In the summer of 2019, 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. 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. 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.

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.

Participation:

• Research Panel Kick-Off Event: 3 panelists, 3 GDNA representatives, 20 community participants
• Building Site Visits: 4 Buildings and building guides, 9 community participants
• Design Workshop: 2 GDNA representatives, 9 community participants

Skills:

• Collaboration
• Public Speaking & Facilitation
• Human Centred Design
• Research
• Event Planning
• Stakeholder & Participant Engagement