High Rises X Organics: Design Research Series
This summer, the OpenIDEO Toronto Chapter collaborated with the Garment District Neighbourhood Association (GDNA) to explore the intersection between organics collection and high rise buildings in downtown Toronto. Representing those living in Toronto’s Garment District (Queen West-Spadina-King West-Bathurst), GDNA’s mission is to build and promote an attractive, inclusive, safe and sustainable community, while preserving the district’s historic and cultural character.
THE PROBLEM
44% of Torontonians reside in some form of apartment buildings, equivalent to nearly a million people (931,257) (Stats Can, 2016). High-rise residents divert only 27% of their waste compared to 65% from houses (CBC News, 2018), which is a huge gap as high-rise residents make up a large proportion of the population in Toronto. While single-family homes can access the City’s organics pick-up and new multi-residential buildings are generally built to enable organics collection, residents in older multi-residential buildings often find themselves in the grey zone without any clear direction on diverting organics sustainably. The Government of Ontario has set a target for 50% waste reduction and resource recovery of food and organic waste generated in multi-unit residential buildings by 2025 (GO, 2019), which could be challenging to achieve without the right measures in place. With the increased momentum to reduce, reuse and recycle, we believe now is the time to engage the community on the issue of organics collection.
As part of our 2019 goals, the OpenIDEO Toronto Chapter aspired to convene and support the community in applying design thinking towards addressing local issues. The partnership with GDNA on the topic of organics collection was purposefully designed to tackle a global issue in a local setting. This topic was in alignment with OpenIDEO’s theme of sustainability-food systems and the circular design challenge series.
THE DESIGN CHALLENGE
How Might We (HMW) prevent organic waste generated in high-rise buildings from ending up in the landfill?
THE EVENTS SERIES & PARTICIPANTS
1 Research Panel, 4 Site Visits, 1 Design Workshop
Through a research panel discussion, site visits and a design workshop, we delved deeper into the challenge and refined the HMW question to gather preliminary insights and enable focused research.
46% of the participants indicated they were looking to build skills and experience in applying human-centered design, while 23% indicated they were new to design thinking and open to learning more.
THE PROCESS
A Slack channel and shared Google Drive folder were created to facilitate collaboration, conversations and research collection over the course of the events.
I. The Research Panel
We kicked off the design research series with a panel discussion held at the Center for Social Innovation (CSI).
Catherine Mitchell from GDNA provided an overview of the problem and set the context for the participants and subject matter experts, who included:
- Michael Skalijin, Senior Project Manager for the City’s Solid Waste Management Division
- Charlotte Utta, Manager for the City’s Solid Waste Policy & Planning Division
- Emily Alfred, Senior Campaigner for Toronto Environment Alliance
Moderated by Denise Pinto, the panel led to an enriching discussion on the community’s personal connection to the zero waste movement, the intersection between climate change and social justice, impact levers and the role of the City.
Following the panel, our design facilitators Sonal Batavia and Haley Anderson provided an overview of different research methods and best practices for designing the interview experience in preparation for the site visits to the participants.
II. The Site Visits
Site visits were organized in the Garment District Neighbourhood at 4 multi-residential buildings facing challenges with organics collection.
This provided an opportunity for participants to connect with fellow workshop attendees, conduct interviews with residents and put their research skills to practice.
Through the building tours and user interviews, participants uncovered insights on opportunities and constraints in the physical space, resident motivation and value-system, as well as gained a deeper understanding of behavioural dynamics between owners, renters and building maintenance staff.
III. The Design Workshop
The working space for the final workshop of the series was generously sponsored by CSI’s Climate Ventures.
Participants reviewed their research, shared insights, drew connections, identified common themes and ultimately emerged with key insights, which led us to re-frame our HMW question and set the foundation for further research and ideation. The techniques employed to encourage research analysis and synthesis included ‘thinking, feeling, doing,’ clustering and journey mapping.
The workshop concluded with participants giving a brief presentation on their findings and re-framed HMW questions, some of which included the following:
- HMW empower residents to feel a sense of responsibility towards waste sorting?
- HMW support residents to navigate the complexity in enabling change?
- HMW convene local stakeholders in order to address the gaps in the waste management system?
CONCLUSION
There is potential for GDNA and other neighbourhood districts, and building board members to adopt a design thinking approach to better understand their residents and collect feedback to ensure that their needs are fulfilled adequately. It is evident from preliminary research that a ‘one size fits all’ solution cannot be implemented at the 4 buildings visited due the uniqueness of the physical infrastructure and constraints at each site. Additionally, participants were encouraged to incorporate learnings into their neighbourhoods, explore potential solutions and continue to be empowered to advocate and implement change.
VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY
Following the research series, the participants walked away feeling inspired along with an interest to continue exploring the issue and develop sustainable solutions. The community continued to engage through Slack and other social media channels, sharing their experiences and insights.
