About
Welcome to Toronto Home Retrofits (THR)
Toronto Home Retrofits (THR) is an incorporated not-for-profit organization that offers community groups across the City the support they need to help their members electrify their homes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Our aim is to significantly accelerate home retrofits across the City to help reduce emissions and increase energy efficiency. Our approach is modelled on the successful Pocket Change Project, whose retrofit coordination and support service in Toronto’s east end continues to demonstrate the value of peer support and collaboration in what can often be a challenging endeavour. THR fosters new community-based retrofit support programs to scale the Pocket Change Project.
We train and support our community partners in the systematic process of “neighbours-helping-neighbours,” volunteer-led community outreach, and support for homeowners to retrofit their homes. Our partnering communities may include neighbourhood organizations, faith groups, community land trusts, employee groups or any other organization.
Read this overview for more detailed information about the program and how it will support partner communities and homeowners.
THR Board of Directors Call For Nominations
Are you passionate about working with Toronto communities to accelerate emissions reductions from single-family homes? Do you want to help guide and build a new and exciting organization dedicated to driving real climate action? Are you willing to be actively involved in the organization’s operations?
Toronto Home Retrofits (THR) is looking for dedicated volunteers to join our Board of Directors ... See more or download document.
What people are saying
“What we’ve learned is that our house on an annual basis emits about 7.1 tonnes [of greenhouse gases]. Now, it’s hard for me and probably most people to understand, well, what does that mean? So it’s the equivalent of driving an SUV about 15,000 kilometers in a year. That’s a lot of emissions! And I realized that the climate change crisis requires a lot more than just doing a lot of recycling….I really want to do whatever I can to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the place that I call home.”
- Lori, homeowner with the Pocket Change Project
“I chose to do a net-zero renovation as opposed to a traditional renovation for a couple of reasons. One, it makes the house more comfortable. And in an environment like Toronto that has extremes of weather, it helps. And the other is financial. Really, there are a lot of grants available if you go that little bit further doing green renovations, and long-term, you save a lot of money as well... It’s not as hard as people think it is. It can be overwhelming at the beginning, but once you start all these little projects, every single one of them you’ll feel the difference and you’ll see the difference on your utility bill, and that creates more motivation and it makes you feel good.
And when I come home at the end of the day and it’s lovely and warm in my house and it’s cold outside, and I know that I’m not creating any pollution, I’m proud of that.”
- Chris, homeowner, Milverton Avenue Retrofit Group
- Jeb, homeowner with the Pocket Change Project
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