How do Ontario residents understand building decarbonization and climate adaptation—and what does that mean for local governments? In this webinar, the EcoAnalytics’ Clean Cities Research (CCR) Project team shared Ontario-specific findings from their Phase 3 survey, with a practical focus on implications for municipalities. The session was tailored for municipal staff working on climate action, buildings, and adaptation, and explored how public attitudes can support effective policy development and communications.
Energy
Integrating Asset and Energy Management: Lessons from Peel Region
AMONTario and Climate Action Partnership are collaborating to bring together municipal asset and energy managers across Ontario. Aligning asset and energy management is a critical step in achieving cost savings, reducing emissions, and meeting long-term decarbonization and service delivery goals. In this session, Peel Region share the key lessons they’ve learned from integrating the very distinct work of corporate energy and asset management, and the way forward.
LCBS: Kitchener Public Library Southwest Community Library Webinar
Southwest’s net-zero design has achieved the Zero Carbon Building Certification from the Canadian Building Council and is one of the first public libraries in Canada to meet these criteria.
In this webinar, we highlighted the design, construction, and operational strategies and discussed lessons learned, from gaining stakeholder buy-in to overcoming cost and implementation barriers.
Energy Managers CoP – Integrating Asset and Energy Management: Lessons from City of Kingston
AMONTario and Climate Action Partnership are collaborating to bring together municipal asset and energy managers across Ontario. Aligning asset and energy management is a critical step in achieving cost savings, reducing emissions, and meeting long-term decarbonization and service delivery goals. Through this partnership, we will highlight Ontario case studies that showcase collaboration between energy and asset management teams.
Hear from the City of Kingston as they share their journey of successfully merging their asset and energy management departments and the key lessons they’ve learned from this integrated approach. Following the presentation, participants will have the opportunity to engage in discussion on the challenges, opportunities, and key considerations involved in aligning these two departments.
Additional Resources
Low-Carbon Affordable Housing: Sundance Housing Co-Op Deep Energy Retrofit
Energy efficiency retrofits in social and affordable housing present an enormous opportunity to protect against energy price increases, reduce greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions and create more comfortable spaces for residents. There are significant benefits that can come from ensuring that experiences and lessons learned from retrofit projects are shared across the social and affordable housing and municipal corporate energy sector. In this webinar, Peter Amerongen from Retrofit Canada spoke to the partnership efforts, lessons learned, and how the Sundance housing Co-op Deep Energy Retrofit project was instrumental in the development of a Retrofit Roadmap.
Additional Resources:
Low Carbon Building Series: University of Toronto Project Leap
In this webinar, Scott Hendershot , Senior Manager, Sustainability, University of Toronto shared insights on campus-wide sustainability initiatives – including expanding the campus’s ability to capture and store heat through a new geoexchange system beneath Front Campus, phasing out natural gas in favour of electrification for heating, upgrading to energy-efficient LED lighting in 38 buildings, and optimizing energy used for air distribution systems in key research laboratories. Together, these efforts will reduce nearly 50,000 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year, equivalent to the energy use of more than 10,000 homes. We explored the drivers that made this project feasible and how similar approaches could be applied in other communities.
Low Carbon Building Series: Carville Community Centre
In this webinar, Jon Loewen from Perkins & Will, Tom Jones and Lamya Baraam from City of Vaughan provided details on the development, design, and performance of the Carville Community Centre and Library, which is the City of Vaughan’s first net-zero carbon building. The session included detailed insights into energy efficiency, emissions reductions, operational challenges, and lessons learned.
Low Carbon Buildings Series: EX3 Condos – North America’s Tallest Geothermal Condominium
In this webinar with Tim Weber, Co-Founder of Diverso Energy, and Joseph Feldman, President & COO of Camrost Felcorp, share insights on the EX3 Condos geothermal project – the tallest residential development in North America to feature a geothermal energy system. From both the energy utility and developer perspectives, the webinar explored how the geothermal vision for EX3 Condos began and evolved.
CAC Workshop: Integrated Energy Plan
In June 2025, Ontario released the province’s Integrated Energy Plan (IEP), which is intended to outline the actions needed to prepare for the anticipated growth of Ontario’s electricity system and bring together planning for electricity, natural gas, hydrogen, and other fuels into a single coordinated plan.
Last year, a draft version of the IEP was published for public comment. The CAC provided feedback during this process, and upon reviewing the final version of the plan, we’ve identified areas of both alignment and misalignment between the CAC’s recommendations and the actions outlined in the final IEP. This workshop provided an overview of these points of alignment and misalignment and included a discussion about next steps.
- Discussion Summary
- Ontario’s Integrated Energy Plan: Alignment and Misalignment with Municipal Climate Priorities Presentation Slide Deck
Additional Resources
- Information on Toronto and Burlington’s collaboration with their LDC’s can be found in this webinar Utility and Municipal Engagements on Distribution System for Decarbonization Webinar
Low-Carbon Hydrogen in Mississauga: Infrastructure and Market Potential
Mississauga is investigating the development of a hydrogen hub. The hub is designed to engage project partners and local businesses to build awareness and education about hydrogen. The City of Mississauga engaged Deloitte to assess the feasibility of establishing a hydrogen hub, with funding from Natural Resources Canada. The assessment aimed to: (1) understand the hydrogen opportunity in Mississauga and the surrounding region, focusing on infrastructure and market potential, (2) position Mississauga competitively to attract investment and support for hydrogen initiatives, and (3) develop actionable steps to operationalize the hydrogen hub and address key challenges. In this webinar, City of Mississauga staff shared the results of the analysis.
Additional Resources
- City of Mississauga: Hydrogen Foundational Summary Report
- City of Mississauga: Engaging a hydrogen ecosystem project page
- City of Mississauga: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Bus Pilot Project
- Annual Canadian Hydrogen Conference
For a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
Building with Purpose: Solar Facades for Renewable Energy Generation
Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), also referred to as solar cladding or solar facade, integrate solar panels into a building’s exterior for electricity generation and enhanced building envelope functions. In this webinar, Cory Fry from Mitrex Solar presented on Mitrex’s public sector projects and discussed the potential of BIPV for renewable energy generation.
Additional Resources
- Myron and Berna Garron Health Sciences Complex (SAMIH) at University of Toronto Scarborough Case Study
- The SunRise, Residential/Rental Building Case Study
- Midland Courthouse Case Study
If you are interested in a copy of the slide deck, please reach out to cap@cleanairpartnership.org
Low-Carbon Affordable Housing: Efficiency Meets Equity
Waterloo Region Housing’s 420 Kingscourt Drive is a 73-unit building that provides comfortable and energy-efficient housing for lower-income residents. The building was designed with renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, including ground source heat pumps connected to an open-loop geothermal system and solar PV panels, integrated, and is expected to result in energy savings of approximately $54,000 annually, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and net annual total energy use intensity. In this webinar, Tristan Wilkin, Supervisor, Affordable Housing Development and Brad Pick, Senior Project Manager, at Waterloo Region, presented on 420 Kingscourt Drive from project initiation through to development.
Additional Resources
- Waterloo Region Housing Revitalization Plan (WRHRP)
- Canadian Green Building Council Zero-Carbon Building Design Standard
- TransformWR (Waterloo Region’s Community Climate Action Plan)
- Case study: Sustainable homes, stronger community
- Waterloo Region Housing Revitalization Plan Update (Council Report, 2024)
- 420 Kingscourt – 6 Storey Residential Development (Council Report, 2022, While the primary function is financial, the report repeatedly uses the project’s net-zero and environmental goals as a key justification for the investment)
- Sustainable Affordable Housing GMF funding (now closed).
If you are interested in a copy of the slide deck, please contact cap@cleanairpartnerhsip.org
BEPS CoP Webinar #1: The Important Role of Building Emissions Performance Standards in Net Zero
In this webinar, Natalia Enriquez Goyes and Ekaterina Tzekova from The Atmospheric Fund took participants on a Building Emissions Performance Standards (BEPS) journey. This webinar explored the role of BPS in net zero targets, why they are essential based on research on uptake from voluntary versus mandatory standards, and the progress occurring across North America. The speakers shared lessons learned from ongoing efforts that can inform local leading practices and approaches.
To inform future BEPS CoP efforts, following the presentation, participants engaged in break-out groups to explore municipal BEPS needs, concerns and required support. This webinar was the first in a series that aims to build municipal capacity and capabilities for exploring the role of BEPS in their community net-zero commitments.
Additional Resources
- TAF Resource Hub for Toronto BEPS
- TAF Metric Recommendation for Toronto’s BEPS
- TAF’s Resource on Building Sizes for Toronto’s BEPS
- BEPS Community of Practice Resource Hub
- BEPS Community of Practice Page
- City of Toronto BEPS Webpage
- City of Toronto Building Emissions Performance Standards (BEPS): Design Principles and Development Plan Staff Report
If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
Renewables Guide for Utility Scale Wind and Solar Projects
Tim Weis from the University of Alberta presented guidance for landowners, local decision makers or community members to help them better understand utility-scale renewable energy including steps in project development, operations and decommissioning of renewable energy in Ontario and questions to ask energy developers. He provided background on the basics of wind and solar energy and what is driving its development, as well as details on the process and steps associated with the development of renewable energy projects.
The Landowner Guide For Wind and Solar Project Development in Ontario was developed based on research and conversations with project developers, landowners, and communities regarding renewable energy projects.
Additional Resources
- Clean Air Partnership Landowners Guide for Utility Scale Wind and Solar Projects
- AMO Municipal Energy Procurement Toolkit
- AMO Navigating Municipal Relations
- Energy Storage Canada: Publications
If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
Building Low-Carbon Communities: Decarbonizing Residential Energy Systems
Creative Energy is developing a low-carbon solution that decarbonizes space heating and cooling for North Oak, a residential project in Oakville. The design utilizes geoexchange and ambient loop systems, heat pumps, boilers, and utilizes energy modeling software to create an efficient and sustainable district energy system. The combination of the geo fields and ambient distribution will allow buildings to share energy with one another, and enable in-suite heat pumps within the building to operate reliably and efficiently. The system is expected to avoid almost 1,000 tonnes of GHG emissions a year.
In this webinar, Keith Bate, Director of Engineering, and David Angelo, Director of Relationships (Canada East) presented on the North Oak community energy system and additional low carbon energy projects lead by Creative Energy, highlighting the potential for emissions, energy, and long-term financial savings.
Additional Resources
If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
Energy Managers Community of Practice Webinar: Peel Region’s NZE New Construction Standard
As buildings contribute significantly to Peel’s corporate emissions, the Office of Climate Change and Energy Management (OCCEM) at Peel Region has developed a Corporate Net Zero Emission (NZE) Policy and Standard for new construction, ensuring all new corporate buildings do not add to the already strained current GHG inventory. The Standard is instrumental in driving deep carbon reductions in new construction, thus enabling Peel to meet its corporate emissions reduction target of 45% by 2030 as well as the longer-term ambition of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Recognized with the CaGBC Government Leadership Award, this Standard provides a comprehensive set of guidelines and requirements designed to ensure that all new regional buildings and facilities achieve Net-Zero carbon emissions. It builds upon the basic principles of the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) design certification and incorporates additional measures to elevate environmental and operational standards. Bassem Elosman, Advisor of Climate Change and Energy Management with Peel Region, delivered a presentation on the Standards and how they are being applied to new construction.
If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
240 Markland Drive: Achieving Net-Zero with Geothermal Retrofit
240 Markland Drive is a 10-storey residential building in Etobicoke, Ontario, with a gross floor area of 12,557 m² and 113 units. The building underwent a transformative deep energy retrofit, completed by Carttera in 2022. In collaboration with Geosource Energy Inc., the retrofit incorporated low-carbon geothermal systems for both heating and cooling. These geothermal systems now serve both the original rental building and the new residential development on-site. As a result of the retrofit, 240 Markland Drive achieved Zero Carbon Building certification under the Canada Green Building Council’s ZCB-Performance Standard. This webinar featured insights from both Carttera and Geosource Energy Inc. on the key components of the retrofit, the integration of geothermal energy systems, and the steps taken to achieve net-zero operations.
Additional Resources
- 240 Markland Drive – Canada Green Building Council
- Zero Carbon Building Performance Standard Version 2 – Canada Green Building Council
- Government of Canada Launches the First Clean Economy Investment Tax Credits
- BILL C-59
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) MLI Select
If you would like a copy of the slide deck, please contact us at cap@cleanairpartnership.org
Data Tools for Community Energy Planners and Climate Coordinators
IESO’s Residential and Commercial Energy Programs
In this webinar, Arwa Sayyadi and Vicki Gagnon from the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) provided an overview of the organization’s low-income residential program, as well as commercial programs such as the retrofit rebate program. The session also included a brief discussion on strategies municipalities can use to effectively promote these programs within their communities.
Additional Resources