At the mayor’s summit in New York City, Toronto Mayor David Miller is expected to announce today details of an advanced carbon calculator available to anybody on the Internet wanting to get a sense of their environmental footprint. The online calculator was designed by Toronto-based Zerofootprint, a non-profit group trying to promote renewable energy use and the purchase of carbon offsets. The New York Times has some details here.

I first heard of this calculator during a lunch last month with Zerofootprint founder and CEO Ron Dembo, who has become quite a passionate advocate of renewable technologies and approaches to battling climate change. Dembo, a former Yale scientist and well-regarded risk management expert, explained that the calculator was first designed with business intelligence software maker BusinessObjects for their internal employee use, but they soon realized the application could be expanded universally to other companies, municipalities and the larger general public.

According to NYT: “On the interactive climate site, people will be able to enter data, see the carbon effect and how their carbon footprint compares with averages in their city and in cities worldwide. They will also be able to do what-if simulations, to see how changes in their activities affect carbon emissions. The anonymous data will be collected for analysis by climate change scientists and others.”

On Zerofootprint’s Web site, the company has just announced a partnership with the City of Toronto, which will have municipal employees use the carbon calculator to establish a baseline carbon footprint by which progress on emission reductions can be compared. Phase II of the partnership will make the calculator accessible to all Torontonians, “enabling the city to devise the right programs and incentives for its citizens to live more sustainably.”

The best environmental engineering science enables Zerofootprint Toronto to compute the environmental impact of transportation, food, energy, water use, and waste production. This platform enables a first-of-its-kind community engagement initiative providing individuals, neighborhoods, businesses, and other groups in Toronto a network to take action on climate change. 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.

I certainly hope the other mayors take Toronto up on this challenge, because it will be nice to be on the same page, using the same methods to calculate our progress over the years. Schools and corporations should also get involved. There are definitely other carbon calculators on the market, but this one appears poised to stand out. Not only is it more advanced, but Dembo, as a man who designed risk-management software used today by a majority of the world’s banks, brings much-needed credibility to the online tool.