‘Should become the standard,’ Experts say Toronto’s first net-zero building opens possibilities for further climate action

The City of Toronto has just unveiled its very first net-zero building, and some experts say it can be the first step toward a new construction standard that can advance climate initiatives. 

On Monday, the city announced the official launch of its Mount Dennis Early Learning and Child Care Centre, located at 1234 Weston Rd. 

The 19,000-square-feet facility has become Toronto’s largest child care centre, providing space for 98 children, with fees set at $22 per day. 

TORONTO’S FIRST NET-ZERO BUILDING

The extensive space is also the city’s first net-zero building, being fully electrified, not connected to natural gas, and including energy-efficient features: 

• Super-insulated walls and roof, which reduces heat loss and gain;
• Triple-glazed windows for better energy efficiency; 
• Airtight construction to reduce air leaks and maintain the building’s temperature and energy use;
• Geothermal heat pump system, which uses underground temperature to heat and cool;
• 264 solar panels to generate electricity, preheat domestic hot water and recharge the geo-exchange field;
• Energy recovery ventilators to improve indoor air quality.

“The new Mount Dennis Child Care Centre shows what is possible when we put families and climate action at the centre of our work…Toronto is leading by example, delivering a safe, caring and affordable city for Torontonians,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said in a statement. 

EMISSIONS RISING IN THE GTHA

The announcement comes only a day before regional climate agency The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) revealed that greenhouse gas emissions have gone up in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas (GTHA) by one per cent in 2024, standing at 54.7 million tonnes per year. 

According to TAF, the new numbers puts the area well behind the 11 per cent annual reductions that would be needed in order to achieve its 2030 climate target, which include reducing emissions by 65 per cent of what it was in 1990. 

Out of the total 54.7 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions last year, 45 per cent came from buildings, while 37 per cent came from transportation, 13 per cent from industry, 3.5 per cent from waste, and one per cent from agriculture, TAF says. 

Emissions related to buildings increased by 1.7 per cent last year, as TAF cites industrial buildings using more natural gases and increasing intensity in grid emissions as reasons for the growth. 

EXPERTS WEIGH IN 

Principal Architect at Sustainable Paul Dowsett tells Now Toronto he is excited about the announcement, which he says could be a step towards inspiring the construction of other net-zero buildings. 

“Hats off to the City of Toronto for showing the way with a net zero building. Hats off to our fellow architects at Cool Earth for doing the job and doing a tremendous job that we can all emulate and learn from,” he said on Tuesday. 

“We need to advertise this building. We need to show it off to everybody and make people understand that this is something that can be done.” 

Dowsett explains that in order to be net zero, buildings need to be able to produce as much energy as it consumes, and eliminate emissions from burning fossil fuels, which usually come when making the building and keeping it running. 

“There is operational carbon during the life of the building. So, that would be such as burning methane gas in a gas boiler to provide heat to the building that would be operational carbon emissions. But, there are also carbon emissions that happen much earlier than that in the extraction, manufacture, transportation of the very materials to build the building.” 

Similar to Dowsett, Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) Campaign Director Sarah Buchanan says the new building represents an opportunity for more Torontonians to learn about the climate impact of buildings and inspire further action. 

On the other hand, the expert also warns that only looking into the energy efficiency of future buildings is not enough to address climate concerns and achieve targets. 

“It’s great to see the city doing what they can to show what’s possible in their own new buildings, but to truly make a dent in emissions and to change the backwards progress that’s happening right now on climate action, they do need to think more about the buildings that are already standing and how to address those,” she said. 

MOVING FORWARD

Dowsett, who works to create sustainable projects, says it is possible to renovate older buildings to make them more sustainable, but notes it’s easier to achieve that in the construction phase instead. 

The expert adds that this work is extremely important if the city hopes to achieve its climate goals, estimating that about 85 per cent of the buildings that will stand in the city by 2040 already exist. 

“If the building had been built in a standard way, with no care about upfront embodied carbon and no care about operational carbon through its lifetime… then we’d have to go back after the fact and retrofit an existing building with existing occupants and existing operations,” he said. 

While Dowsett says most of the challenges to creating more sustainable buildings come from updating older construction, Buchanan says there are also a series of financial challenges towards net-zero construction. 

Meanwhile, the expert says the city, as well as other building owners, can also seek simpler solutions towards achieving less emissions, including looking for updated technology that can substitute obsolete tools, such as heat pumps.

“Sometimes, when we get these big announcements about fancy net-zero buildings, it makes people think that climate action has to come in the form of very advanced technology, when a lot of what we’re pushing for right now is just as simple as fixing leaky windows,” she said. 

“We should be asking ourselves, ‘How do we make an impact on buildings and make them more climate safe?’ rather than, ‘How do we make every single building net-zero right now?’”