Toronto has been named Canada's most sustainable large city for the second year in a row.
The award, given by
Corporate Knights and announced at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual
Sustainable Communities Conference in Victoria last week, gave the city a 69 per cent, two per cent lower than the winners of the small and medium sized categories, Victoria and Vancouver respectively.
"It wouldn't get anyone into university," says Corporate Knights researcher Erin Marchington of the relatively low scores, though she commends the city on what it has been able to achieve. She pointed out Toronto's household waste diversion and its retrofit grants, which help property owners green their buildings, as high points.
She also likes the city's approach to green roofs. "Toronto has one of the few requirements for a green roof to be put on a building over a certain size, 2,000 square metres," she says, "which is really innovative."
The award, which takes a very broad approach to sustainability, also commended the city on its relatively high municipal voter turnout, which at 53 per cent, dwarfed Victoria's, for example, which was 23 per cent.
Where the city falls down is in total waste diversion, including corporate and industrial, which she pegs at hovering around 40 per cent. The Corporate Knights ideal is 80 per cent. She also points out the low proportion of green space in the city -- 12 per cent of its total area.
Corporate Knights is an independent media company founded by
Toby Heaps. It studies sustainability issues, concentrating mostly on the business world. This is their fifth annual municipal ranking.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Erin Marchington
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