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Toronto website calculates personal carbon footprint

Last Updated: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 | 2:51 PM ET

CBC News

The City of Toronto is helping Torontonians get green with a new website that calculates their individual carbon footprint and offers tips on how to minimize their impact on the environment.

Toronto.zerofootprint.net features an online carbon footprint calculator that allows people to tally how many tonnes of carbon dioxide they produce as a result of their day-to-day activities.

Visitors to the site need about 30 minutes to answer questions about travel, where they buy their food and how they use energy in their homes. For instance, those who cycle or walk to work will get a better score compared to those who drive.

The average Torontonian's carbon footprint measures 8.6 tonnes per year, on a scale that reaches up to 20. That's lower than the average American's footprint, which measures at about 11.9 tonnes, but more than a citizen of the United Kingdom, pegged at around 5.3 tonnes.

By determining how much carbon dioxide they are contributing to the atmosphere, participants will hopefully be able to identify where they can curb their "emissions," which contribute to climate change and global warming.

Mayor David Miller and environmental groups said they are hoping entire neighbourhoods will use the new site to compare their footprints with others in the country and around the world.

Miller said he hopes the site will help Toronto reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 6 per cent over the next 4 years and by 80 per cent by 2050.

The Zerofootprint Toronto project, launched during the C40 Large Cities conference in New York last year, is the first of its kind in Canada.

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New web tool helps Toronto map its eco-footprint

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Zerofootprint Toronto website

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