Tridel In The News

ENERGY-EFFICIENCY

Tridel's Verve condo receives 'green loan'

The Globe and Mail Friday, June 10, 2005, Page G2
Globe & Mail Article.

A downtown condominium builder unveiled an innovative strategy this week to support the construction of "green" residential towers that will be energy-efficient, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality in Toronto.

The technologies exist for cutting these emissions, but the cost has acted as a deterrent to builders and condominium buyers who would have to shoulder the added expense.

The Toronto Atmospheric Fund and builder Tridel teamed up to create a "green loan" program to get around that problem by leveraging the projected operating cost savings of an energy-efficient building to increase the initial investment in equipment and material.

The investment made at Tridel's new Verve project at Wellesley Street East and Jarvis Street will be paid back by the condominium corporation over a seven-year period. It will do so with some of the funds that would otherwise have been spent on higher gas and electricity bills in a condo building designed to meet only building code requirements. Once the loan is repaid, the full operating cost savings will accrue to condo owners and residents.

Verve will be one of Canada's largest certified "green" residential buildings and will be recognized by Natural Resources Canada for outperforming the energy code requirements for condominiums by more that 25 per cent. The building is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 944 tonnes a year, compared with a typical building built to code.

The Toronto Atmospheric Fund was created by the City of Toronto in 1991 to finance projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality. Past projects include the wind turbine located on the waterfront at Exhibition Place and energy-efficiency upgrades to city-owned buildings and more than 12,000 private homes. The green loan to Tridel is the fund's first partnership with a private-sector partner.

Verve has been designed with numerous environmentally friendly features, including a central heat-recovery system, compact fluorescent lighting, high-efficiency Energy Star appliances and water-saving toilets, faucets and showers. The corridor carpeting, wall coverings, adhesives, coatings and paints used in the building are all low in volatile organic compounds.