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.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Deborah Martin-Downs, Kilian Berz
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