University of Toronto
Summary
The block-shaped, brick industrial facility at 17 Ursula Franklin Street might not be U of T’s most iconic building, but in many ways, it is the unsung hero that enables the St. George campus’s more well-known edifices to function.
It’s the heart of the district energy system – the central steam plant. There, water is boiled to make steam that is piped around to heat most buildings on campus, as well as some nearby non-university properties such as the Royal Ontario Museum.
But the plant was built in the early 1950s and needs an eco-friendly upgrade. Its boilers burn natural gas. Switching from gas to electric boilers would make a huge dent in the university’s carbon footprint – but also cost more (electricity is 10 times more expensive than natural gas in Ontario).
Ron Saporta, U of T’s chief operating officer of property and sustainability, dubs this the “carbon versus cost” quandary: to curb carbon emissions from the steam plant, the university needs to slash energy use and costs. That requires a big financial commitment. Enter the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s $50-million investment to kickstart the university’s Project Leap, a collection of building modernizations that will help the St. George campus halve its carbon emissions in three years, and eliminate more greenhouse gases than it emits well before 2050 – the year by which all three campuses have pledged to become climate-positive.
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