Forbes: Cara Anna

Toronto’s mayor and business leaders announced Tuesday a new social networking Web site that will allow residents to measure their impact on the environment and reduce it. The city is believed to be the first ever to give its residents such a tool, officials said.

Zerofootprint Toronto was announced at an environmental summit hosted by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with mayors and local leaders from more than 30 major world cities in attendance.

“Where national governments can’t or won’t lead, cities will,” Toronto Mayor David Miller said. He challenged the other leaders at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit to adopt the new model in their cities.

Zerofootprint Toronto, scheduled to be launched in July for about 40,000 selected residents before going citywide, will let people calculate their personal impact on the environment by answering questions about their lifestyle – the vehicle they drive, the diet they have, even the number of garbage bags they throw out each week.

The software behind the Web site then calculates the impact in terms of carbon footprint, water usage, even trees used to support the person’s way of life.

Continue reading the full article at Forbes.com.