Greening Greater Toronto

Greening Greater Toronto is the name of a report released today by the Toronto City Summit Alliance. It has been mentioned in media reports (keep reading below) leading up to its release and will be made available online by the TCSA.

In a gesture of political support, the plan's launch was announced today at the Steam Whistle Brewery by Mayor David Miller.

The document is a plan put together collaboratively between local politicians, the business community, and major NGOs, to make Toronto "the greenest urban region in the world". The Greening Greater Toronto coalition will be releasing more recommendations in coming months but has started by identifying these major goals:

1) reduce GHG emissions;
2) improve air and water quality;
3) increase sustainable land use with more green space;
4) implement waste reduction that makes sense.

Of particular note is that the report points out the city has seen significant improvement in residential waste as people have been willing to reduce waste and increase recycling. Unfortunately the commercial sector has lagged far behind and hasn't shown much improvement.

The initiative's success weighs on its ability to motivate a cross-section of support between what it sees as the three different groups that must work together: residents, businesses, and politicians.

It has already generated such headlines as:
Is 'Toronto, the Green' near?
Businesses are GTA recycling bad boys
Blue-chip firms sign on to Toronto's green plan

Photo from the TCSA report