Lloyd Alter
@lloydalter.bsky.social
Author of"The Story of Upfront Carbon," reformed architect and developer, teacher of sustainable design at Toronto Metropolitan University. https://lloydalter.substack.com
There are many reasons to have all-gender bathrooms, but the main ones are biological, and we never get the balance right. Also, as men age, they take longer, skewing the balance again. lloydalter.substack.com/p/should-all...
Should all public washrooms be all-gender?
This is a biological, not a political problem: women have different needs than men, and everyone's needs are changing as we age.
lloydalter.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:03 PM
There are many reasons to have all-gender bathrooms, but the main ones are biological, and we never get the balance right. Also, as men age, they take longer, skewing the balance again. lloydalter.substack.com/p/should-all...
Nobody in this country is serious about climate change. Billions to double Pearson capacity in 20 years? How about trains instead and limiting flying to over oceans
November 8, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Nobody in this country is serious about climate change. Billions to double Pearson capacity in 20 years? How about trains instead and limiting flying to over oceans
I wonder if Toronto would have handled this better
Of course @lataco.bsky.social @shoton35mm.bsky.social has the definitive account of what unfolded before and after Saturday’s victory — which illustrates over and over again how LA is completely unprepared to handle celebrating fans
Bartenders and Innocent Bystanders Tear Gassed, Knocked Over By Horses, And Shot With ‘Rubber Bullets’ During World Series Night Celebrations ~ L.A. TACO
One man who was walking to Gold Room bar had to get surgery on his finger after being shot with a “rubber bullet.” “He was just running away and they got him in the leg and shot the top of his finger ...
lataco.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:43 PM
I wonder if Toronto would have handled this better
@peopleforbikes.bsky.social looks at the problem of "e-motos" that are confused with e-bikes. There is confusion everywhere in the e-bike world; it's time to clarify and simplify the rules and get the too-big too-fast two-wheeled things out of the bike lanes.
When it comes to e-bikes, we need "clear, simple, straightforward rules that a nine-year-old can explain."
People for Bikes has recommendations for dealing with the confusion between "e-motos" and e-bikes. I have some too.
lloydalter.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:11 PM
@peopleforbikes.bsky.social looks at the problem of "e-motos" that are confused with e-bikes. There is confusion everywhere in the e-bike world; it's time to clarify and simplify the rules and get the too-big too-fast two-wheeled things out of the bike lanes.
A great point that applies to Toronto in spades.
One way to reduce condo defect liability: stop forcing architects to design buildings that leak. HCD’s “objective design standards” guide *encourages* making building envelopes more complex, heightening leak and therefore defect lawsuit risk cao-94612.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/documents/Ap...
November 7, 2025 at 1:06 PM
A great point that applies to Toronto in spades.
@neil21.bsky.social inspires me to try to figure out the cost in calories of turning a light on and off. It still makes sense to get off your butt and do it. lloydalter.substack.com/p/does-turni...
November 5, 2025 at 12:25 PM
@neil21.bsky.social inspires me to try to figure out the cost in calories of turning a light on and off. It still makes sense to get off your butt and do it. lloydalter.substack.com/p/does-turni...
As @tedgrunewald.bsky.social noted, the Vitrolite in the White House bathroom was irreplaceable. As @pipedreaming.bsky.social noted, the Flushometer toilet had a lot more flush than the Kohler that replaced it. I complain about the marble floor and lack of grab bars, which make it a deathtrap.
The White House bathroom renovation is a horrifying mess
It's a cheap and ugly deathtrap of a bathroom.
lloydalter.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:53 PM
As @tedgrunewald.bsky.social noted, the Vitrolite in the White House bathroom was irreplaceable. As @pipedreaming.bsky.social noted, the Flushometer toilet had a lot more flush than the Kohler that replaced it. I complain about the marble floor and lack of grab bars, which make it a deathtrap.
It’s time for my bi-annual plea to give up on standard or daylight saving time and go back to local solar time, to once again put our circadian rhythms in sync with the sun. lloydalter.substack.com/p/its-time-t...
It's time to dump Railway Time and War Time and go Local Time
Time zones are anachronistic, unhealthy and unnecessary in this modern world.
lloydalter.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:38 PM
It’s time for my bi-annual plea to give up on standard or daylight saving time and go back to local solar time, to once again put our circadian rhythms in sync with the sun. lloydalter.substack.com/p/its-time-t...
I was happy to see "Abundance" properly categorized as "airport exclusive fiction" in Edinburgh Airport
October 31, 2025 at 1:23 PM
I was happy to see "Abundance" properly categorized as "airport exclusive fiction" in Edinburgh Airport
Hallowe'en bonus, deleted from Treehugger but reconstructed from the Wayback Machine, lloydalter.substack.com/p/bonus-happ...
Bonus: Happy International Day of Danger and Death for Pedestrians
That's an alternate name for Halloween, but let's not forget the rest of the year.
lloydalter.substack.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Hallowe'en bonus, deleted from Treehugger but reconstructed from the Wayback Machine, lloydalter.substack.com/p/bonus-happ...
Why are fridges getting so huge? I argue that it is an example of Jevons' Paradox; others thinks people just want big fridges lloydalter.substack.com/p/on-stanley...
On Stanley Jevons and refrigerator size
Refrigerators keep getting bigger. Is it Jevons' Paradox, or is it the way we live?
lloydalter.substack.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Why are fridges getting so huge? I argue that it is an example of Jevons' Paradox; others thinks people just want big fridges lloydalter.substack.com/p/on-stanley...
Brilliant representation by Giaimo of the embodied carbon wasted in the demolition of perfectly good buildings in Toronto to build bigger buildings. A thousand houses worth of carbon. @azuremagazine.bsky.social #human/nature
October 29, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Brilliant representation by Giaimo of the embodied carbon wasted in the demolition of perfectly good buildings in Toronto to build bigger buildings. A thousand houses worth of carbon. @azuremagazine.bsky.social #human/nature
A new study concludes that the construction industry alone will blow through the carbon budget ceilings even if every other source of emissions were reduced to zero. " If current trends continue, the sector can exceed the 2°C per annum carbon budget earliest by 2040.”
The carbon footprint of construction will double by 2050 and blow the carbon budget.
A new study advocates for a material revolution, but we are held back by structural inertia.
lloydalter.substack.com
October 29, 2025 at 10:58 AM
A new study concludes that the construction industry alone will blow through the carbon budget ceilings even if every other source of emissions were reduced to zero. " If current trends continue, the sector can exceed the 2°C per annum carbon budget earliest by 2040.”
John Maynard Keynes was talking about money when he said "In the long run, we are all dead.” but I think the same thing applies to carbon emissions. lloydalter.substack.com/p/now-emissi...
NOW Emissions matter more than LATER Emissions, which is why I like wood and straw
To quote John Maynard Keynes: “The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run, we are all dead.”
lloydalter.substack.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:54 AM
John Maynard Keynes was talking about money when he said "In the long run, we are all dead.” but I think the same thing applies to carbon emissions. lloydalter.substack.com/p/now-emissi...
Everyone is crapping on e-bikes these days, but Micah Toll of Electrek says "they’re the best thing for urban life since flush toilets." I agree.
lloydalter.substack.com/p/in-praise-...
lloydalter.substack.com/p/in-praise-...
In praise of e-bikes, which could save our cities
Everyone is crapping on e-bikes these days, but Micah Toll says "they’re the best thing for urban life since flush toilets." I agree.
lloydalter.substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Everyone is crapping on e-bikes these days, but Micah Toll of Electrek says "they’re the best thing for urban life since flush toilets." I agree.
lloydalter.substack.com/p/in-praise-...
lloydalter.substack.com/p/in-praise-...
A liquid hydrogen-powered peaker plant is proposed near Thunder Bay, Ontario, by a company named Current H2. Except it is going to burn natural gas for a while, while they figure out the hydrogen stuff. Smells like what @alexsteffen.bsky.social calls predatory delay.
Hydrogen will power Ontario peaker plants someday... in the meantime, we'll burn natural gas
The audacity and greenwashing here are astonishing. A company called Current H2 should really be called Never H2.
lloydalter.substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 12:11 PM
A liquid hydrogen-powered peaker plant is proposed near Thunder Bay, Ontario, by a company named Current H2. Except it is going to burn natural gas for a while, while they figure out the hydrogen stuff. Smells like what @alexsteffen.bsky.social calls predatory delay.
I am reading a history of home heating, and I learn that Americans have had their eyes on Canadian resources, even since before there were a USA or Canada.
October 21, 2025 at 3:22 PM
I am reading a history of home heating, and I learn that Americans have had their eyes on Canadian resources, even since before there were a USA or Canada.
We have this problem in Ontario too, where I think half the e-bikes on the road are illegal. We need a Canadian standard based on Euro pedelecs. Nobody needs more power or more speed than that.
Setting aside that car drivers cause virtually all the injuries and deaths on our streets, every time there is rare crash involving an illegal e-bike, naysayers capitalize by conflating them with safe, legal e-bikes to further an anti-bike agenda.
The 'Problem' With E-Bikes? The Super Fast Illegal Ones - Streetsblog New York City
New Yorkers are riding illegal vehicles marketed as e-bikes with little to no-consequences, and it's a safety problem.
buff.ly
October 21, 2025 at 1:54 PM
We have this problem in Ontario too, where I think half the e-bikes on the road are illegal. We need a Canadian standard based on Euro pedelecs. Nobody needs more power or more speed than that.
Doug Ford is banning speed cameras. He should read @douggordon.bsky.social "Life After Cars"
October 21, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Doug Ford is banning speed cameras. He should read @douggordon.bsky.social "Life After Cars"
Brian Potter of the wonderful blog Construction Physics looks at the question of why more pedestrians are dying on our roads. He is not convinced by the "Big SUV Hypothesis" and looks at everything everywhere for other causes. I think he misses a big one: demographics. My take:
Another reason the death rate for pedestrians is increasing: Demographics
I like the "Big SUV hypothesis," but Brian Potter of Construction Physics is not convinced.
lloydalter.substack.com
October 20, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Brian Potter of the wonderful blog Construction Physics looks at the question of why more pedestrians are dying on our roads. He is not convinced by the "Big SUV Hypothesis" and looks at everything everywhere for other causes. I think he misses a big one: demographics. My take:
Are we going to have to redesign our cities around these ridiculous trucks ( at a climate conference Thunder Bay)
October 18, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Are we going to have to redesign our cities around these ridiculous trucks ( at a climate conference Thunder Bay)
I have never seen this before: the shadow of the Dash-8 to Thunder Bay on the clouds below with a rainbow ring around it.
October 17, 2025 at 8:27 PM
I have never seen this before: the shadow of the Dash-8 to Thunder Bay on the clouds below with a rainbow ring around it.
When I was at the Passivhaus Trust conference in Belfast, I saw a kitchen exhaust hood with a built-in Heat Recovery Ventilator. This solves a problem I have been discussing for years: Recirculating hoods are kind of useless, but direct exhaust hoods cause significant heat loss.
Has Airflow finally solved the kitchen exhaust problem?
It has a heat recovery ventilator that serves the entire apartment, built into the hood.
lloydalter.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
When I was at the Passivhaus Trust conference in Belfast, I saw a kitchen exhaust hood with a built-in Heat Recovery Ventilator. This solves a problem I have been discussing for years: Recirculating hoods are kind of useless, but direct exhaust hoods cause significant heat loss.
"Lifestyles are not just about individual choices; they are embedded in infrastructures, provisioning systems and institutions that lock societies into consumerist aspirations and high-emission pathways."
"A Climate for Sufficiency" is a sobering update of the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle
Six years ago, I thought we had a working model for dealing with the climate crisis. Reading the latest report from the Hot or Cool Institute, I am less hopeful.
lloydalter.substack.com
October 15, 2025 at 12:43 PM
"Lifestyles are not just about individual choices; they are embedded in infrastructures, provisioning systems and institutions that lock societies into consumerist aspirations and high-emission pathways."
on the plane home from conferences on #sufficiency and #passivhaus I read "Form Follows Fuel" by Florian Urban and @barnabascalder.bsky.social. It has remarkable relevance to both, a brilliant book demonstrating that we cannot get a real grip on upfront carbon without embracing sufficiency.
A tale of two conferences and a book, "Form Follows Fuel"
I attend a Sufficiency conference in Edinburgh and a Passivhaus conference in Belfast, and read a new book relevant to both.
lloydalter.substack.com
October 13, 2025 at 12:40 PM
on the plane home from conferences on #sufficiency and #passivhaus I read "Form Follows Fuel" by Florian Urban and @barnabascalder.bsky.social. It has remarkable relevance to both, a brilliant book demonstrating that we cannot get a real grip on upfront carbon without embracing sufficiency.