2011 Off-Site Sessions

USGBC works with its local host committee to offer a series of off-site educational sessions, giving attendees the opportunity to connect with the community where the conference is held, by stepping outside the convention center to see first-hand examples of what they are learning about in the host city.

All Off-site Education Sessions qualify for 1.5 GBCI hrs. See the Public Catalog for more information and to schedule these sessions.

OF01 Regent Park Revitalization Phase 1
Wednesday, Oct. 5
3-5:30 p.m.

Participants walked through phase 1 of Toronto Community Housing’s Regent Park revitalization, Canada’s oldest and largest social housing community. Phase 1 includes market condos and affordable rental units, in a mix of townhouses and apartments of varying heights, as well as retail, commercial and civic uses. The project features green roofs, porous pavements, low-water use landscape design and water saving fixtures. Energy use is targeted to be 40-50 percent below the Model National Energy Code for Buildings.

OF02 Ontario Green Energy & Feed-In-Tariff Program
Wednesday, Oct. 5
3-5:30 p.m.

The Green Energy Act and corresponding Ontario Power Authority Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) Program have positioned Ontario as one of the leading green energy jurisdictions in the world. Introduced in 2009, the FIT program is North America’s first guaranteed pricing structure for various forms of renewable electricity production (e.g. solar pv, wind, biogas). Participants toured a functioning FIT solar PV project and learn more about Ontario’s experience to date with solar.

OF03 Enwave Deep Lake Water Cooling
Wednesday, Oct. 5
3-5:30 p.m.

Toronto is home to one of the world’s most innovative and cleanest systems used to cool buildings – Enwave’s deep lake water cooling. This system pulls 4° C water from deep in Lake Ontario and transfers this cold energy to Enwave's closed chilled water supply loop which services over 30 buildings in the City’s downtown core. Participants saw Enwave’s system in action at their transfer station and a nearby commercial office building.

OF04 Toronto Waterfront
Wednesday, Oct. 5
3-5:30 p.m.

Neighborhoods being planned by Toronto Waterfront have earned LEED for Neighborhood Development Gold (Stage I), and the Waterfront has been selected as one of 17 Climate Positive Communities by the Clinton Climate Initiative. In this session, Waterfront staff and advisors presented the vision for the neighborhoods, what they saw as the greatest wins to date and what the main challenges that remained to achieving their vision. They presented how LEED has assisted in this process.

OF05 Enacting a Green Roof By-Law
Thursday, Oct. 6
3-5:30 p.m.

Toronto is the first North American city to introduce a by-law that requires and governs the construction of green roofs on new development. City officials discussed the development, implementation, and outcomes of the by-law and review its challenges and benefits, including stakeholder feedback that will result in updates to the by-law in October 2011. The session included a guided educational tour of City Hall’s green roof, the largest publicly accessible green roof in the city.

OF06 Evergreen at the Brickworks
Thursday, Oct. 6
3-5:30 p.m.

Evergreen at the Brickworks is a redevelopment of a 100-year-old industrial site in the Don Valley. Consistent with Evergreen's mission, the Brickworks was created to transforms visitors' understanding of what is possible to achieve with green buildings. In this session, the team described how this is achieved at the site level, the individual building level (including a project pursuing LEED), and through the programs being offered.

OF07 Teaching Sustainability for First Nations Communities
Thursday, Oct. 6
3-5:30 p.m.

Public and private organizations presented their educational programs and projects focusing on sustainable building and infrastructure projects for First Nations communities. The goal of the programs is to be responsive to elements of First Nations traditions, be they social, economic, cultural or built form. The setting will be the new Native Child and Family Services of Toronto building, an excellent example of sustainable architecture reflective of First Nations culture.

OF08 Large Portfolio Footprint Measurement -- Case Study
Thursday, Oct. 6
3-5:30 p.m.

The North American commercial real estate industry is still in the early stages of measuring and managing their environmental footprint at a portfolio level. There are many important decisions that need to be made - for example what information do stakeholders want and how should companies gather, analyze and report on such data. This session explored challenges, strategies and a case study from one of Canada’s leading companies, Oxford Properties Group.