The City is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience against a rapidly changing climate, moving to zero waste and a circular economy, improving air and water quality, building sustainable energy and transportation systems, and supporting biodiversity. The City of Toronto’s TransformTO Net Zero Strategy, adopted by Council in December 2021, established accelerated implementation actions to reduce greenhouse (GHG) emissions, particularly in the short term, and set one of the most ambitious targets in North America – to reduce community-wide emissions to net zero by 2040. Leading by example, the City plans to cut GHG emissions from its own operations even faster. There are five critical steps the City is taking to steer community-wide emissions towards net zero: - establish carbon accountability and show this accountability through carbon budgeting - rapidly reduce significant fossil gas use - establish building performance standards - increase the use and adoption of low-carbon transportation options - increase the amount of local renewable energy and storage opportunities Through the 30 actions in the City’s Short-term Implementation Plan and ongoing delivery of programs, policies, and investments, the City continues to lay the foundation for wide-spread community action to reduce GHG emissions, now and in the future. Key recent achievements include: - Version 4 of the Toronto Green Standard (TGS) came into effect, which raised the bar once again for high performance, high quality, low emissions new buildings in Toronto. The TGS continues to raise the bar on building performance and is expected to save more than one megatonne of GHG emissions by 2050. - Installation of more than 100 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in public parking lots and, by the end of 2024, more than 650 charging ports will be installed both on-street and in public parking lots. An EV Charging Plan is in development to further grow this network and support the transition to electric vehicles, supporting the City’s goal of having 30 per cent of registered vehicles in Toronto be electric by 2030. - Introduced a Wastewater Energy Program and facilitated one of the largest and first-of-its-kind sewer heat-recovery projects in the world, to expand local renewable energy supply for buildings. Work is also underway to expand the Deep Lake Water Cooling system. - Established a Climate Advisory Group, comprising 26 members of the public with diverse backgrounds and lived experience, to help guide implementation of the TransformTO Strategy with an equity lens. - Launch of the 2023 Carbon Accountability Report, which addresses the first of the five critical steps the City is taking to steer community-wide emissions and corporate emissions from the City’s own operations towards net zero. The report outlines a process to establish multi-year emission budgets for Toronto’s corporate and community-wide emissions. An annual Carbon Budget process will link City decision-making on policies, programs, and projects in the annual financial budget to their expected GHG reduction impact, from now until net zero is achieved by 2040. The Carbon Accountability Report also establishes a science-based corporate policy on offset credits aligned with net zero governance best practices, which will continue Toronto’s leadership in this rapidly developing space. Community-wide GHG emissions in Toronto have been reduced by 43 per cent against 1990 levels. Significant, accelerated community-wide action is needed to reach future goals and targets, including a 65 per cent reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2040. To reach the City’s 2030 target, emissions must be cut in half in the next seven years.

Toronto's motto – Diversity Our Strength – represents the diversity of the City's 2.9 million residents. The City strives to be a caring and friendly city that invests in quality of life for all, an objective that includes social and economic well-being and inclusion. The City's Community and Social services includes a diverse range of essential and socio-economically empowering services and supports to allow all Torontonians and neighbourhoods to fully participate in the social and economic life of Toronto. The goal of Community and Social services is to see a Toronto where individual outcomes are determined by an individual's effort, not predetermined by their address, race, or income; and prioritizes the needs of the vulnerable while nurturing and supporting a Toronto for All. One of Destination Toronto's four key strategic pillars is to ensure its content, partnerships, membership, brand and team authentically reflect the diversity of businesses, voices, cultures, values and neighbourhoods that make up the Toronto community. This means that the DMO aims to: - Establish more meaningful community relationships to learn, validate and sustain the content insights necessary for diverse representation in the stories we share and amplify. - Lean into our ambassadors to provide an authentic, local perspective while continuing to evolve and add new voices that are reflective of the destination. - Entrench and broaden the "Things to Do" strategy by sustaining engagement with Arts & Culture stakeholders, expanding listing categories and targeting outreach to underrepresented communities. - Activate renewed CSR program aligned to EDI and Employee Engagement initiatives.