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ZooShare bonds are Community Bonds, a local investment opportunity that allows you to support a project that benefits the environment and earn a return on your investment.

Each year, ZooShare’s biogas plant will divert 15K tonnes of inedible local food “waste” from landfills, reduce C02-equivalent emissions by up to 20K tonnes and generate 500kW of renewable power for the Ontario grid. Upon potential expansion of the plant, ZooShare will also produce Renewable Natural Gas (RNG).

Join over 800 ZooShare members who have invested over $7 million to build Canada’s 1st zoo-based biogas plant! We are currently waiting for our new Offering Statement (like a prospectus) to be approved before we can sell additional bonds. Please click here to sign up for the waiting list.

Unfortunately ZooShare bonds are not RRSP/TFSA eligible and there are no plans to offer this going forward.

As construction of the biogas plant is now complete, Series 4 and 5 bonds are being used to redeem and refinance maturing Community Bonds and Insiders loans. They may also compliment funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada to potentially expand the capacity of the biogas plant.

ZooShare generates revenue in 2 ways:

1) ZooShare is producing power for the Ontario grid: we have a 20-year contract with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) that ensures we will be paid a fixed rate of $0.17 per kilowatt-hour that we produce.
2) ZooShare will be paid to accept and process organic waste (known as “tipping fees”) and 3)

Finally, in the near future, ZooShare will likely sell fertilizer, a final by-product of the anaerobic digestion process.

ZooShare bonds are subject to a number of risks common to start-up ventures in general, as well as specific risks associated with electrical generation and anaerobic digestion.

The primary risk is Operating Risk – that as a result of mechanical breakdown or a lack of suitable feedstock, the plant could not make the biogas/power/revenues that ZooShare projected. That being said, all of the equipment is insured, and ZooShare has business interruption insurance. Regarding feedstock, ZooShare has secured contracts from multiple waste management companies to supply the material that’s needed. Given the plant’s favourable location close to where significant volumes of organic waste is produced, and being the only facility in the City of Toronto that can accept commercial organic waste, there is little risk that sufficient feedstock will be available during the life of the project.

For a complete list of risks, please see page 19 of our 2020 Offering Statement.

Community Bonds Series 4 and 5 will rank equally with each other, but behind Community Bonds Series 1, 2 and 3, Founders Club Bonds, and Insiders loans.

They are secured by a float ing charge in favour of Brian Iler as Trustee, for the benefit of the bondholders, on ZooShare’s interest in the LP, on the terms set out in the Trust Agreement.

ZooShare Biogas Co-operative was founded in 2011 by Daniel Bida. In 2013, ZooShare received its Feed-In-Tariff Contract and launched its first public bond-offering of $2.2M. In 2015, due to popular demand, ZooShare issued a second and third round of bonds which raised over $1M.

In 2019, ZooShare joined forces with Oshawa PUC Energy Services (OPUCES), a municipally-owned sustainable energy corporation, to complete the final milestone of the Toronto Zoo Biogas Project. ZooShare also received a $2.67M grant from Environment and Climate Change Canada to potentially expand the plant and double its impact.

In December 2020, ZooShare completed construction of the biogas plant and issued a new round of bonds (Series 4 and 5) to redeem and refinance maturing bonds.

In April 2021, ZooShare began to generate and export power to the Ontario grid providing enough renewable energy to power over 250 Ontario homes each year.

ZooShare is currently offering tours of the biogas plant through the end of the Summer of 2022. Click the link to see available dates and to register.

You can also take a virtual tour of the ZooShare biogas project. The virtual tour enables viewers to see how our unique site functions and hear comments from our partners. Click here to check it out.

You can also see the biogas plant in-person from a safe distance by walking the trail next to the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre (AKA Pearse House) at 1749 Meadowvale Road: There are 3 trails in Rouge National Urban Park, ranging from 1.5km to 3.5km, but the best view of the biogas plant is just a couple of minutes from the trail head. Please note that the biogas plant is an industrial site and members of the public are not allowed except as part of a supervised tour, so please stay on the trail. Click here for directions and parking information.

No, ZooShare is a non-profit co-operative separate from the Toronto Zoo. The Zoo holds a permanent position on our Board.

Biogas is the gas created from the breakdown of organic waste. The gas is formed when bacteria eat organic waste and release methane, carbon dioxide and other gases. Instead of letting these greenhouse gases escape into the atmosphere, we capture the gas and store it until it can be used to create energy.

The ZooShare biogas plant has a capacity of 500kW and will generate 4.1 million kilowatt-hours for the Ontario grid each year, that’s enough to power about 250 homes!

No, ZooShare will not divert any food from food banks or any charitable programmes. We will only use inedible food waste to generate renewable power.

• It diverts waste from landfills
• It recycles a readily available source of energy
• It prevents methane (21x worse than C02) from going into the atmosphere
• It generates electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• It stores its own energy, meaning it can dispatch energy whenever it’s needed
• It eliminates pathogens and odours from organic waste
• It returns valuable nutrients to the soil in the form of a rich fertilizer