## Breadcrumb 1. [Home](/index%2Ephp/) 2. [News and Stories](/index%2Ephp/news) 3. [Community initiatives address need for sustainable housing retrofits and sustainable neighbourhoods](/index%2Ephp/markdownify/node/4212) February 10, 2026 # Community initiatives address need for sustainable housing retrofits and sustainable neighbourhoods ![Seaton Village in Toronto and the Seaton Village Green Neighbours Logo. ](/sites/default/files/styles/1_5_1_large/public/2026-02/Untitled%20design%20%286%29.png.webp?itok=xjned-tF) Seaton Village in Toronto and the Seaton Village Green Neighbours Logo. Photos courtesy of the Seaton Village Green Neighbours. rgb(255,255,255) Last fall, OCAD University Associate Professor Dr. Bill Leeming, along with neighbour Liz Addison, organized the Seaton Village Green Neighbours Group (SVGN) – a community initiative working with the Seaton Village Residents Association that is dedicated to making houses in the neighbourhood healthier, more comfortable and less dependent on fossil fuels. The group recently received funding from the City of Toronto’s Neighbourhood Climate Action Grants program, as part of the TransformTO Net Zero Strategy program, to help residents better understand how they can participate in sustainable home retrofits. The initiative is timely as many of the homes in Seaton Village are over a century old and in need of renovation. The recently launched SVGN initiative fits well with another recently launched project, in collaboration with the Toronto Home Energy Network (THE Network), which received a BMO Microgrant from OCAD U’s Global Centre for Climate Action. Dr. Leeming is working alongside Daniel Gomes, a graduate student and research assistant in OCAD U's Design for Health program, to collaborate with THE Network on what is called ["A Homeowner’s Journey",](https://A%20Homeowner’s%20Journey.) a procedural guide to help homeowners undertake sustainable home retrofits. What both initiatives have in common are approaches that follow in the grassroots tradition of "neighbours helping neighbours." ## Other Recent News [### 2027 Critical Distance Centre for Curators Projections Program Call for Artists OCAD University’s RBC Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers (CEAD) and Critical Distance Centre for Curators (CDCC) have partnered to co-create CDCC Projections Program Career Launcher. Four (4) to five (5) selected emerging artists will receive $690 to exhibit work in a single channel, projection-based screening program that will be displayed at the CDCC in March 2027. October 30, 2026 ](/news/2027-critical-distance-centre-curators-projections-program-call-artists) [### OCAD U’s Global Centre for Climate Action and EU bring large-scale art to Toronto’s Canada Malting Silos The Light and Melting Temporalities transformed the waterfront into a canvas for climate reflection. October 6, 2026 ](/index%2Ephp/news/ocad-us-global-centre-climate-action-and-eu-bring-large-scale-art-torontos-canada-malting) [### Call for Project Participants: From Our Points of View Encounters with Artists A student-led year-long visiting artist project, under the mentorship of Governor General's Award winning artist Max Dean September 30, 2026 ](/news/call-project-participants-our-points-view-encounters-artists) Related Stories ## Related Stories [### Erased from the playbill: how AI is helping to map Nazi censorship of German music theatre A four-year project led by OCAD U Associate Professor Dr. Helmut Reichenbächer examines how music-theatre programming in Germany was reshaped from the Weimar Republic to the Nazi era. September 16, 2026 ](/news/erased-playbill-how-ai-helping-map-nazi-censorship-german-music-theatre) [### Research investigates how sustained material practices can help people process memory, grief and loss Dr. Nithikul Nimkulrat’s research project is developing a theoretical account of how memory, grief, and loss are experienced not only cognitively or verbally, but through the body, materials, objects, relationships and time. September 4, 2026 ](/index%2Ephp/news/research-investigates-how-sustained-material-practices-can-help-people-process-memory-grief) [### SSHRC funds studies of cultural censorship, and grief and nostalgia through craft One project maps patterns of cultural censorship during the Nazi era while a second is developing a theory of grief and nostalgia through embodied material practices. July 21, 2026 ](/news/sshrc-funds-studies-cultural-censorship-and-grief-and-nostalgia-through-craft)