Sustainability Project Examples | Windfall Ecology Centre

Windfall Project Examples

Projects for Green Cities

Below is a portfolio of our past and ongoing projects:

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All types
Turnkey Residential
Turnkey Commercial
Data visualizations
Research and development

Commercial Turnkey solutions

Toronto Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking (T-EWRB) Help Centre

Windfall Ecology Centre was selected by the City of Toronto to design and operate the Toronto Energy & Water Reporting and Benchmarking (T-EWRB) Help Centre, providing compliance support, stakeholder engagement, data management, and technical assistance to building owners and managers. The project demonstrates Windfall's growing expertise in building performance programs and its readiness to support the next generation of building benchmarking, disclosure, and emissions performance initiatives.

Residential Turnkey solutions

Better Homes London

Better Homes London supports homeowners in making energy-saving home improvements through integrated financing, expert retrofit coaching, and personalized project support. Delivered by Windfall Ecology Centre in partnership with the Climate Action Partnership and the City of London, the program helps residents navigate the retrofit process, access available funding, and make informed decisions that improve comfort, lower energy costs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Residential Turnkey solutions

Greener Homes Halton Hills

Greener Homes Halton Hills helps residents make informed home retrofit decisions through free, impartial energy coaching, vHEAT digital assessment tools, and personalized guidance. Developed and delivered by Windfall Ecology Centre in partnership with the Town of Halton Hills, the program connects homeowners with expert advice on energy efficiency upgrades, available rebates, retrofit planning, and contractor quote review, helping residents improve comfort, reduce energy costs, and lower household emissions.

Residential Turnkey solutions

Better Homes Dufferin

Better Homes Dufferin helps homeowners access affordable financing, incentives, and expert guidance to complete energy efficiency, climate resilience, water conservation, and renewable energy upgrades. Delivered by Windfall Ecology Centre in partnership with the Climate Action Partnership and Dufferin County, the program provides a streamlined, one-window experience that combines retrofit coaching, financing support, application management, and project guidance to help residents confidently plan and complete home improvements.

Commercial Turnkey solutions

Durham Greener Buildings

Durham Region's Durham Greener Buildings program, was developed and is delivered by Windfall Ecology Centre. The program is committed to enhancing the sustainability and energy efficiency of Durham's building sector. Recognizing that building energy benchmarking is a crucial step in improving greenhouse gas performance, the program provides comprehensive energy benchmarking services for commercial, institutional, and multi-unit residential buildings.

Data visualization

Broader public sector building comparison map

This visualization displays data on Broader Public Sector (BPS) buildings in Ontario. BPS buildings are required to report energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on a yearly basis, and include municipally owned buildings, schools, hospitals and more. This dataset contains all BPS building types, including reporting years from 2011 to 2020.

Open source: View the visualization

Research and development

Greater Victoria Home Energy Navigator program

The Home Energy Navigator Program is available to residents of the 16 communities making up the Greater Victoria Region. Participants are connected with an Energy Concierge, who will be available throughout their upgrade project to answer questions, provide support, and give local, expert advice and guidance to navigate the complex world of home energy upgrades. Windfall Centre designed the service offering and provided detailed market analysis in partnership with the Integral Group (now Introba).

Residential Turnkey solutions

Durham Greener Homes

Windfall Centre developed and delivers Durham Region's Durham Greener Homes program, which is a targeted program to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Durham Region’s 200,000 single family homes. Designed to help homeowners in the Region overcome the challenges of completing energy efficient retrofits, the program provides expert retrofit coaching, incentives, and financial support throughout the home retrofit journey.

The making of Durham Greener Homes

Data visualization

Measuring Ontario's Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking (EWRB) initiative

Once fully phased in this year (2023), most owners of commercial, industrial, multi-unit residential and other building types that are 50,000 square feet and larger are encouraged to report their building's energy and water consumption annually to the province.

This data visualization compares the Energy Use Intensity (EUI), Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and reporting metrics of York, Durham, and Toronto buildings to the provincial average.

Open source: View the visualization

Research and development

Toronto Net Zero Existing Buildings Strategy

The City of Toronto has released its much-anticipated net-zero policy strategy for existing buildings in 2021. The comprehensive report was 18 months in the making by an expert team from Windfall Ecology Centre, WSP, the Integral Group, and Reep Green Solutions. It lays out an ambitious policy framework and pathways to net-zero for all buildings in Toronto by 2050.

Open source: Download the policy paper

Data visualizations

Measuring home energy upgrade/retrofit performance

Dashboards for the City of Toronto, York Region, Durham Region

With data input from over 674,000 EnerGuide Home Energy Evaluations performed from 2003 through 2022, our latest set of Data Visualizations allows anyone to easily assess energy retrofit performance, identify trends, pinpoint segment marketing opportunities, and benchmark progress at the neighbourhood level.

Open source: View the visualizations

Research and development

Just Green Cities: Integrating the SDGs into Municipal Infrastructure Decision Making

Just Green Cities addresses a core challenge Canadians face in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and addressing the climate crisis: municipal infrastructure renewal. In particular, the Just Green Cities report covers how we move from national commitments to operationalizing equity-driven change at the municipal level to meet 2030 and 2050 sustainable development and greenhouse gas reduction targets.

Open source: Download the policy paper

Research and development

Ontario Green Energy Act

Windfall Ecology Centre played a leading role in the development of Ontario’s Green Energy Act which ignited the development of green energy in Ontario and led to several billions of dollars in private sector investment in the sector. Windfall Ecology Centre founder and executive director, Brent Kopperson, co-founded the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association and the Community Power Fund, two NGO’s that led advocacy and policy design for the Act. Brent Kopperson served as a Director and Chair of both organizations and was an editor of Powering Ontario Communities: Proposed Policy for Projects up to 10 MW, which laid the groundwork for Canada’s first comprehensive renewable energy policy.

Research and development

Drive Electric Ontario — macro economic study

In 2014 Windfall published Ontario's first macro economic study of the impact of electric vehicle adoption along with an innovative interactive greenhouse gas (GHG) emission calculator. Windfall Centre's low emission vehicle program began as Hybrid Alley in 2007 at the annual Windfall Ecology Festival. It showcased hybrid and electric vehicles and quickly grew over the years to include EV ride and drive events and school demonstrations. At Windfall Centre we walk the talk and purchased our first electric vehicle in 2012.

Open source: Download the policy paper

If you have a project you would like to discuss, please contact us for a free consultation at:
consultations@windfallcentre.ca