Q: I’m looking for an apartment. What are my eco-friendly options?
A: In a city with rents that seem to grow like well-watered Chia Pets, apartment-hunting can be a serious headache. Nonetheless, having some green prerequisites is definitely doable.
First thing to consider is being close to stuff that’ll help you keep your eco footprint small. Is there a streetcar, bus line or subway? Are you within biking distance of your job or school? Can you easily walk to a grocery store and other services you use regularly? If not, keep lookin’.
Next you’ve got to assess the space itself. You can always add a cheap low-flow shower head yourself, but does the apartment have, say, a low-flow toilet? What about natural light so you’re not flicking the lights on constantly?
Ask about what kind of heating/cooling is in place. Natural gas furnaces are much greener than electric baseboards, especially if you’re paying for heat. Hell, I turned down a great apartment in Kensington because it had baseboard heaters. At $400 a month for hydro in winter, it was an easy decision to make. I ended up going with a pad that happened to have all new Energy Star heating/cooling and water heating.
Be sure to find out if you have control over the thermostat, too. Otherwise, someone else might be blasting the furnace or AC at totally wasteful temperatures when you’d rather just throw on a sweater or open your windows.
Do an outdoor wall count. Really, the more walls you share with neighbours rather than the great outdoors, the less energy it should take to heat your pad. A unit in a duplex or semi-detached is greener than renting a detached house, and a row house is greener than a semi.
In theory, apartments are the most efficient way to live. The thing is, this city’s got 2,300 high-rise apartment towers largely built between the 1950s and the 80s with zero efficiencies. Our environmentally attuned former mayor, David Miller, had the smarts to start a tower renewal program for eco retrofits. Sneak a peek at which buildings were included at towerrenewal.ca and check out the case-study buildings at towerwise.ca, too.
If you’re a student, you’ll probably find more energy-efficient housing on campus, like York’s über-efficienct Pond Road undergraduate rez complete with a green roof and recycled grey water systems. U of T’s been retrofitting many of its old dorms, saving several thousand tons of CO2 emissions a year.
You’ll have the best crack at getting budget-friendly, eco-conscious housing in revitalized affordable housing. Toronto Community Housing Corporation has done some solid work building sustainable units from scratch in Regent Park, Don Mount Court, aka Rivertowne, and beyond.
The Harold Green Building recently won CMHC’s 2010 Housing Award for Best Practices in Affordable Housing, thanks to upgraded insulation, energy-efficient appliances, windows, lighting and more.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can scan for units that come up for rent in posher green condos. The city says there are over 2,000 green condo units in town, some of which surely will come up for rent. See which buildings are part of the city’s Better Building Partnership at toronto.ca/energy/bbp-nc-condos.htm. Some of them, like Element, Verve and Minto, have rentals listed on Craigslist.
Of course, people with green thumbs will want to ensure their rental has access to a sunny outdoor patch or happens to be near a community garden.
Many landlords are open to funding or splitting the cost of certain energy- and water-efficient upgrades if you explain how much they’ll save in the long run.
They may not offer up the $1,000 eco fund for green changes that mine did, but feeling out your prospective landlord for a green conscience is definitely a wise move.
Got a question?
Send your green queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com
