CBC

Toronto’s mayor on Tuesday launched an initiative to help residents fight global climate change as officials from major cities met in New York City for an environmental summit.

The Zerofootprint Toronto project, launched during the C40 Large Cities conference, combines aspects of social networking websites such as Facebook with an environmental footprint calculator.

The tool lets users chart their ecological impact through different aspects of their lives such as transportation, eating habits, household and office activities and waste habits. They can then compare and contrast their scores with friends who have also completed the assessment.

The collective data would eventually be used by cities to develop environmental policies and programs.

But the city and the system’s creators — Toronto-based non-profit organization Zerofootprint Inc. and San Jose, Calif.-based business intelligence firm Business Objects Corp. — also hope that people will use the system to come up with their own eco-friendly initiatives and challenge each other to lower their environmental footprints.

“Climate change is the issue of our time and it’s up to all of us to do our part to minimize the impact of day-to-day activities,” Toronto Mayor David Miller said. “Zerofootprint Toronto is going to help make my city not only one of the greenest on the planet, but one of the most innovative, as well.”

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