LID Permeable Paving

Installing Ecoraster Bloxx for the Beach United Church’s New Parking Lot

We would like to take this opportunity to highlight one of our newest Ecoraster installations in the Toronto area, located in the popular Beach neighbourhood!

The Beach United Church, centrally located on Wineva Ave., in the heart of the Toronto Beach neighbourhood has a mission statement that includes the objective of environmental sustainability. They are exemplary in their mandate and started along their path towards sustainable practices with the complete upgrade and renovation of their building in 2011, aiming to reduce their geographic and energy footprint.

They expanded their efforts in 2014 with the addition of a solar electric generation facility on the rooftop, which provides renewable clean electricity onto the electricity grid of Toronto.

Their most recent initiative was to install a leading edge, fully sustainable, permeable parking lot facility adjacent to the Church for additional parking space in a community short of parking areas. The specially engineered and designed porous parking area features a gravel base and a unique surfacing layer, Ecoraster Bloxx.

The gravel grid base has been constructed to capture all the stormwater runoff landing on the property, up to the 100-year rainstorm levels of water, that would otherwise flow into the City’s storm sewer system untreated, and then into Lake Ontario.

With the specially designed construction, the stormwater, after entering the gravel base, will be filtered by the sandy soil below and returned naturally to the water table.
The Ecoraster Bloxx permeable paving solution is a fully sustainable, permeable paving system ensuring maximum infiltration of rainwater.

The Bloxx system is a German engineered eco-friendly product which is now manufactured in Listowel, Ontario. Comprised of 100% recycled materials, the Bloxx grid system used for this parking surface kept 4000 tires and 600,000 post-consumer plastic bags from polluting our landfills and water bodies.

Ecoraster Bloxx has been designed to withstand the challenges associated with harsh Canadian winters, and provides a porous surface that will remain level, stable, puddle-free and fully accessible.

The team from the Beach United Church, spearheaded by long time congregant Ron Fitton, chose to use green pavers for the surface, further solidifying the concept of “green parking”. The revolutionary sustainable parking surface, which will be managed by Green P through the City of Toronto, is a true example of green parking.

The Church is truly a community center and is used throughout the day by the neighbourhood for education, recreation and spiritual growth. Their doors are open to all and they help host the “Out of the Cold” program participants as well. As we know, our children, our future leaders, learn by example. Rest assured that the children involved with the Beach United Church community will be prepared to enter the world as thoughtful, caring, outwardly focused and resourceful adults.

It is our hope that others will learn from the remarkable efforts of the Beach United Church community, and take the steps to include alternative paving materials into their upcoming projects.

The Church will be hosting a grand opening celebration for the parking lot on Sunday April 28th. Contact www.BeachUnitedChurch.com for more details.