University of Toronto

Facilities & Services

Sustainability Tip

Use cold water for doing laundry to prevent having to use energy to heat up all that water.

Keep your curtains or blinds closed on summer days to keep out the warming sunlight and reduce the amount your A/C needs to be run.

Keep your curtains or blinds open on winter days to let in the warming sun and reduce how much your furnace needs to be run.

Modern electronics are far more energy efficient than ever before. Ensuring your electronics meet the Energy Star efficiency standards can save huge amounts of electricity.

Using a fan to create a nice breeze can make those hot summer days more comfortable without having to run the A/C as much.

Laptops are the efficient choice. Using a laptop will consume far less power than desktops but is still offer enough computing ability to cover everything you will want to do on a computer.

After lighting, computers and monitors have the highest energy consumption in office environments. Putting your computer to sleep or turning it off when you're not around will drastically lower electricity usage.

Every minute counts when using water. Take shorter showers to reduce the amount of water you use.

Timing is everything. Run your dishwasher, laundry or take a shower in the early morning or late evening to save using peak-hour utilities.

Turn lights off at lunch, at the end of the day and whenever you leave a room empty for a long period of time.

Every little bit counts. Unplug your cellphone charger when you are not actively charging your phone to save the extra bit of power.

Steam Plant Tours

First year engineer students on the 4th floor discover the scope of the Steam Plant. (Photo by Jon Horvatin)

Thursday, April 19, 2012
Written by The Bulletin

The University of Toronto has a 100-year history with centralized steam delivery. Steam generated by four massive boilers fueled by natural gas (originally fueled by coal) is delivered to many buildings across campus for heating spaces and making hot water. Waste heat produced by a jet turbine cogeneration unit installed in 1993, is also used to heat boilers and produce steam. And, during summer, steam is used by absorption chillers in the Medical Sciences Building for refrigeration.

Join a group of first-year engineering students as they tour the university’s steam plant with Boon-Teak Lee, the plant’s Chief Engineer.