Toronto adopts mandatory green roof requirements

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities recently announced that the City of Toronto, Canada, passed a new green roof bylaw consisting of a green roof construction standard and a mandatory requirement for green roofs on all classes of new buildings. The bylaw requires up to 50% green roof coverage on multi-unit residential dwellings over six stories, schools, non-profit housing, commercial and industrial buildings. Larger residential projects require greater green roof coverage, ranging from 20 to 50% of the roof area.

The bylaw will apply to all new building permit applications made after January 31, 2010 (residential, commercial and institutional) and January 31, 2011 for all new industrial development.

The new bylaw will be required on all new development above 2,000m² of gross floor area (GFA) and have a graduated coverage requirement ranging from 20 to 60%.