In the second half of our interview with Alex Versluis, Vice President, Property Management at YMCA of Greater Toronto, we delve deeper into the YMCA’s initiatives and how individuals can get involved and get sustainable!

Aside from the Design Challenge, have you had a chance to participate in any fun, green initiatives around the city?

A green roof was our first major sustainable initiative, and it was completed at our Toronto Central Grosvenor St. YMCA Centre in downtown Toronto. This project was done in a way that really engaged the YMCA community, similar to the OTS Design Challenge project. We started by asking our members how they would use the space. We set some overarching safety parameters and then we hosted a participatory design meeting that included reviewing three different designs. We took feedback, finalized the design and built it with volunteers from the community. We’ve followed a similar model for our Brampton YMCA green terrace and childcare play space, as well as with our West End YMCA childcare green space.

The 60,000 square foot green roof will be accessible to members

We are currently working on our next big green roof project this winter, which is a volunteer design and build that’s part of the new Cooper Koo Family YMCA. It’s being built for the Pan-Am Athlete’s Village on Cherry Street. Our building will host the biggest green roof in the city of Toronto – 60,000 sq. ft., with open areas for community programming and education. We have been working with Toronto2015 (the Pan Am and ParaPan staff) and our design partners to create a plan to reach the communities around the new Canary District in the West Don Lands. We have been connecting with George Brown College, the West Don Lands Committee, condo associations, BIAs, Artscape as well as our newest neighbours – residents that have recently purchased homes in the new Canary District. The project will run from January through March and we cannot believe the level of interest we have already received. We’re also planning a volunteer build in April and May. We’re looking forward to hearing ideas and getting people to engage – we would really love for them to leave a piece of themselves on the roof. It will be ready for use in 2016 when we open our newest YMCA Centre of Community.

How can community members get involved in some of your sustainability initiatives?

Over the course of the year, we have 35 natural play spaces and over 250 childcare centres available for community members. We partner with corporate groups and facilitate cleanups. We even started a three-acre organic farm that hosts day campers in the summer. Corporate volunteers also bring staff out, plant gardens, move leaves, and help prepare spaces for the kids to play. It can be a great team-building event and a wonderful way for staff to see their employer’s donations making a positive impact.

On a larger scale, we work with many companies that visit our YMCA Cedar Glen facility, a 263-acre camp that sits in the Oak Ridges Moraine and Ontario Green Belt. We host groups for a day and they do massive invasive species removal, build trails, create stairs, lay sod, and work on the organic farm. It is a great alternative for corporate groups to host a lower-cost team-building event and we get loads of volunteer work done in an absolutely gorgeous setting. Since we subscribe to the philosophy that sustainability is a journey, not a destination, we seek to be extremely transparent in our work. We’re very open throughout the process, trying to educate and learn, right from the start. We hope to model this level of transparency to other businesses as they continue on their journeys to become sustainably green. People can see how they make something from nothing, and use that in their own lives and evaluate their own behavior and the impact it has on their community. It’s also an opportunity to interact with the planet in a different way and model that in their lives. For instance, we were able to support TD Bank Group’s process of creating their green roof after they participated in our green roof project. They continue to invest and support us as we create new green spaces that will be incorporated into five new buildings we are developing across the GTA.

That’s great! What other sustainability projects are you working on?

We are really pushing food and healthy eating – Cedar Glen farm is now registered organic. We started a few years ago in partnership with Everdale [a farm-based organization]. Through our partnership, we now have a farming camp. Kids are harvesting food and are learning about different elements related to farming over the course of a week. They talk about composting, giving back to the land, and interacting with food. The farmers help to educate the kids. We are bringing these learnings to our urban camps and Vanauley YMCA – an emergency shelter and drop-in space for street-involved youth. 

Thanks again Alex for sharing your time and vision with us! Visit the YMCA’s Greening the Y blog to learn more about the YMCA’s sustainability initiatives.