The Sustainability of Toronto

February 4, 2010

Toronto by Rob Sinclair

Corporate Knight released the fourth annual sustainable cities ranking report. Toronto got a quite good ranking and as the report claims, it “reaps the benefits of its density, with more citizens choosing green commuting options and consuming less energy residentially.“

The overall sustainability of the city is 69 percent, a quite positive result. Actually, Toronto is the winner in the category of large cities. Government and empowerment of the city got the best result, 7.7 points out of 10. Social well-being scored slightly lower and got 7.33 points. Infrastructure and built environment got almost the same, 7.31. Economic security in our city is also more good than bad, at the level of 6.63 points. And finally, the ranking of ecological integrity is 5.7 according to the report.

I’m glad Toronto seems to be doing well in comparison with other large cities. However, for example the leader of the category of medium cities, Vancouver, got better results, as its overall score is as much as 76 percent. Let’s work on making Toronto even better than it is now.