Project Overview
Launched in 2022, the Residential development Impact Scorecard for the Environment: An assessment tool for carbon stock and greenhouse gas impacts of residential developments (RISE) is a 5-year interdisciplinary research project at the University of Waterloo funded through Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Climate Action and Awareness Fund.
Led by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Waterloo, and collaborating with a wide range of partners in the development industry and with municipal governments, RISE aims to answer the question: “How can losses of C stocks and increases of GHG emissions from residential developments be slowed or reversed?”
The RISE project will leverage the team’s expertise in carbon stock and greenhouse gas emission (GHG) quantification, land-use change, urban water systems, and environmental social sciences to develop novel methods to measure urban land carbon, aquatic carbon, and GHG from residential developments, and to model projections of green-blue infrastructure over time. We will use these measurements and models to explore whether simple yet standardized information available to the public on emissions from residential developments may lead to increased investments in green infrastructure in new residential developments while at the same informing both municipal and developer planning and decision-making.
Mission
As an interdisciplinary research team, our mission is to provide integrated and innovative solutions for tackling Canada’s pressing climate challenges.
Goals & Objectives
Our overall project goal is to slow, and ideally reverse, the losses of urban green infrastructure and its contributions to climate change mitigation due to residential land developments.
The project’s objectives are to:
- Use novel scientific methods to assess urban land and wetland-based carbon stocks, sequestration and GHG emissions;
- Develop a simple, dynamic GHG and carbon scorecard to complement existing green building standards of residential developments; and,
- Test the scorecard’s potential for uptake by residential developers as a tool for inducing behaviour change to incentivize investments in green infrastructure.
Outcomes & Impacts
The project intends to generate meaningful impacts and long-terms outcomes to:
- Enhance understanding in municipalities and land developers of the ecosystem services provided in proposed residential developments through a user-friendly, standardized scorecard;
- Support evidence-based decision-making at the municipal level and negotiations with land developers about options to reduce negative and increase positive carbon and GHG impacts in proposed residential developments;
- Motivate a paradigm shift in residential development planning towards an increased supply of green infrastructure in residential developments by creating a competitive advantage for sustainable land developers;
- Enhance public awareness of the potential benefits of green infrastructure in residential developments to influence home buying.