How will climate change impact apartment building residents? Dr. Marianne Touchie is the Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Urban Housing and examines thermal resilience in mid-rise and high-rise buildings, which includes most social housing buildings in Toronto. During this seminar, Dr.Touchie will provide an introduction to these post-war multi-unit buildings in Toronto and who lives there. We will explore the ways in which climate change will impact the health of residents in these buildings; what we can do to protect them through modifications; the challenges in that process; and implications for health equity. A brief Q&A will follow, moderated by Dr. Fiona Miller, Director, Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care. Lunch will be provided.

Marianne Touchie is an Associate Professor jointly appointed in the Departments of Civil & Mineral Engineering and Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto and Director of the Building Energy and Indoor Environment Lab. Her interdisciplinary research program explores the interactions between occupant behaviour, the building enclosure and mechanical systems and how these three factors can be engineered to improve energy performance, indoor environmental quality and occupant comfort, health and wellbeing. 

This seminar is hosted in partnership with the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health, and Sustainable Care, a new multi-faculty unit founded by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. To learn more about the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health, and Sustainable Care and receive notice of more seminars on the intersection of health and climate, please sign up for the Collaborative Centre’s mailing list.

MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions is Canada’s largest research centre focused on health equity and the social determinants of health. Internationally recognized for groundbreaking science and innovation, MAP develops and implements real-world, evidence-driven program and policy solutions that disrupt cycles of socioeconomic exclusion and poor health.

For more than 25 years, MAP has partnered with communities and policy makers across the country to take on complex issues such as homelessness, intimate partner violence, inequitable access to healthcare and the prevention of opioid-related harms. MAP’s impacts span from local to national and beyond. MAP’s vision is a healthier future for all.

MAP is based at St. Michael’s Hospital, a fully affiliated University of Toronto teaching and research-intensive hospital and hub for care in downtown Toronto. St. Michael’s Hospital is a site of Unity Health Toronto, a hospital network serving patients, residents and clients across the full spectrum of care. It also includes St. Joseph’s Health Centre and Providence Healthcare.