Get to know F&S: Vic Cassano

Vic Cassano, the senior reductions utility manager at Facilities & Services, is using his dedication and experience to help make St. George’s climate positive commitments come to fruition.

Cassano is passionate about creating a climate positive campus. The University of Toronto recently announced plans to make its St. George campus climate positive by 2050, meaning it will curb more emissions than it emits.

Vic Cassano stands near solar panels on the roof of the Exam Centre.
Vic Cassano, senior reductions utility manager at Facilities & Services (photo by Skyler Huang)

For most of his career, Cassano worked in building environmental design and energy performance-based design-build. Performance-based design is an approach that focuses on achieving results such as energy and greenhouse gas reductions, and financial returns.

“It’s an exciting line of business to be a part of,” said Cassano. “U of T is looking at a performance-based design-build concept, and our team will operationalize what being a climate-positive institution looks like.”

Cassano is helping to bring the Climate Positive Campus Plan to life.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of this very ambitious project at a world-class university,” Cassano said.

The immediate goal of the project is to have a 50% reduction of carbon before 2030 and to go beyond the goal of carbon neutral to become climate positive by 2050. Cassano has some key technologies to make this goal a reality, such as heat pumps and heat recovery.

Reducing building usage is one way that Cassano is hoping to help fulfill U of T’s climate-positive commitments.

“The focus is to get buildings at minimal energy usage so we can conserve and limit unnecessary energy with the added goal to not just maintain but improve indoor comfort in the built environment,” Cassano said enthusiastically.

Cassano is also looking at expanding renewable technologies. Luckily, the St. George campus is already equipped with renewable technologies such as solar photovoltaics and solar thermal. Solar photovoltaic technology produces electricity from sunlight while solar thermal converts sunlight into heat. Cassano is looking to scale these renewable energy technologies on campus.

“Doing more solar photovoltaics to offset usage is a key proven technology to get to climate positive,” said Cassano. “You can’t get to zero on the conversion of fossil fuels to electricity alone because our grid electricity contains low amounts of carbon.”

Cassano’s experience and strategic approach to energy management make him a member of a larger community that is deeply dedicated to building an entirely new model of sustainable growth for current and future generations.

“It’s invigorating to join a team that’s actually made the commitment and is leading the way in a more sustainable institutional world,” said Cassano. “We will be climate positive and better than neutral—and that innovation will serve future Canadians.”

November 24, 2021
Baher Hussein