Accelerating High-Rise
Green Technology Adoption

By Jamie James

As our population becomes increasingly concentrated in urban areas, more Canadians find themselves living and working in high-rise towers. In the City of Toronto, one in three people lives in a high-rise apartment or condominium, and more than 2,300 towers shape our urban landscape. It’s no surprise, then, that Toronto has one of the highest concentrations of high-rise residential buildings in North America. While sustainable urban growth is greatly supported by the higher densities, these buildings account for about 30 to 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in this city. (www.towerrenewal.ca)

Green technologies and products that address energy efficiency and environmental performance currently exist, but are not systematically adopted by the development and construction industries. In fact, new technologies with enormous promise often have trouble moving from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box in our industry.

From the builder’s perspective, the barriers most frequently cited are risk and cost. As a result, lack of a long track record is a major barrier for green product developers and suppliers. So, we have a classic chicken-and-egg conundrum: how does an alternative approach gain traction in the mainstream?

One way is to increase the customer’s familiarity and understanding of the new approach through mediated pilot and demonstration projects – which is what Tridel, Toronto’s largest high-rise condominium developer, has been doing for several years through their unique in-house research and development (R&D) program.

In 2004, a full two years before Tridel made a firm marketing commitment to construct all new buildings to achieve LEED certification, the company began working with suppliers and manufacturers to test and modify new and existing products that would help the company achieve its energy and environmental goals. The intent was to mitigate risk by eliminating unintended consequences and quantifying the costs and benefits. The need for financial certainty was particularly important, since Tridel was also setting up a green loan program with the Toronto Atmospheric Fund to finance the upgrade costs. Six years later, Tridel’s buildings have been significantly transformed, particularly with respect to the HVAC systems. This is largely because of the work the company did with manufacturers to improve product integration.

While Tridel was integrating new energy-efficient products and systems, the MaRS Discovery District emerged as an innovation hub, with a global reputation in downtown Toronto.

Tridel and MaRS have now established a collaboration that will act as a channel, linking Canada’s green building technologies and the high-rise real estate sector. The result will be a series of in-situ living labs in Toronto’s high-rise buildings, managed in part by Tower Labs @ MaRS, a new not-for-profit.

Tower Labs’ mission is to accelerate the adoption of clean and renewable low-impact technologies, products, and materials by the building sector. Supporting this mission, Tower Labs will focus on identifying green building technology priorities and working with real estate clients, like Tridel, to field-test new products and approaches in client tower "labs."

Increasing the industry’s knowledge of new products and new approaches will naturally help to increase their adoption. For while there may be inertia when it comes to trying something new for the first time, there is huge potential for mimicry within the industry once something has been shown to work.

By demonstrating how well new green measures work in practice, Tower Labs @ MaRS aims to create a ripple effect in the industry, stimulating further adoption of approaches that will reduce the environmental impact of our built environment. I look forward to writing about this work in future columns. Jamie James is a Founder of Tower Labs and 350 Capital and advises Tridel on sustainability. James also serves as a Director of the Canada Green Building Council.