Item - 2022.TA20.12

The Board of Directors of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund:

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

a.  $50,000 over 24 months to the Regional Municipality of Durham to develop and implement an incentive program encouraging industry and consumers to adopt higher performance tiers of their municipal green development standards (funded from the Canada and Ontario endowments only).

b.  $300,000 over 24 months to Efficiency Canada to promote research and engagement outlining priority actions and policy changes required to enable adoption of energy efficient heat pumps.

c.  $80,000 over 12 months to Athena Sustainable Materials Institute to upgrade the web-based Embodied Carbon Pathfinder tool and enable embodied carbon assessments in new construction and renovation projects in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).  The Committee’s recommendation is subject to the following conditions:

-  Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) staff approval of the tool’s success to date based on an assessment of its adoption rate and the level of satisfaction among the building design community in British Columbia.

-  Written confirmation that the grantseeker has secured at least $19,383 in additional project funding from other external sources. 

d.  $200,000 over 18 months to Elexicon Group Inc. to complete a detailed design of a district energy system that will enable large-scale carbon reductions through the decarbonization of heating in new buildings in Whitby (funded from the Canada and Ontario endowments only).  The Committee’s recommendation is subject to the following condition:

-  Engagement of an external partner to gather the learnings from the project and promote them to relevant industry, government and community stakeholders to catalyze similar projects across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

e.  $196,000 over 18 months to Pocket Community Association to build a non-profit retrofit coordination service and accelerate retrofits of single-family homes in Toronto.  The Committee’s recommendation is subject to the following condition:

-  Written confirmation that the grantseeker has secured at least $281,000 in additional project funding from other external sources.

-  Written confirmation that the grantseeker has completed recruitment of an Executive Director, a Marketing Lead, and any additional personnel possessing relevant business expertise for the Retrofit Coordination Service.

-  Submission of a proposed business plan and revenue model for TAF approval.

2.  Declined four grant requests with a total value of $714,989. These are summarized in Confidential Attachment 1 to the report (October 20, 2022) from the Senior Grants Manager, Toronto Atmospheric Fund.

3.  Recommended the allocation of $1,033,000 over 12 months to support TAF’s functional and focus area teams in implementing their priority strategies and activities for 2023. (funded from Canada, Ontario, and Toronto endowments except where otherwise indicated.)  The funds will be allocated to internal staff teams as follows:

-  Climate Policy: $35,000 to support TAF’s policy activities by engaging external experts on key opportunities, and through travel and communications focused on relevant policy files (funded from Canada and Toronto endowments only).

-  Research and Innovation: $30,000 to purchase data and software for enabling high-quality research and support external knowledge sharing through events.

-  Retrofit Accelerator: $600,000 to engage public and private building operators on designing and delivering deep retrofits, grow the ecosystem of deep retrofit solution providers, raise public and private capital for Accelerator-supported deep retrofit projects, and showcase the technical and economic viability and other benefits of deep retrofits.

-  Electrification of Transportation: $90,000 to support the implementation of TAF’s EV Station Fund and enable research through external experts to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging.

-  Decarbonizing Ontario’s Electricity System: $96,000 to secure technical advisory support for advancing research on distributed energy resources and energy conservation, mobilize stakeholders on decarbonization initiatives, and attend relevant events (funded from Canada and Toronto endowments only).

-  Grants: $82,000 to support capacity building of grantees and TAF staff on program design and evaluation and other relevant training opportunities, engage a technical expert to customize TAF’s grant administration software, and attend events to engage with other funders on leading grantmaking trends and opportunities.

-  Impact Investing: $100,000 to support customizing software for tracking and reporting investments, undertake origination and due diligence for Direct Investments, and undertake communications/marketing related to TAF’s impact investing leadership and practice.

4.  Directed that the confidential information contained in Confidential Attachment 1 to the report (October 20, 2022) from the Senior Grants Manager, Toronto Atmospheric Fund remain confidential in its entirety, as it contains financial information supplied in confidence to the Toronto Atmospheric Fund which, if disclosed, could reasonably be expected to significantly prejudice the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a person, group of persons, or organization.

At its meeting on October 13, 2022, TAF’s Grants and Programs Committee recommended that the Board approve five grants with a combined value of $826,000 and the program allocation with a total value of $1,033,000 to support TAF’s internal projects in 2023. This report includes recommendations and the minutes of the meeting.