What is Evergreen Brick Works?
Evergreen Brick Works is a hub — a place where the world can experience sustainable practices that enable flourishing cities of the future.
In 2010, Evergreen transformed a collection of deteriorating heritage buildings into a global showcase for green design and an award-winning public space. Open year-round, Evergreen Brick Works welcomes more than 500,000 visitors annually to experience its public markets, participate in conferences and events, enjoy outdoor learning and nature play, and explore public art in the heart of Toronto’s ravine system.
Throughout the campus, you can experience new practices that challenge the way we live in cities: Ideas you can contribute to and take home. Evergreen Brick Works is a dynamic hub that connects citizens, business, academia and government in order to shape our cities for the better.
The activities you participate in shape how we can build low-carbon cities of the future. Here’s how:
Through our public markets, which act as incubators for small businesses, pilot programs in the Children’s Garden, our testing ground for loose parts and risk in play, or our target of becoming a carbon-neutral campus with the redevelopment of the historic kiln building. Successful ideas are then scaled and implemented across Canada through Evergreen’s projects.
Visit us today as we celebrate the connection between people, natural and built worlds.
Read more about our work as a demonstration hub:
Nestled in the heart of Toronto's ravine system and surrounded by nature, this space serves as a meeting point, convening a wide range of stakeholders across all sectors to experience large-scale conferences, symposiums, celebrations and special events that contribute to flourishing cities of the future.
How do we operate?
Evergreen Brick Works functions as a social enterprise, meaning that the profit we make from our revenue-generating ventures – hosting events, Evergreen Garden Market, camps and programs – is used to fund our work across Canada. A unique business model, social enterprises are becoming increasingly essential in the creation of a sustainable economy. Through our diverse suite of profitable enterprises, we are able to fuel our mission of making cities flourish.
In early 2017, we launched the redevelopment of our historic Kiln Building, creating a new hub for people across all sectors to collaborate in building sustainable cities. The project is one of the first in Canada to set and strive for a carbon-neutral target. Once again we are pushing the boundaries of green design, using the lessons learned from our original redevelopment (PDF, 1.2 MB)of the abandoned Don Valley Brick Works in 2010.
Evergreen Brick Works offers a unique experience for everyone and inspires ideas to fuel flourishing cities of the future by connecting people with natural and built worlds.