Planet Traveler - North America's Greenest Hotel

The Planet Traveler was an abandoned building in downtown Toronto when Tom and his partner Anthony Aarts bought it. During 2008-2009 it was converted into a low-carbon hotel. The target was to reduce carbon emissions from business-as-usual by three-quarters. Using existing technologies, and leveraging only 5% of the buildings value that target is being met. Technologies deployed include geo-exchange heating and cooling, solar thermal and PV, high-efficiency lighting and drain-water heat recapture. The geo-exchange pipes were the first to be buried under a public laneway in the City of Toronto.

The overall lesson? "Buildings are really low-hanging fruit when it comes to emissions reductions", says Tom. "Not only can we reduce emissions by three-quarters or more, we can make money doing it." To find out more:

A short TED Talk is here.

A longer discussion is here.

A small blog is here.