure Place received a $2,500 award from Direct Energy this past Tuesday to be used towards the purchase of new energy efficient appliances. 

 

Adventure Place was presented with the award after submitting a short video to Direct Energy's Reduce Your Use For Good contest website. The video showcased Adventure Place's 40 years of providing mental health support to young children and their families.
 

"We are thrilled to recognize Adventure Place for the great things they are doing for the children and families in their community, and award them with a Reduce Your Use For Good grant," stated Eddy Collier, president of Direct Energy Services, in a press release. "This grant will help Adventure Place make energy efficiency upgrades to their facility and use those savings for core programs and services."
 

The Reduce Your Use For Good program is a Direct Energy attempt to increase their social media presence. For ever 2,500 new 'likes' Direct Energy gets on Facebook they donate $2,500 to a charity (up to a total of $100,000) that has submitted a video to the contest website.
 

Located just North of Don Mills and Finch, and serving Toronto's entire North Quadrant, Adventure Place is known for developing individualized programs that help children improve in areas where they are experiencing developmental difficulties. 

 

"We are absolutely thrilled that Direct Energy selected Adventure Place as a winner for this grant of $2,500. Our agency has been providing much needed mental health services to children and families for over 40 years and the contributions made by corporate partners like Direct Energy help us to reach our goals." says Cheryl Webb, Executive Director at Adventure Place. "The funds will be used to purchase energy efficient appliances for our children's kitchen."

 

Source: Direct Energy

 

The Peter Munk Cardiac Centre recently announced that the Black Family Foundation, a private Toronto-based charity, has donated $1 million to establish the Black Family Vascular Surgery-Interventional Radiology Research Fellowship. The new fellowship, which combines training for specialists in both interventional radiology (IR) and vascular surgery (VS), is the first of its kind in Canada.

Each fellow will receive two years of funding -- one dedicated primarily to research, the other to clinical work. The fellows will be working with Munk's team of vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists to look for areas where patient care can be improved and to asses the effectiveness of new medical technologies on the identified areas. 

 

"This hospital has a long history of innovation, including leading integrated cardiac care in Canada, and thanks to The Black Family Foundation's generosity, we will be able to continue this enhanced level of research training for the next generation of vascular and interventional radiology healthcare providers," Dr. Barry Rubin, program medical director of the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, said in a press release. "For the more than 1,000 patients who rely on the Interventional Radiology and Vascular Surgery departments each year, it means improved treatment methods and overall patient care."

 

Recruitment is expected to begin shortly and the first fellows will be announced in early 2013. 
 

Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation

 

 

In early 2012, the Sustainability Network awarded "mini-grants" to six Ontario environmental nonprofits. The grants were presented to organizations made up of, or actively working with, under-represented communities. Now, just under a year later, each grantee has produced a one-hour webinar to show other organizations what they've learned. 

The "mini-grants," so-called because the money awarded was relatively minimal (a maximum of $5000 per organization), are part of a larger Sustainability Network Initiative called the Environment and Diversity Project. Launched in 2009, the initiative helps Ontario's environmental NGOs better reflect a diversity of communities. 

"The Environment and Diversity Project is a four year project that officially ended in December 2012" says Victor Reyes, project manager at the sustainability network. "Because NGOs and environmental NGOS in particular don't really reflect the true diversity of say the GTA, we knew that that was an issue that needed to be addressed. We consider ourselves an environmental NGO but instead of being a grassroots activists group we're a capacity building group...so the Environment and Diversity Project fits perfectly into what we do."

The Sustainability Network will stream the video series, titled 'Environment and Diversity' on their website from January 16th to February 20th. The hour-long webinars each have specific time-slots and cost $5 per participant. View the full list of videos and times here. 

"The webinars will allow the organizations to share their experience in regards to the various projects they have implemented" says Reyes. 

Toronto-based food security NGO the Afri-Can Foodbasket (AFB) is among the six organizations presenting webinars. AFB's video 'Culturally Specific Food Security Curriculum' examines AFB's work fostering urban agriculture and community gardens in some of Toronto's low-income and racialized communities. 

"Our granting committee thought the [Afri-Can Foodbasket] project was amazing" says Reyes. "The project is about connecting people to food through culture. Their project is really about focusing on a curriculum to help connect young people with their culture and food and how that food gets to their table."

Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: Victor Reyes, Sustainability Network, Project Manager

 

The Parkdale Community Food Bank (PCFB) is spoofing the popular "Gangnam-style" music video to raise awareness of its holiday fundraising drive. 

 

Volunteers, board members and community members gathered at the PCFB space (1316 King Street West) this past Sunday to shoot the first section of the parody of K-pop artist PSY's music video, changing the song name from "Gangnam Style" to "Parkdale Community Food Bank-style."

 

The PCFB community was joined by politicians for all three levels of government including Parkdale-High Park MP Peggy Nash, Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo and Ward 19 councillor Mike Layton, each of whom made a cameo in the music video. 

 

"I though that spoofing the Gangnam-style music video would be a lot of fun," says Shaista Justin, a local writer and filmmaker who's volunteered to direct the video. "So I came up with the idea that as soon as someone donates food they become a supper-star PSY. It's kind of this transformative experience that when you donate you become this kind of blinged-out superstar."

 

In January, Justin will connect with the wider Parkdale community to shoot the second half of the video. 

 

"We're going to team up with groups in the community to continue that theme that donating makes you a superstar," she says. "For example we'll be working with the Parkdale public library, we’d like to get the seniors home involved, the Parkdale community centre. The Parkdale high-school basketball team has even volunteered to make a cameo."

 

Once the video is complete it will be available on YouTube and on the food bank's website. 

 

Writer: Katia Snukal

Source: Shaista Justin

Since the announcement that Toronto will host the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games, the organizing committee (TO2015) has been vocal in its commitment to bringing diverse groups of Torontonians onboard in the planning process (the event's tagline is "The People's Games"). 

 

So last week T02015 announced the launch of their newest advisory committee, the Community Engagement Council.
 

The 20-member council is made up of community leaders across a variety of sectors, including business, sport and nonprofit. 
 

"We have a very diverse group of people [on the council]" says co-chair Fernando Lusvarghi. "It makes visible Pan Am's intention to create one of the most inclusive games ever by bringing people from all ethnic backgrounds and all walks of life."
 

The Community Engagement Council is one of eight other advisory groups—including the Youth Advisory Council and the Aboriginal Leadership Partners—tasked with providing advice and support to the games' organizers. 
 

Though officially launched last week, the Community Engagement Council has already had a number of prelimnary meetings.
 

"We have had four meetings and have been in constant contact with Pan Am's Community Outreach Department," says Lusvarghi. "We're supporting them mainly with our networks at the moment. The meetings have been based on building awareness of Pan Am's initiatives as well creating the action plan for the coming three years."
 

Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: Fernando Lusvarghi

 

In October Toronto's West End Food Co-op (WEFC) celebrated the grand opening of its much anticipated Parkdale Food Hub (1229 Queen St. West), a community kitchen, grocery store, community centre hybrid, committed to locally sourced organic foods. 
 

Last week, in recognition of the work they've done, the WEFC was awarded $10,000 in the National Co-op Challenge.
 

The challenge, an initiative funded and administered by Canadian co-operative insurance company, the Co-operators, was set up to support emerging co-ops across the country. 
 

This year was the first year the Co-operators ran the challenge, awarding a total of $220,000 in prize money to 10 winners from across the country. After being chosen as a finalist by a panel of expert judges, WEFC and the 23 other finalist organizations made a 90-second video showcasing the work they do and how they would use the additional funding. 

 

To keep with the co-operative spirit, the public was invited to vote on Facebook for winners in four regions of the country (Ontario, West, Atlantic and Quebec). WEFC was Ontario's third place winner.
 

The prize money, $10,000, will support the ongoing operations of the food hub. 
 

"The winners, and all of the contestants in The National Co-op Challenge, reflect the diversity, richness and spirit of the co-operative sector in Canada. As these emerging organizations demonstrate, the future of co-ops in this country is very bright indeed," stated Kathy Bardswick, president and CEO of The Co-operators, in press release.

Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: West End Food Co-op 

The first wave of Metrolinx projects (most currently under construction)  include the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT, the Toronto-York Spadina subway extension, the Mississauga BRT and the Union Pearson Express.

However, despite McCuaig's optimism regarding the new projects, there is some scepticism due to the lack a clear funding structure. 

In statement in response to the Metrolinx announcement, Mitzie Hunter, CEO of Civic Action stated: "We applaud the announcement of the master agreement between Metrolinx and the TTC for four new light rapid transit lines in Toronto, and that the next wave of proposed investment extends beyond major rapid transit projects to local transit, roads, active transportation and other strategic transportation initiatives."

"But we won't see or benefit from any of these projects if we don't figure out how to raise money that's dedicated to building out and delivering the plan. Everyone needs to be part of the conversation—road and transit users, taxpayers, businesses, students."

The Metrolinx board of directors are meeting this week to discuss possible financing strategies. 

Writer: Katia Snukal