Item - 2020.TA9.9

The Board of Directors of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund:

1.  Approved the following grant requests to be funded jointly from the Canada, Ontario and Toronto endowments except where otherwise indicated:

 
a.  $300,000 over 36 months to Building Up to develop and implement a recurring 16-week green building training program designed for individuals who face barriers to employment in the trades industry. Approval to be subject to the following conditions:

- The training curriculum and train-the-trainer module will be open-source and shared with other training programs and institutions across the GTHA.

- Building Up will commit to collaborating with the Workforce 2030 Coalition and its members to advance policy and programs that will increase training opportunities in the green building industry.

b.  $125,000 over 12 months to the City of Mississauga to assess the feasibility of creating a district energy system in downtown Mississauga (funded from the Canada and Ontario endowments only). Approval to be subject to the following conditions:

- Commit to facilitating reimbursement of up to the full value of TAF’s grant if the proposed district energy system is built with private or commercial participation.

- Renewable sources of energy for the district energy system are prioritized, and the business case will include a robust analysis of scenarios in which renewable sources comprise between 50-100% of the energy used for the district energy system

- Do not consider the business case for a district energy system that is wholly reliant on non-renewable energy sources.

- Submit a stakeholder engagement strategy for TAF approval outlining how and when building owners, municipal staff, councilmembers, residents and other key stakeholders will be consulted throughout the process.

- Submit a knowledge transfer strategy for TAF approval describing actions that will be taken to share lessons from this project with staff in other GTHA municipalities.
 

c.  $122,000 to Clean Air Partnership over 12 months to undertake a study to support the cost-effective design and implementation of EV charging stations in new multi-unit residential buildings in the GTHA, and to promote the business case for “EV Ready” parking requirements to local governments and industry members through a series of stakeholder consultations. Approval to be subject to the following condition:

- Commit to consulting and sharing project outcomes with stakeholders in the development industry and municipal staff across the GTHA to support the inclusion of EV charging infrastructure requirements in new and updated municipal building standards as well as voluntary building standards.

d.  $32,800 to Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada (HRAI) over 4 months to identify the training and support tools needed to enable heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) contractors to drive demand for and implementation of home energy retrofits by engaging industry members and stakeholders through a series of focus groups, interviews, and surveys (funded from the Canada and Ontario endowments only). Approval to be subject to the following conditions:

- Consult with large employers in the HVAC industry, equipment manufacturers, and other stakeholders with a vested interest in project outcomes to inform the research findings and build support for future phases of work.

- Engage with Enbridge to incorporate the lessons from its previous contractor training program focused on selling energy efficiency solutions to homeowners.

e.  $16,050 to Harbord Village Residents’ Association over 12 months to develop a neighbourhood-based education campaign and electric vehicle (EV) bulk purchase program, as well as a strategy to install a public EV charger in the Harbord Village neighbourhood. Approval to be subject to the following condition:

- Engage stakeholders who can support the scale-up and knowledge transfer of project outcomes beyond the Harbord Village neighbourhood, including the City of Toronto, Plug ‘n Drive, and at least one energy utility company.

f.  $27,450 to Mohawk College over 12 months to develop a business plan for a regional retrofit delivery centre which will support homeowners in undertaking energy retrofits (funded from the Canada and Ontario endowments only). Approval to be subject to the following conditions:

- Eliminate the home energy audit activities and associated budget from the TAF funding request.

- Submit an analysis regarding the feasibility of completing this project in less than 12 months, including a revised project timeline (if feasible) or an explanation for maintaining the initial timeline (if not feasible).

-  Incorporate into the business plan an analysis of local building industry capacity to deliver energy retrofit targets.

g.  $26,050 to Ontario Geothermal Association over 10 months to develop a guideline document that can be used by municipal staff to advance building projects that involve geothermal drilling within their jurisdiction while ensuring the protection of ground water supply systems (funded from the Canada and Ontario endowments only). Approval to be subject to the following condition:

- The Guideline will provide a summary of the other barriers, beyond concerns about aquifer protection, to scaling up geo-exchange systems in the GTHA.

h.  $90,325 to Passive Buildings Canada over 12 months to conduct a benchmarking study and develop a report that includes a comprehensive data set of the emissions embedded in the building materials for residential homes in the GTHA, with a view towards promoting lower carbon material selection in the future. Approval to be subject to the following condition:

- Engage the Independent Electricity System Operator, local utilities and GTHA municipalities outside of Toronto to promote the incorporation of embodied carbon considerations into municipal building codes.

i.  $114,824 to Sustainable Buildings Canada over 12 months to develop a software tool, with input from key stakeholders, that enables non-technical users to review building energy models for compliance with municipal energy performance requirements. Approval to be subject to the following conditions:

- Engage with provincial building code officials to collect insights on how this software can be coordinated with provincial requirements.

- Provide written confirmation that the software tool developed through this project will be made available in perpetuity to the target markets on a cost-recovery basis.
 

j.  $25,000 to the Town of Halton Hills over 6 months to host a series of workshops for local development industry professionals to increase their awareness of the Town’s updated Green Development Standards and to provide guidance on how to comply with the new standards (funded from the Canada and Ontario endowments only). Approval to be subject to the following condition:

- Develop and implement a knowledge transfer strategy, which outlines specific actions that will be taken to share the workshop curriculum and project outcomes with representatives from at least one municipality in Durham, Halton, York, and Peel Regions as well as the City of Toronto and City of Hamilton.
 

2.  Declined five grant requests listed in Confidential Attachment 1 to the report (November 4, 2020) from the Chair, Grants and Programs Committee with a total value of $542,486.

 
3.  Approved the following project allocation requests to be funded jointly from the Canada, Ontario and City of Toronto endowments:

a.  $181,200 over 24 months for TAF to enhance the capacity of community practitioners, TAF grantees, and TAF staff leading internal programs by providing access to professional coaches and mentors and training opportunities in targeted skills areas such as program design, developmental evaluation, policy advocacy, and partnership brokering.
 
b.  $74,311 over 12 months to provide TAF with the resources to support strategic greenhouse gas-related research in the areas of industrial emissions, co-benefits of climate actions, and the potential roles of natural gas and related infrastructure in the pathway to decarbonize, and also to enable TAF’s engagement with and advisory support for both local quantification practitioners as well as the Low Carbon Cities network. 

c.  $600,000 over 12 months to enable TAF to launch and operate a Retrofit Delivery Centre, and attract additional external funding, which is dedicated to delivering high-quality energy retrofits in the multi-unit residential building sector at scale by standardizing and optimizing administrative work, leveraging economies of scale, reducing transaction costs, and building up needed industry capacity by creating demand and sending market signals needed to drive investment.

 
4.  Directed that the confidential information contained in Confidential Attachment 1  to the report (November 4, 2020) from the Chair, Grants and Programs Committee remain confidential in its entirety, as contains financial information supplied in confidence to the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, which, if disclosed, could reasonably be expected to prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a person, group of persons, or organization.

At its October 2, 2020 meeting, the TAF Grants and Programs Committee recommended that the Board approve 10 grants with a combined value of $879,795 and three internal program allocations with a total value of $855,511. This report provides recommendations from the Committee meeting.