Toronto Celebrates Green Infrastructure Leadership and Achievements at CitiesAlive Conference

On Thursday, November 7, the morning keynote session concluded with a presentation by Shannon Baker, Project Director of Parks and Public Realm at Waterfront Toronto. Shannon is leading the Port Lands Flood Protection and Enabling Infrastructure (PLFP) Project, a $1.35 Billion CDN project, led by Waterfront Toronto, and funded by the three levels of government.

She shared the inspiring story of how seeds that were buried in the port lands stayed dormant for over a century. When discovered during the construction process, the seeds were carefully excavated and transported to the University of Toronto for research. The seeds represent the Indigenous landscape of the historic Ashbridges Bay Marsh which was at the mouth of the Don River before it was covered with landfill in the early 1900s. Researchers propagated the seeds and the plants are being incorporated and reintroduced to their native home. The seeds and their growth are a testament to Toronto’s return to nature, the righting of environmental wrongs of the past and a commitment to a future rooted in Indigenous values. 

City of Toronto staff delivered presentations throughout the conference that highlighted Toronto’s green infrastructure leadership and ongoing projects. 

Shayna Stott, Senior Environmental Planner in the City Planning Division presented on the City’s innovative green building standards and the history, impact and importance of Toronto’s green roof bylaw. Emma Tamlin, Project Lead for the Eco-Roof Incentive Program shared collaboration opportunities to help advance the uptake of green roofs and cool roofs in Toronto. Toronto’s green roof programs recently celebrated over 1 million square meters of green roof installed across the city due to the bylaw and the incentive program. 

Jen-Sion Tan and Jennifer Leung from the Transportation Division delivered an insightful presentation on their  work on the Green Streets program and the common design flaws in green infrastructure that make it more difficult to maintain. The session was an excellent complement to Rasmus Astrup’s presentation where he displayed a unique invention his team collaborated on with maintenance professionals to ensure water runoff in the spring, summer and fall can flow through a bioswale but in the winter be turned to direct run off contaminated with salt to the sewer system.

As the conference drew to a close, the Awards of Excellence ceremony on November 8 was buzzing with excitement as projects and professionals were awarded based on their tremendous achievements. 

City of Toronto’s own Jane Welsh won the Civic Award for her exceptional policy leadership in developing Toronto’s Green Standard, Biodiversity Strategy and the Green Roof Bylaw. 

Jane Welsh is a dedicated landscape architect leading the Environmental Planning unit at Toronto City Planning Division with over 20 years of driving innovative sustainability policy. Much of Toronto’s leadership and success in green roof and green building policy is largely due to Jane’s dedicated leadership, collaborative approach, and creative thinking.