The Villager: David Nickle

Toronto city staff will be test-driving a new software tool that could one day help every city resident find ways to reduce their negative impact on the environment and climate change.

Mayor David Miller unveiled the new tool, Zerofootprint Toronto, Tuesday at the C40 Large Cities climate summit in New York City. The web-based tool will combine an environmental footprint calculator with a web-based network to let residents not only determine what they need to do to reduce the amount of pollution they produce, but also let them meet up with other like-minded Torontonians.

“The people of Toronto really want to know what they can do,” Miller said in a telephone interview from New York. “They need to see where they can have the biggest impact on climate change, and change their behaviour. If they need to take advantage of the low flow toilet program, for instance, the simulator will tell them that and there’ll be a link to our water department. It gives people the information they need.”

The package, which was developed by the Toronto-based not-for-profit Zerofootprint and Business Objects, a business software firm, also features a web-based community that will let people form networks.

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