Talking Sustainability with Robert Smith of Minto

This week, the Toronto Star’s Newinhomes.com had the opportunity to sit down with Robert Smith, the Director of Innovation at The Minto Group Inc. Minto is one of the most focused developers in Ontario when it comes to Green building - at the BILD Awards this year, they were honoured with the Green Builder of the Year award.

With Smith, we discussed the birth of Minto’s Sustainability Division, its efforts to build green, and his vision for Minto’s future communities.

NewInHomes (NIH): Minto is one of the first developers in Ontario to open an internal “sustainability division.” What was the genesis of this endeavour?

Robert Smith (RS): What happened was in 1999, we formed a group called Minto Energy Management. Since we have a large rental property portfolio, we were looking at how to reduce our dependency on our natural resources while reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. So what we have been doing is running a retrofit program in our current portfolio, replacing the boilers, the toilets, the lighting and other fixtures, just to reduce our energy and water use. That’s how we started. From there, we segwayed into our new buildings; we focused on our high-rise buildings and rental properties, and also our single family homes. It was a commitment from Minto to have an environmental policy to reduce our impact on the environment, while also creating a healthy planet.

NIH: What's the overall goal of the sustainability division?

RS: The purpose of the Minto sustainability division is to act as subject matter experts for our company, so we are a team of LEED accredited professionals. We do everything from create green plans to certification for LEED and Energy Star. We provide an internal consulting role for our organization.

NIH: What differences are there between a LEED certified home and an average home?

RS: Improved indoor air quality stands out right away. Increased indoor air quality based on the type of paints, coatings and finishings that we use. The use of HRVs (heat recovery ventilation), bringing in more fresh air into our buildings. Let’s not look at energy efficiency, because that’s an easy one to demonstrate by reduced operating costs.

It goes into how we build and how we operate. It’s not just about the products that we use, it’s about how we construct the homes. In my role as the Director of Minto Sustainability, I look out three, five and 10 years out, looking at how we can maintain or surpass our expectations, so that we provide a superior product for our customers.

NIH: Where do you see sustainability practices in five to 10 years?

RS: We have a tendency within the industry to focus on the building and the home. Our vision will be more focused on how to build the community. How do we impact the community, what are the benefits to those who work, live and play there. We look at it on a community scale, instead of just a single home. We look at traffic, different ways to bringing transportation to the area. We continue to try to focus on building a sustainable community, making sure that residents have the ability to walk to stores, make sure that they don't need cars to get around, have access to public transportation, looking at more green space. It will be a challenge, but a goal moving forward.

NIH: Minto built the first ever LEED Platinum home in Ottawa in 2010. What's stopping us from meeting this ranking for every new home built?

RS: I think one of the biggest challenges is making it affordable for consumers. Whenever you try something new, the cost is higher because of the research and development costs. Recently, we received funding from Natural Resources Canada and Owens Corning to build Net Zero homes on a community scale. One of our goals is to build these homes to make them more affordable for our customers.

NIH: Tell us more about the Net Zero Energy homes.

RS: We are building them in the west end of Ottawa within a community called ‘Arcadia.’ We are looking to maintain our position as leader of energy efficient homes. We are also looking to find ways to develop new premium products for our customers, while still making them affordable. These homes will be going to market like any other home, which is great for those who have the opportunity to live in them.

The team at the Toronto Star’s NewInHomes.com would like to thank Robert Smith for his time. We look forward to seeing the new sustainable initiatives that he and his team take on at Minto.