Supporting Sustainable Communities
By Laura Nichol
November 2012
The EquilibriumTM Communities Initiative has supported the design and development of sustainable communities in Canada.
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Toronto Community Housing's Regent Park Revitalization Project (Photos: Toronto Community Housing).
What makes a neighbourhood sustainable? More than streets lined with energy efficient homes, a sustainable community involves broader infrastructure and land-use planning that meets community needs while minimizing environmental impact.
Over the past three years, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) partnered to jointly fund the design and improvement of a number of sustainable communities across Canada through the EquilibriumTM Communities Initiative. The communities range from a social housing development in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood to a First Nations community on Canada’s West Coast. They also include a new development in the suburbs of Ottawa, and a redevelopment of the historic Fort Road Old Town in Station Pointe Greens, Edmonton.
The initiative provided 4.2 million dollars among these developments to support design improvements, impact assessments as well as knowledge sharing.
“The support has allowed the communities to investigate design improvements that were desirable but previously too costly to undertake,” says Ken Church, Team Lead of NRCan’s Communities research group. “Once complete, they will showcase sustainable designs options that can be adopted by other developers and municipalities.”
Sustainable Neighbourhoods by Design
Each community is designed to address aspects of sustainability such as energy efficiency, reduced water use, protection of the natural environment, balanced land use, and low-carbon transportation options.
The Station Pointe, for example, is using Passive House design concepts to reduce the energy used to heat and cool buildings by over 90 percent and is treating the community’s waste water on site.
Moving farther west, the Ty-Histanis First Nations Neighbourhood Development provides an example of significant efforts to protect, enhance and restore the natural environment. Forty percent of the land will be left as protected habitat.
Travelling east to the heart of downtown Toronto, the Regent Park Revitalization illustrates a balance between commercial, institutional, recreational and industrial land uses. The development will provide affordable housing options and community centre space, as well as commercial buildings for uses such as day care and a grocery store. All of these locations are pedestrian-friendly and within a 10 minute walking distance from bus and light rail transit.
No Single Model for Sustainability
The communities are currently at various stages of planning and construction. In their design, the most important insight gained has been that greener communities are all conceived differently. “The developers in each of the projects approached community design differently, based on the needs and resources specific to that community,” says Ken.
For instance, the developers had diverse approaches to energy efficiency improvements. At Station Pointe, the developers analysed different building designs incorporating Passive House criteria, enabling them to reduce imported energy needs by over 90% with an estimated cost increase of less than 2%.
The Regent Park development, on the other hand, gained energy efficiency achievements in another way. They assessed methods to integrate combined heat and power systems with existing distribution systems. Now successfully integrated, community buildings are able to utilize otherwise wasted heat energy.
NRCan researchers will continue to provide the EquilibriumTM Communities with advice in energy efficiency and assess their ongoing performance. The results will assist other municipalities and developers who are interested in pursuing sustainable community development.
To learn more about the EquilibriumTM Communities Initiative, visit the “EquilibriumTM Communities Initiative” web page.
To read about related articles, see Energy Efficiency
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