By Bert Archer for Yonge Street Media
February 9, 2011

Environmentally speaking, Toronto is doing well, but it could do better.

That's the ambivalent conclusion of the "report card" released on Jan. 31 by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and Greening Greater Toronto, in conjunction with the Boston Consulting Group.

Apparently, we're doing better with air, water usage and recycling, but not so well on storm water management, sprawl, traffic, forests and wetlands and the diversity of our fauna and flora.

"From a development perspective, we have to do things differently and better," says Deborah Martin-Downs, director of the TRCA's ecology division, "particularly on the transportation and energy-efficiency side."

"Two-thirds of the landfill comes from commercial companies," says Kilian Berz, managing director of Boston Consulting Group Canada and co-chair of Greening Greater Toronto. "We don't have enough diversion." Berz points to certain success stories, though, such as the Simpson Tower, which he says achieved 96 per cent diversion as early as 2008, and the TD Towers, which he says diverted 76 per cent of its waste in 2009. Berz says the average for Toronto office towers hovers between 20 and 40 per cent.

Greening Greater Toronto is a project of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance. Toronto Community Foundation's President & CEO Rahul K. Bhardwaj and Chair Martin Connell serve on CivicAction's Steering Committee.

Toronto Region Conservation Authority is supported by a number of general Toronto Community Foundation fundholders, and has received two Vital Youth grants from the Community Foundation's Vital Toronto Fund.

CivicAction hosts its Greater Toronto Summit 2011 on February 10 and 11, 2011. Toronto Community Foundation is a proud participant.

More Information
Learn more about The Living City Report Card [external link ] ››
Learn more about CivicAction's Greater Toronto Summit 2011 [external link] ››
Learn more about the environment in Toronto's Vital Signs® ››
Learn more about organizations providing solutions on the Community Knowledge Centre ››