Published on June 19, 2025
This might be the kind of story best read under the cool shade of a tree.
Feeling more comfortable now? That’s because shade offers more than just a break from the sun — it supports our health and wellbeing in important ways. Trees, especially, help cool entire neighbourhoods, reduce UV exposure and just improve quality of life.
So how do we get a more comfortable, shadier city? It’s a shared effort. Residents can plant and protect trees on private property. Cities can prioritize natural shade in parks and streetscapes. Researchers can study impacts. And community organizations can help put these ideas into action.
To explore what makes good shade — and why it matters — we spoke with several people that contributed to the Toronto Cancer Prevention Coalition’s Ultraviolet Radiation (UVR) Shade Policy Committee. Each brought a unique perspective to what it means to design for shade.
Photo credit: Cate Gransaull
I got involved in the working group because I was an urban designer for the City of Toronto City Planning. I was in a group called Civic Design, and I was designing these public realm streetscape projects. But I also live here. I’ve raised three kids in Toronto, and it is terrible when you have to push a stroller through the heat.
Children and older people are more vulnerable to heat. In our cities, we have to invest in caring for the trees and invest in healthy growing conditions for the trees. We have issues with increasing urban heat island effect, and trees are absolutely critical to that. We know that under trees it can be anywhere from 10 to 14 degrees cooler. Look at Paris and other cities in Europe. They have these beautiful trees that line the streets and provide shade for people when they’re going shopping or when they’re sitting at a cafe or in a park.
We have the right to be protected from the sun, and on hot days, we should have places for people to go. When you think about people who are living on the street, that’s why we have cooling centres. So, I think there’s an equity lens to this as well that doesn’t always get talked about.
In our designs we try to provide a balance of environment, so you have shade when you need it in the hot summer months, and you have sun when you need it in the cooler shoulder seasons. We are thinking about using these spaces throughout the year. I also learn a lot from my Indigenous colleagues and elders and knowledge holders that work with us. They always remind us that trees are our relatives; they are our helpers. They help us in so many different ways, including providing shade.
I was part of the Ontario Sun Safety Working Group and became involved with the UVR Shade Policy Committee. It became a focus of different people from public health, parks and recreation and all over the place.
From a public health perspective, we know ultraviolet radiation is a human carcinogen that causes skin cancer. It can also worsen certain skin conditions and contribute to photoaging. Sunburns, in particular, increase the risk of developing skin cancer and other skin problems.
The work to create shade guidelines is extremely important. When I look at schoolyards and I see that there are no trees and just open fields, it makes me think, my goodness, they could really use some shade there for when kids play.
For your own sun safety, it’s really about protecting yourself whenever you’re out. If you can choose your activity time — like biking in the morning or evening, great. But if your soccer game is at noon, that’s when you play. So, wear sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat and cover up as best you can. Enjoy the summer; just protect yourself.
During my doctoral work, which was focused on shade, we wanted to quantify the effects of shade. This work was being done in Australia and New Zealand, but it was rare in North America. I was recruited to be part of this working group to help explore how much protection trees provide pedestrians and how much UV is able to penetrate through.
When you’re talking about shade, you’re talking about protection from both heat and ultraviolet radiation. Also, studies have shown that in neighbourhoods with trees, people are more likely to leave their homes and congregate under trees for social purposes.
I work with trees because I love them. But I like the social component too. I do love gathering with friends or students under the shade in an outdoor classroom setting. Sometimes we do intensive fieldwork outside, and then for lunch we all gather under the shade of a tree and relax.
During my PhD, we looked at which tree traits can improve shade protection. That included trees that are wider, shorter to the ground and have dense foliage. We were able to quantify this using a measure called crown transparency, which refers to how much sunlight passes through a tree’s canopy.
I think we should encourage more tree planting in cities — and the biggest opportunity right now is on private land. If every resident planted trees on their property, we could really increase the shade value in every city.
The working group was a coalition of people coming together around issues related to cancer prevention — specifically ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure.
For me, it was important to be part of the conversation, especially from the standpoint of children’s landscapes and places where they spend much of their day, like school grounds. At the time, I was working closely with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), and we were having a lot of discussions about climate resiliency and planting trees for shade and cooling. Alongside that came a growing focus on UVR exposure and the need to better protect children.
When we think about our principles for climate-ready schools, we focus on designing school grounds with children at the centre — thinking about their healthy development and what they need in those spaces.
Take a typical day in May or June: their exposure to full sunlight and UV rays is intense. And it’s a concern because children aren’t naturally shade-seeking. When they head outside, they go straight to the play zones, which historically have been large areas of asphalt or open fields. Shade, if it exists at all, is usually pushed to the perimeter.
That’s where Evergreen’s role with the TDSB — and with other school boards across the country — comes in: bringing the shade to the kids, making it a core part of the design. But planting trees in active play areas is tricky. You want those trees not just to survive, but to thrive. So, we have to think carefully about their placement — and about what’s happening underground, because their roots need space. Now that we understand how trees form interconnected networks through mycorrhizal fungi, our goal became planting them in groves — keeping them close to encourage mutual support and healthier growth.
We also involve kids in the planning process, like we did in the Climate Ready Schools pilot. They go out and do a shade assessment, talking to their peers about where they like to play and where it feels hottest. We give them small prompts and interview tools so they can do a basic site analysis themselves. They bring unique views that contribute to the design.
Learn more
Did you know you could do a shade assessment on your property, park or school ground? Resources like the Shade Audit Information Guide + Tool — a partnership between the Region of Waterloo, Waterloo Wellington Regional Cancer Program and Evergreen’s former Learning Grounds program — lets individuals or organizations identify whether existing shade provides sufficient protection from UV rays.
You can also learn more about Evergreen’s approach to shade by visiting the Evergreen Resource Hub’s Climate Ready Schools Resources, where we have a whole resource dedicated to designing for shade.
