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
It used to be that if you were trying to reduce carbon emissions, you insulated and sealed, what's called "fabric first." Now that we have heat pumps, many are questioning whether fabric-first was the right approach. It's complicated... lloydalter.substack.com/p/what-the-h...
What the hell happened to "Fabric First?"
A very good question. Has heatpumpification crushed insulation?
lloydalter.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:22 PM
It used to be that if you were trying to reduce carbon emissions, you insulated and sealed, what's called "fabric first." Now that we have heat pumps, many are questioning whether fabric-first was the right approach. It's complicated... lloydalter.substack.com/p/what-the-h...
Who is responsible here? The engineer who designed the road? The construction industry that uses these killer trucks? The government for refusing even to make sideguards mandatory, let alone regulate truck design as they do in Europe, where the rate of killing and injury has been cut in half?
A crossing guard dies in Hamilton, Ontario, due to regulatory failure and bad design
Meanwhile, in London, the government says, "safe vehicles save lives."
lloydalter.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Who is responsible here? The engineer who designed the road? The construction industry that uses these killer trucks? The government for refusing even to make sideguards mandatory, let alone regulate truck design as they do in Europe, where the rate of killing and injury has been cut in half?
It's World Toilet Day, a United Nations reminder that toilets should be accessible to all. In honour of the day, here's a roundup of some of my recent posts on toilets: lloydalter.substack.com/p/bonus-post...
Bonus Post: I almost missed World Toilet Day!
Here's a bonus roundup of some of my recent posts about toilets.
lloydalter.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:38 PM
It's World Toilet Day, a United Nations reminder that toilets should be accessible to all. In honour of the day, here's a roundup of some of my recent posts on toilets: lloydalter.substack.com/p/bonus-post...
I have never liked kitchen designs with big kitchen islands that became continents and archipelagos, and I do like this retro trend to kitchen tables. lloydalter.substack.com/p/the-kitche...
The kitchen island gets tabled
The big old kitchen table makes a comeback.
lloydalter.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:05 PM
I have never liked kitchen designs with big kitchen islands that became continents and archipelagos, and I do like this retro trend to kitchen tables. lloydalter.substack.com/p/the-kitche...
Strictly speaking, it's not a façade that's cracking up at 432 Park Ave. in NYC; it's a "load-bearing, concrete exoskeleton." This makes the problem much harder to fix. The engineers called it back in 2012, but hubris and vanity overruled them. lloydalter.substack.com/p/schadenfre...
SchadenfreudeTower in New York City is cracking up
The problems at 432 Park Avenue never end.
lloydalter.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Strictly speaking, it's not a façade that's cracking up at 432 Park Ave. in NYC; it's a "load-bearing, concrete exoskeleton." This makes the problem much harder to fix. The engineers called it back in 2012, but hubris and vanity overruled them. lloydalter.substack.com/p/schadenfre...
Funny because in Toronto, the trees get legal protection but you can knock down every 100 year old building. They both deserve to be saved.
November 14, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Funny because in Toronto, the trees get legal protection but you can knock down every 100 year old building. They both deserve to be saved.
Two pages apart in the @thestar.com : 9 year old killed by driver of SUV jumping curb, and Ontario bans speed cameras. Yes they are related, because Doug Ford inculcates a culture that the world is made for drivers, but kids and cyclists? Too bad.
November 14, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Two pages apart in the @thestar.com : 9 year old killed by driver of SUV jumping curb, and Ontario bans speed cameras. Yes they are related, because Doug Ford inculcates a culture that the world is made for drivers, but kids and cyclists? Too bad.
My first ghost bike installation was in 2006 for a rowing buddy hit by a dump truck. I have been to far too many of these, and construction vehicles were the cause of most of them. open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...
November 14, 2025 at 1:15 PM
My first ghost bike installation was in 2006 for a rowing buddy hit by a dump truck. I have been to far too many of these, and construction vehicles were the cause of most of them. open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...
More Death by Construction Industry driving ridiculous trucks in urban environments when there are safer alternatives.
Devastating news out of Hamilton. Crossing guards are on the front lines in the fight for safe streets. That job is truly terrifying. Distracted to contemptuous drivers, the full range of road violence on display all day, just so we can cross the street safely...
www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/arti...
www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/arti...
52-year-old crossing guard dead after being hit by dump truck in Hamilton
Hamilton police are investigating after a 52-year-old crossing guard was struck and killed by a truck at the intersection of Mohawk Road and Upper Wentworth Street.
www.ctvnews.ca
November 14, 2025 at 1:11 PM
More Death by Construction Industry driving ridiculous trucks in urban environments when there are safer alternatives.
Tomorrow is America Recycles Day, where cigarette and bottled water companies pat us on the head for picking up their debris. We should rename it “Deposits on Everything Day” and and demand returnable and refillable packaging. lloydalter.substack.com/p/its-americ...
It's America Recycles Day, sponsored by cigarette, plastic and bottled water companies
There is a new twist this year with a campaign to get us to switch to aluminum cans.
lloydalter.substack.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Tomorrow is America Recycles Day, where cigarette and bottled water companies pat us on the head for picking up their debris. We should rename it “Deposits on Everything Day” and and demand returnable and refillable packaging. lloydalter.substack.com/p/its-americ...
I used to think that the city was my gym; I walked and ran and cycled. But sometimes you need a bit more. lloydalter.substack.com/p/its-my-bir...
It's my birthday, and I am off to the gym
The gym is actually the biggest present I gave myself this year.
lloydalter.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:23 PM
I used to think that the city was my gym; I walked and ran and cycled. But sometimes you need a bit more. lloydalter.substack.com/p/its-my-bir...
Flying Officer Lloyd George Speyer; I am named after him. Also, his grave in a Commonwealth cemetery near Berlin. His memory is still a blessing.
November 11, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Flying Officer Lloyd George Speyer; I am named after him. Also, his grave in a Commonwealth cemetery near Berlin. His memory is still a blessing.
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.”