Established in 2010 by the Daniels Faculty’s Centre for Landscape Research, the Green Roof Innovation Testing Lab (GRIT) is a state-of-the-art facility for testing the environmental performance of green roofs, green walls, and solar photovoltaic technologies in the Canadian context. The GRIT lab is setting standards and testing policy-based initiatives for the City of Toronto and other jurisdictions.

The GRIT Lab consists of 33 green roof test beds, three green walls, a weather station, and 270 sensors connected to over 5,000 linear feet of wiring. Data on soil moisture, runoff, temperature, rainfall, humidity, solar energy, and wind is collected every five minutes. The lab sits currently sits atop of the Daniels Faculty building at 230 College Street.

The GRIT Lab is developing standardized performance metrics for Green Roof Applications that will help access the overall effectiveness of these technologies. Creating better green roofs carries significant economic and environmental benefits for cities, particularly in the areas of air quality, energy usage, storm water management, and the reduction of urban heat islands. The GRIT Lab will continue to extend its important work from a more prominent space atop the landscape pavilions at the edges of the new One Spadina project.