U of T’s Sustainable Roadmap: Key insights from Ron Saporta’s Alumni Reunion address

Ron Saporta showcased the University’s pioneering innovations in sustainability during his keynote address at the Alumni Association Annual Meeting.

On June 1, Ron Saporta, chief operating officer, Property Services & Sustainability, delivered the keynote address at the University of Toronto’s 2024 Alumni Reunion weekend.

“I am deeply honored to represent the University and showcase to my fellow alumni the significant strides we are making in sustainability and the exciting developments on the horizon,” said Saporta, who is also a U of T alumnus.

Recently recognized as the most sustainable university in the world, U of T is leading the way for academic institutions in fostering a sustainable future, prioritizing sustainability across all aspects of its operations—from environmental impact to student engagement.

“Our success story serves as a powerful testament to U of T’s proactive stance against the climate crisis,” he says. “And we’re just getting started.” Saporta explained that while significant progress has been made, U of T will continue to push the boundaries of sustainability.

Saporta went on to draw attention to one of U of T’s major forward-thinking initiatives: the now-complete urban geo-exchange beneath King’s College Circle—the largest of its kind in Canada. The elaborate infrastructure project provides a low carbon solution to heating and cooling our campus.

However, the focal point of Saporta’s address was the transformative plan for the St. George campus, which will become climate positive by 2050. In other words, the University will cut more greenhouse gas emissions than the campus produces. This ambitious target goes beyond achieving net-zero emissions and imagines a future where the University directly benefits and rejuvenates our environment.

To facilitate this transformation, the University plans to responsibly manage environmental impacts from campus growth, renew aging utility infrastructure, and establish resilient systems to meet carbon reduction targets.

At the forefront of this initiative is Project Leap, a giant step towards climate positivity. This project aims to reduce the campus’s carbon emissions by more than half within the next three years by reducing its energy consumption. This large-scale effort involves the installation of electric boilers and heat pumps and building retrofits to reduce burning of fossil fuels by over 75%

“Project Leap demonstrates to institutions that such a dramatic carbon reduction within a short time is not only achievable; it’s also financially feasible,” Saporta said.

The next major decarbonization project, an expansion of the initial Leap plan, sets even more ambitious targets, aiming for an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and 40% energy reduction in five additional campus buildings The University plans to achieve this goal through further deep energy retrofits—this time, in buildings beyond the central St. George campus.

Saporta also discussed U of T’s plans to address Scope 3 emissions, emissions borne from activities indirectly related to the University, such as transportation. In 2023, The University has launched the Air Travel Emissions Mitigation Initiative (ATEMI), a program that collects fees from university-funded air travel to finance the University’s decarbonization projects.

During his address, Saporta highlighted the vital role faculty and students play in the University’s advancements in sustainability. “We have 65,000 students on our campus. If we can educate students across every discipline on the importance of tackling climate change and promoting climate positivity, our efforts can have far-reaching impacts beyond U of T.”

Saporta moved on to shine a light on the University’s partnerships with faculty members in piloting their research in real-world applications. The University unlocks the use of campus resources to enable research that was not possible in the past. One of these projects, funded by the U of T climate positive energy grant, is the solar panel coating project led by Professor Cynthia Goh.

“We are not only utilizing our campus as a living lab; we are also commercializing and introducing innovations into the market to have a global impact,” said Saporta.

Ultimately, Saporta hopes that his address illustrating the University’s continued progress in sustainability will inspire alumni to affect positive changes to their own environments. “Many of the activities undertaken by the University are very scalable and replicable elsewhere,” he says. “I hope that our alumni will become inspired by these innovations and can apply them to their own environments.”