Amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Toronto, Thadia Theodore is laying straw over dormant flower beds to prepare them for winter. Tall, glassy buildings surround her on the rooftop farm of her university; construction noise rings out, but she describes it as “peaceful.”
The farm, at which Theodore works part-time, is one of two at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). During warmer seasons, the rooftops are bursting with life, with over 80 crops producing sunflowers, kale, indigo, okra and more. Until earlier this month, it represented the benefits of a bylaw that required large buildings in the city to install green roofs. That was until the province killed the policy, potentially halting the momentum Toronto has seen with over 1,200 green roofs installed since its implementation in 2009.
The overturn of the bylaw was first introduced as part of the Ford government’s controversial Bill 60, also known as the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act. However, The Toronto Star reported that scrapping the green roof requirement was passed with an order-in-council and that Ontario Housing Minister Rob Flack’s office justified doing so by saying that it would allow for more buildings and homes to be built, while green roofs can still be installed voluntarily.
Toronto was the only municipality with the bylaw, and during questions from reporters, Flack said the province “can no longer afford costly boutique requirements when getting homes built” and said building standards should be the same across the province. Financial incentives of up to $100,000 to help cut costs were provided to developments when green roofs were required.
Toronto Metropolitan University's rooftop farm, the first green roof purpose-built for food production under the green roof bylaw. Photo by: Cloe Logan / Canada's National Observer
But opposition politicians, researchers, urban planners and others say that making green roofs optional isn’t good enough while the city grapples with converging impacts from climate change. The vegetation from green roofs helps address the “urban heat island” effect, formed when concrete and asphalt replace grass and dirt. Buildings and concrete absorb radiation and release it as heat, making cities up to 12 degrees Celsius hotter than their rural counterparts. Green roofs also help absorb rainwater, which reduces flooding, and can improve air quality. A study conducted in 2021 found that one of TMU’s green roofs absorbed about 85 per cent of the stormwater that fell on it.
For Theodore, seeing the grab bags that get put together at the farm (a low-cost bunch of vegetables from the farm), to selling produce at the Gould Street Farmers Market is “very important,” along with involving the community through teaching them gardening skills.
The province overturned Toronto's green roof bylaw, but TMU’s rooftop farms show exactly what the policy encouraged: cooler streets, less flooding and fresh, affordable food grown in the heart of the city. - BlueSky
It’s a benefit that gets less attention: the impact green roofs can have on food security, said Bryant Serre, an environmental biologist who focuses on agriculture technologies. The city of Toronto declared a food insecurity emergency in 2024, with one in every 10 people relying on food banks. He calls rooftop farming “an essential tool to tackling food insecurity” in a city as dense and expensive as Toronto and says the farms at TMU are an example of that in practice.
“When you have food systems that are close by and proximate to people, you reduce your dependency on having to import food. You reduce your requirement for transportation and emissions,” he said.
“It's kind of like a good catch-all solution to bring social benefit, environmental benefit, mental and physical health and community benefits all together — on one beautiful little patch of grass and crop, that could be on green roofs across the city.”
The future of green roofs
The produce harvested from TMU’s rooftop farms is split into three even amounts that are, respectively, donated to the school and broader community, sold to students at a reduced price and sold at market value. The farms produce 3,000 kg of food on average each year.
One of TMU’s rooftop farms was the first green roof purpose-built for food production under the bylaw: it hosts the Indigenous Foodways program, which has culturally significant crops and medicines such as tobacco, sweet grass and sage. Also on the roof is the Black Food Sovereignty initiative, which grows plants that are significant to the African diaspora and has programs such as the Bankra Basket Harvest Share, which provides fresh produce from the farm at a below-market price.
Maranatha Hughes first visited the rooftop farm during an event through the Black Food Sovereignty initiative and now works there part-time while also studying business marketing at TMU.
She had some farming experience in the Caribbean on her grandparents’ farm in Saint Vincent, where she harvested and planted peanuts and fruit, but she sees working on the rooftop in Toronto as a way to “contribute to sustainability in the city.”
Hughes getting involved with the farm is just one of many examples that Arlene Throness, manager of the Urban Farm, has seen over the past twelve years.
“When people come here, no matter who it is, they’re just so moved. It’s so rare that you get to come to an urban farm in the downtown area,” she said, while explaining that there are benefits beyond distributing food — pollinator plants like wild bergamot and milkweed serve as essential landing points for bees and butterflies, while plants that can be used to make natural dyes are provided to the university’s fashion department.
Arlene Throness, manager of the Urban Farm, in the tool shed. Photo by: Cloe Logan / Canada's National Observer
Not all green roofs built under the bylaw produce plants for harvest, but Serre said there is growing awareness around the benefit of green roofs generally — and farms specifically. Green building standards have become a marketing strategy for buildings, said Serre, who hopes that developers will see the value in green roofs and continue to build them voluntarily despite the provincial legislation. He stresses that because they prevent flooding and add economic value, it’s in their best interest to do so.
“These are green building standards that don't just talk about green efficiencies. They talk about social connections, increasing mental health and well-being … and so from a land use perspective and building development perspective, it's cost-effective,” he said.
“It almost seems intuitive. Why wouldn't you do it?”
