Zerofootprint Toronto goes live!
by Ron Dembo, Zerofootprint on 02.29.08
The City of Toronto and Zerofooprint have officially unveiled a new community-based weapon in the ongoing battle against climate change.
"It is up to all of us to do our part to minimize the impact of our day-to-day activities," Mayor David Miller said yesterday at the launch. "Each of us can make a difference as we work together to make Toronto the greenest, most livable city in North America."
Zerofootprint Toronto is an internet portal that lets residents, businesses, neighbourhood and community groups measure, track and reduce their carbon footprint. Individuals can also create groups around environmental goals and aspirations. Zerofootprint Toronto helps show you the aggregate reduction in footprint of all group members. The idea is that individuals can see how their small actions scale. The site encourages partnerships and competition towards reaching Toronto greenhouse gas reduction goals.
When Mayor Miller announced Toronto's partnership with Zerofootprint at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York in May, 2007, he challenged other world leaders to join the new web-based initiative. To date Seattle and Boulder, Colorado have come on board and other cities are gearing up to join.
To date there are more than 50 organizations and sponsors in Toronto committed to using Zerofootprint to power their environmental initiatives and challenges with their employees and families including Air Canada, Ecomedia Direct, First Capital Realty, Toronto Hydro, Tridel, Unilever (Sunlight), Ameresco Canada, Enbridge, Habitat for Humanity, Marsh, the Ontario College of Art & Design, Toronto Green Communities and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.
