Toronto Knows How
What if knowing your carbon footprint could be as easy as understanding your financial life? With free and easy access to resources (such as bank statements, online banking and Web 2.0 tools like Mint.com), our financial decisions are more informed, but what about our environmental choices? In many ways your environmental impact is just as critical as your finances. It affects your way of life, future, local economy, health, taxes and much more. If someone asked you to describe your carbon footprint, the last thing you would do is check the soles of your feet. In some ways, that’s what we’re forced to do. Not because we’re ignorant - we just haven’t been given the proper tools! With all the advances in information technology and the proliferation of social media, this information should be universally accessible.
Starting this Tuesday, Toronto is setting an example for cities worldwide by launching Zerofootprint.net. This project empowers Toronto residents with web tools to help measure and understand the impact their lifestyles have on the environment. Canada’s largest city made this project a reality by fusing the environmental know-how of Zerofootprint and the technology / business intelligence of Business Objects. While analytics and environmental insight are great, the real potential for this project is in the social networking features. Residents can quickly identify carbon myths, share them with neighbors and contribute to a community wide initiative to combat climate change.
Leading cities and residents around the world should take note. According to Toronto Zerofootprint homepage “Zerofootprint Toronto aims to be the model for other communities. To demonstrate the influential role of cities in achieving climate goals, Mayor David Miller has challenged his peers at the Large Cities Climate Initiative in New York to also Zerofootprint their cities. The underlying vision is to aggregate results of all participating cities, create joint initiatives, measure their achievements, and celebrate their successes. By joining forces, cities can have as much impact on the environment as an entire country.” Here in San Francisco we’re flooded with Internet startups and city initiatives like AlertSF. Maybe we should be paying attention to what our Canadian neighbors are doing and start implementing technology for sustainability.
Tags: carbon footprint, sustainability, technology, Toronto, web 2.0, zerofootprint, zerofootprint cities