City of Toronto - Corporate Real Estate Management - Project Management Office
June 2021 TCA Green Ambassador
City of Toronto - Corporate Real Estate Management - Project Management Office
The City of Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the fourth largest in North America, with over 30,000 employees. The City's strategic vision has 4 components:
- Toronto is a caring and friendly city.
- Toronto is a clean, green, and sustainable city.
- Toronto is a dynamic city.
- Toronto invests in quality of life.
This is backed up by our city priorities:
- Financial sustainability.
- A well-run city.
- Maintain and create housing that's affordable.
- Keep Toronto moving.
- Invest in people and neighbourhoods.
- Tackle climate change and build resilience.
We are committed to fighting climate change and preparing our city government, our economy, our ecosystem, and our communities, especially the most vulnerable communities, for a changing climate.
TransformTO is Toronto’s ambitious climate action strategy. Unanimously approved by City Council in July 2017, it includes a set of long-term, low-carbon goals, and strategies to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions and improve our health, grow our economy, and improve social equity.
On October 2, 2019, City Council voted unanimously to declare a climate emergency and accelerate efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, adopting a stronger emissions reduction target of net zero by 2050 or sooner. Toronto’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets are now as follows (based on 1990 levels):
- 30 percent by 2020
- 65 percent by 2030
- Net-zero by 2050, or sooner
The City is currently developing a Net Zero Strategy in response to City Council’s Climate Emergency declaration. The Net Zero Strategy will build on the initial TransformTO plan, and the results of the 2019 TransformTO consultations on the next steps and will be aligned with the recommendations from the Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild. City Council will receive an update on TransformTO Net Zero in 2021.
To achieve these ambitious goals the city has developed a suite of programs and policies that support the public for this drive to Net-Zero. These include:
- Toronto Green Standard
- Home Energy Loan Program (HELP)
- Navigation and Support Services
- Energy Retrofit Loans (ERL)
- Green Will Initiative
- Existing Building Emissions Strategy
- PollinateTO
- High-Rise Retrofit Improvement Support Program (Hi-RIS)
- Sustainable Towers Engaging People Program (STEP)
- Eco-Roof Incentive Program
- Urban Forestry Grants
- Water Capacity Buyback Program
- Smart Commute
- And more!!
All of these programs and policies are to support the TransformTO long-term goals.
To date, the City of Toronto as a whole has surpassed its 2020 carbon goal as shown here.
Corporately, the City of Toronto has also committed to a low carbon future. To date had over 100+ renewable energy installations, are building and retrofitting buildings to Net-Zero, and implementing low/no emission options for transportation citywide including having all TTC busses be fully electric by 2040 which in 2020 became the largest electric bus fleet in North America.