University of Toronto
Summary
The block-shaped, brick industrial facility at 17 Ursula Franklin Street might not be University of Toronto’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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