News
GRIT Lab researchers are awarded an NSERC CREATE grant to establish a new interdisciplinary training and research network titled DesignLIFES: Design of Living Infrastructure for Ecosystem Services.
Liat Margolis presents on GRIT Lab findings at the 15th Green Building Festival: BIO: Ecological Principles in Buildings & Cities as part of a panel discussion with Forestry Prof. Danijela Puric Mladenovic and Gro-Bark soil scientist Nicole North, October 14-16, 2020.
Liat Margolis present GRIT Lab findings for Infrastructure Canada, Data and Research Division, Policy and Results Branch in Ottawa as part of their Infra-NEXT Lecture Series in 2019 .
GRIT Lab hosts tour for Green Energy Doors Open in Toronto, September 9, 2016.
GRIT Lab receives funding from the Canadian Federal Government to construct a new research facility at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design’s new building at 1 Spadina Crescent, July 28, 2016.
PhD candidate Ali Jahanfar presented a paper entitled “Shading Effects of Photovolatic Panels on the Evapotranspiration Process in Extensive Green Roofs” at the 9th International Novatech Conference in Lyon, France, June 28, 2016.
GRIT Lab hosts tour as part of Grey to Green Conference in Toronto, June 4, 2016.
GRIT Lab hosts tours for Doors Open in Toronto, May 28-29, 2016.
Liat Margolis gave a talk titled “How ‘Green’ Are Green Roofs? – Evaluating the Environmental Performance of Vegetated Roofs in Toronto” at the University of Toronto 2016 Spring Reunion. May 27, 2016.
GRIT Lab hosts tour for U of T’s Sustainability Office Green Ambassadors, May 24, 2016.
GRIT Lab exhibited at UNACTO (UN Association in Canada, Toronto) Earth Day Event, April 23, 2016.
GRIT Lab featured in U of T News: “U of T will boost climate-change research, innovation and education.” Scott Anderson. March 31, 2016.
GRIT Lab presented its recent findings to the City of Toronto Planning, Urban Design, Toronto Water, Environment & Energy Division, March 4, 2016.
GRIT Lab featured in UofT Science & Engineering Engagement.“Green Roof Research at University of Toronto” J. Dean Spence, January 26, 2016.
Liat Margolis gave a talk titled “All Green Roof Are Made Equal – But Some Are More Equal Than Others: An interdisciplinary and data-driven approach to assessing environmental performance” at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, B.E.S.T. Lecture Series, January 14, 2016.
GRIT Lab featured in Nature, International weekly journal of science “How Cities Can Beat the Heat: Rising temperatures are threatening urban areas, but efforts to cool them may not work as planned” by Hannah Hoag. 524, 402–404, August 27, 2015.
GRIT Lab featured in University of Toronto Website. “How can we design our cities to be both greener and smarter? Landscape architect Liat Margolis on finding an answer in green building technologies” August 10-16, 2015.
GRIT Lab is featured on Daily Commercial News’s article Ongoing monitoring of green roof construction needed, says U of T, June 17, 2015.
Scott MacIvor’s article Tall and Tough is featured in Living Architecture Monitor: Green Roof for Healthy Cities Publication, Summer 2015.
Liat Margolis presents the research work of GRIT Lab at the Grey to Green Conference in Toronto, June 1, 2015.
GRIT Lab hosts over 200 guests for Doors Open Toronto tour, May 23, 2015.
GRIT Lab is featured on CTV News to promote Doors Open Toronto, May 21, 2015.
Professors Jennifer Drake, Liat Margolis, Brent Sleep and industry partner George Mishriki of Sky Solar present a paper about GRIT Lab’s latest greenroof integrated solar PV installation at the 2015 International Low Impact Development (LID) Conference, January 2015.
Jennifer Drake is featured in Sustainable U of T’s video It’s Greener in Here, 2014.
Liat Margolis presents the work of GRIT Lab to the City of Toronto Environment and Energy Division at their Fall Planning Day, November 28, 2014.
PhD candidate Jenny Hill and industry partner Terry McGlade of Flynn present a paper titled “Success and Succession” at the 12th Annual CitiesAlive Conference in Nashville, TN, November 12-15, 2014.
Liat Margolis presents the research work at the GRIT Lab as part of CannonDesign’s Environmental Awareness Week, October 27th, 2014.
Liat Margolis is featured on the UofT News podcast series of “sustainable cities”, October 20, 2014.
GRIT Lab hosts the City of Toronto Environment and Energy Division and Planning Department, October 1, 2014.
Jenny Hill travelled to New Orleans to collect her prize for the prestigious ASTM International graduate scholarship. Jenny is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto and is sponsored by Flynn Canada in her work researching how green roofs manage storm water. ASTM International are an organization established to facilitate the development of technical standards and in making this award, are recognizing the diversification of building materials and growth of sustainable design practices, October 2014.
Liat Margolis presents the research work at the Sustainable Canada Dialogues – Climate March Forum, September 21, 2014
Liat Margolis and Scott MacIvor present a paper entitled “Cooling of a south-facing wall using a double-skin green façade in a temperate climate” at the International Plans Propagators’ Society Conference, September 20, 2014.
Liat Margolis and Scott MacIvor present a poster in the International Green Wall Conference: Meeting the Challenge of a Sustainable Urban Future: the contribution of green walls at Staffordshire University, September 4, 2014.
J. Scott MacIvor, Nicholas S.G. Williams and Jeremy Lundholm publish a paper entitled “Do green roofs help urban biodiversity conservation” in the Journal of Applied Ecology, August 2014.
Scott MacIvor and Liat Margolis receive a MITACS Accelerate grant with support from industry partner Tremco Roofing to study how plant survival and transpiration potential change on PV-green roof integrated systems along water and shading gradients, August 2014.
GRIT Lab is featured in an article entitled “Vegetation and solar panels, all on the same roof” in Yonge Street Magazine, August 2014.
Raquel van den Boogaard and Jennifer Drake present a poster entitled “The Stomatal Conductance of Sedum Acre Plants and its Implications for Stormwater Management of Extensive Green Roofs in Toronto, Canada” for the Undergraduate Engineering Research Day, August 2014.
Scott MacIvor, Ally Ruttan and Baharak Salehi present a paper entitled “Exotics on exotics: Pollen analysis of urban bees visiting Sedum on a green roof” in Urban Ecosystems, August 2014.
GRIT Lab hosts tours for City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Office, University of Toronto Sustainability Office, and DTAH design team, July 2014.
GRIT Lab is featured in an article entitled “The GRIT Lab launches phase II of its award-winning research — PLUS: check out the new web app!” on the Daniels website, July 2014.
GRIT Lab launches Green Roof Image Index, where you can compare side-by-side how the 33 different test beds change over time, July 2014.
GRIT Lab has joined Facebook, follow us at www.facebook.com/gritlab, June 2014.
GRIT Lab is featured in an article entitled “Fiddling on the Roof” in Snap Magazine, May 2014.
GRIT Lab welcomes students Allan Pretti Ogura and Raquel van den Boogaard, recipients of Science Without Borders Scholarship, as research assistants this summer helping to conduct stormwater field research and evaluate the performance of green roofs at the University of Toronto, May 2014.
Xiao Sunny Li, Ultan Byrne, and Ted Kesik present a paper entitled “Experimental Design of Energy Performance Simulation for Building Envelopes Integrated with Vegetation (WIP)” at the 2014 Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design in Tampa, Florida, April 2014.
Scott MacIvor and Ally Ruttan receive the Jury prize for their installation “pollen party” at the 2nd annual Gladstone Grow Op exhibition, April 2014.
Industry Sponsor Scott Torrance presents a video about his collaboration through MITACS with GRIT Lab researcher Scott MacIvor, April 2014.
Jenny Hill gives a talk entitled “Green Roofs around the Don” for the Don Watershed Regeneration Council, April 2014.
Jenny Hill and Matthew Perotto present a poster entitled “Balancing the Benefits – an investigation into irrigation on green roofs” at the TRIECA conference, March 2014.
Liat Margolis is featured in an article entitled “The Toronto Trials – GRIT Lab tests green roofs where weather swings widely” in Landscape Architecture Magazine, February 2014.
Jenny Hill receives a prize for her poster presentation entitled “Green Roof Design Criteria and Stormwater Performance” at the International Erosion Control Association, February 2014.
Scott MacIvor is featured in an article entitled “Urban bees build their nests with plastic” in Discover Magazine, February 2014.
Liat Margolis is featured in an article by Jeff Link entitled “The Nitty-Gritty of Green Roofs: Welcome to the GRIT Lab—a data-rich testing ground” in Green Building & Design, January-February, 2014.
Jenn Drake gives a talk entitled “Low Impact Development Techniques That Work” for the B.E.S.T. Lecture Series at John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, January 2014.
Liat Margolis is featured in an article by Kristina Twig entitled “Are Green Roofs a Viable Stormwater Solution” in Worldwater Stormwater Management, December 2013.
Liat Margolis participates in a round table discussion on “The future present of new media” in Ground Magazine, December 2013.
Scott MacIvor and Andrew E. Moore present a paper entitled “Bees collect polyurethane and polyethylene plastics as novel nest materials” in Ecological Society of America’s journal Ecosphere, December 2013.
GRIT Lab is featured in Condo’s article U of T’s gritlab Recognized For Its Groundbreaking Green Roof Research, November 7, 2013
Scott MacIvor, Liat Margolis, Curtis Puncher and Benjamin Matthews present a paper entitled “Decoupling factors affecting plant diversity and cover on extensive green roofs” in the Journal of Environmental Management, November 2013.
The Toronto Botanical Garden honours GRIT Lab researcher Scott MacIvor along with Landscape Designer Janet Rosenberg and Fine Arts Photographer Edward Burtynsky for advancing the public’s understanding of our natural environment, and embodying the Toronto Botanical Garden’s mission, to connect people, plans and the natural world through education, inspiration and leadership, November 2013.
Scott MacIvor and Scott Torrance present a poster entitled “An overview of Toronto’s new guidelines for biodiverse green roofs” for CitiesAlive: 11th Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference, October 2013.
Jenny Hill presents a poster entitled “Opuntia humifusa for potentially improved hydrological performance of green roof systems in Southern Ontario” for the International Phytotechnology (IPS) Conference, October 2013.
Scott MacIvor gives a talk entitled “Height limits nesting of bees and wasps on green roofs”, and participates in a round table discussion on “Global Green Roof Biodiversity”at CitiesAlive: 11th Annual Green Roof & Wall Conference, October 2013.
Jenny Hill gives a talk entitled “Green Roofs as Urban Stormwater Infrastructure” at the Environmental Engineering Research Seminar Series, October 2013 .
GRIT Lab receives the 2013 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Award of Excellence in Research, and is featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, October 2013.
Jenny Hill receives honorable mention for her submission entitled “Rooftop Reedbeds” for the Sustainable Design Awards, October 2013.
Liat Margolis is featured in an article by Jenny Hall entitled “Making green roofs greener” in Edge Magazine: The Cities Issues, September 2013.
Jenny Hill is selected as a finalist for Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ Great Community Resiliency Project Contest, September 2013.
Jenny Hill gives a talk entitled “Predicted Hydrological Impact of Climate Change on Extensive Green Roof Systems in Toronto” for the Symposium for New Research in Groundwater Science, September 2013.
Jenn Drake is interviewed by Matt Galloway on Metro Morning on Flood Resilience, July 2013.
Jenn Drake is featured in an article entitled “After the deluge: U of T expert analyzes Toronto’s flood” in U of T News, July 2013.
Liat Margolis is featured in an article by Scott Anderson entitled “Naturally Cool” in University of Toronto Magazine, June 2013.
Scott MacIvor and Scott Torrance present a poster entitled “Advancing Toronto’s green roof construction standard” for the Urban Ecologies conference at OCAD University, June 2013.
Liat Margolis gives a talk entitled “Ecologies of Data-Driven Design – Visualizing Data at University of Toronto’s Green Roof Innovation Testing (GRIT) Laboratory” for the Urban Ecologies conference at OCAD University, June 2013.
Jenny Hill receives an NSERC IPS grant with industry support from Flynn, May 2013.
Liat Margolis and researchers Matthew Perotto and Catherine Yoon received a MITACS Accelerate grant supporting research with industry partners Tremco and Bioroof, titled Investigation of the practicality and benefits of integrating photovoltaic (PV) arrays with green roofs.
Scott MacIvor is interviewed by Matt Galloway on Metro Morning on urban bees.
Scott MacIvor and principal investigator Liat Margolis received a MITACS Accelerate grant supporting research with industry partner Scott Torrance Landscape Architect Inc.
GRIT Lab researchers prepare the green roof for winter. Check it out on the Live Feed.
Spotlight on research assistants Ben Matthews and Curtis Puncher on the Daniels website.
Scott MacIvor gives 2 talks and co-hosts a symposium alongside Jeremy Lundholm at the 4th International EcoSummit in Columbus, OH.
The Provincial Planning Policy Branch of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing toured the lab on September 26th, 2012. To book a tour of the facility, visit Contacts.
GRIT Lab featured in Toronto’s The Grid.
GRIT Lab receives research grants from the City of Toronto, Ontario Centres of Excellence, RCI Foundation, Connaught Fund and LACF. Thanks to all our supporters.
Liat Margolis presents her research with GRIT Lab at the University of Pennsylvania as part of the In the Terrain of Water II Symposium.
GRIT Lab irrigation expert Lorne Haveruk writes an article entitled “Soil moisture sensors are coming of age” for Turf & Recreation Magazine.