Growing Green Roofs and an Industry Under Toronto’s Green Roof Bylaw
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The Green Roof Bylaw has resulted in more than 10 million square feet of rooftop green space in Toronto and this is an image of the Canary District, Toronto. Photo: LiveRoof Ontario Inc.
A trip up to the observation deck of the iconic CN tower would find tourists and some locals marveling at the growing skyline, picking out parks, islands and ravines and commenting on the traffic below on the city’s Gardiner Expressway. Many new buildings have been added to the view over the past 15 years, and it doesn’t take much time, even for the untrained eye to start to spot the many green roofs high above the downtown crowds.
A google satellite view of Canada’s largest city provides the best way to see the changing roofscape. Green roofs identify a generation of buildings constructed under the City of Toronto Green Roof Bylaw. Next year marks the 15th anniversary of the City’s bylaw which was the first in North America to require green roofs city-wide on new buildings and to establish the standards that govern their construction.
Since 2010, the Green Roof bylaw has driven the green roof industry to deliver over 1000 green roofs, covering over 1,000,000 sq m (10,700,000 sq ft); an area equal to more than 185 NFL football fields. Green roofs are now a basic building feature in Toronto; contributing to meeting the Toronto Green Standard (green building requirements); stormwater water management and vibrant outdoor amenity spaces all at the same time.
Toronto’s multipronged Green Roof Strategy emerged out of many years of successful advocacy by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) and the Rooftop Gardens Resource Group, long before the City had the ability to require green roofs. In 2001, GRHC worked with the City to establish eight green roof demonstration plots on the podium deck of City Hall and conduct performance research with the National Research Council’s Institute for Research in Construction on the nearby extensive green roof at the Eastview Community Center. These early efforts, combined with workshops and conferences, eventually led to the city’s Green Roof Strategy. Adopted in 2006, the strategy focused on building awareness and industry capacity in those early years, identifying the need for incentives and city leadership on its own buildings - two key pillars of the City’s green roof program today.
An accessible green roof at Two Old Mill Drive. Photo: Greg VanRiel/NLSM
Toronto’s approach brings together regulation with incentives to support voluntary green roofs through the Eco-roof incentive program; and municipal leadership through a City policy requiring all city-owned facilities go above and beyond the minimum requirements of the bylaw. This approach has been successful with the city projects delivering a range of green roofs that are amongst the largest in the city and which include some of the best biodiverse green roofs. The Eco-Roof Incentive Program draws sustainable funding from the cash-in-lieu provisions of the Green Roof Bylaw and has helped to fund 535 cool roof and 115 green roof projects.
While the numbers point to the success of Toronto’s approach, another key indicator is the impact the bylaw has had on the growth of the Canadian green roof market. Sasha Aguilera, Next Level Stormwater Management’s Design Ambassador based in Toronto, attributes growth of the Canadian green roof market to Toronto’s early leadership
“The bylaw shifted green roofs from an exception to a norm. Other Canadian municipalities now seek inspiration from Toronto's approach in shaping their own regulations”, says Augilera.
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According to Kees Govers, Technical Sales Manager for LiveRoof Ontario, a steady rather than an ad hoc client base that a strong regulatory framework brings, was critical for industry development.
“All the major manufacturers operating in Toronto now have, not just representatives, but also hard goods warehouses and their plant nurseries and suppliers within 200 km of Toronto. The Toronto area is the base of operations for at least four of these suppliers.”
Govers has been in the green roof industry since 2006 and sees the industry now at a place with dedicated installers, project managers and maintenance professionals that can bring over 15 years of experience to a project and a familiarity with the requirements of all major types of systems in regular use.
“The Green Roof Bylaw and the Green Roof Construction Standard have helped significantly in professionalizing the industry; it has also led to industry co-operation on major technical issues. It has also resulted better research and development of new products to meet specific design challenges both by individual firms and academia, such as the wind uplift product standards”, says Govers.
Aguilera points out that while the bylaw greatly increased adoption of green roofs since 2010, it directly paved the way for the Toronto Green Standard to raise the bar to require green roofs to manage stormwater, increase biodiversity and support pollinators.
The Form at 50 McCaul, one of more than 1000 green roofs implemented in Toronto. Photo: Greg VanRiel/NLSM
Toronto successes have relied not only on the green roof industry’s response but also leadership within the development industry. Green building leaders gained experience with green roofs in the early years, enabling meaningful feedback on making a regulation work for new development.
Conclusion
The search for solutions to the city’s environmental challenges resulted, intentionally or not, in a thriving local industry that has impacts outside of its borders - an outcome only possible through the willingness of green roof suppliers, installers, landscape architects, engineers and developers to all be at the table to deliver solutions.
For more information about the Green Roof By-Law, please visit our website.
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Shayna Stott is a Senior Policy Planner with the City of Toronto, a board member of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and co-chair of the CitiesAlive conference Advisory Committee. Shayna has been part of the team charged with the development and implementation of the Green Roof Bylaw for over 15 years.
The City of Toronto will be co-hosting CitiesAlive 2024 in Toronto November 6th to 9th, 2024. If you are interested in learning more, please join me for a Masterclass in Green Roof Policy Making on Wednesday November 6th, 2024, at the start of the 20th Anniversary of CitiesAlive in Toronto.
