Deep retrofit Towers and surrounding communities for a low carbon future: Our sizeable legacy of post-war residential towers collectively produce several megatonnes of greenhouse gases each year and are among the most carbon-intensive housing types in Canada’s urban centres. However, these towers are uniquely positioned to emerge as models for low-energy retrofit. Deep retrofits can reduce their impact by as much as 80%, while also modernizing this housing typology for the next generation. Engaging in deep retrofits provides a platform…

In August, the Tower Renewal Partnership (TRP) conducted new analysis on incenting nation-wide comprehensive tower retrofits. In particular, tax incentives were modelled and evaluated to understand how they could be used to achieve public policy goals around affordability and renewal. As the federal election approached, this analysis, coupled with existing TRP research formed a suite of federal policy recommendations to further advance and implement wide-scale tower renewal. The advantage of working with tax incentives to address policy priorities like GHG…

What is Tower Renewal? Tower Renewal is a strategy that promotes, supports and directs enhancement and reinvestment in Canada’s affordable apartment tower stock. During the boom years of the 1960s and 70s, Canada built a significant volume of modern apartment towers in response to rapid urbanization. Predominantly privately developed, but supported by public planning policy and incentives, these towers shape the urban and suburban landscape cross county – with at least 750,000 Canadian households calling them home.  Half a century…