Each year, TEA presents the Greener City for All Award to an individual or organization that is making an outstanding contribution to building a greener, healthier and more equitable Toronto. The award is made at our Greener City Celebration.
This year, we honoured our local reuse champions. This is a collaborative project with researchers, community leaders, behaviour change experts and research interns. Together, this group talked with hundreds of small businesses across our city about switching from single-use to zero-waste reusable alternatives.
Greener City for All awardees onstage with TEA Senior Campaigner, Emily Alfred.
This year’s award highlights the remarkable efforts of:
- Rafaela Gutierrez, UofT Trash Team
- Vince Schutt, Enviromentum
- Lee Adamson, Green Neighbours Network
- Member Green Neighbours Network (GNN) groups: Scarborough Environmental Association, Scarborough Zero Waste, St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association (SLNA) Waste Reduction Group, St. Lawrence Reduces, Green 13, and Parkdale High Park 4 Climate Action.
- Research interns: Hafeez, Konya, Beatrix, Millie, Rianne, Mythreyi, Sofiya, and Mai-Yin.
Collaborative Success: Tackling Single-Use Plastics
The U of T Trash Team laid the foundation for this success by partnering with TEA on research to understand the barriers and opportunities for local restaurants to transition away from single-use items. Building on these findings, the Green Neighbours Network rallied member six community based groups from across the city to expand the effort, supported by eight enthusiastic interns.
The interns visited over 600 businesses and conducted detailed interviews with 200, uncovering that 3 out of 4 of Toronto’s restaurants are considering or already adopting reusable alternatives. With support from Vince Schutt at Enviromentum, this project applied behaviour change techniques from motivational interviewing (MI) to have non-judgemental conversations with business owners that encouraged them to openly share their perspectives.
The community effort revealed and demonstrated that small businesses are ready for a shift to zero waste. The results have been shared with policy makers and elected officials to inform new programs and regulations that will shift our city to reuse. Read the report here.
Eight interns visited more than 600 visits across Toronto to talk about single-use foodware and switching to reusables.
Building a Sustainable Future Together
The work of these reuse champions demonstrates the incredible potential of collaboration between research, community networks, and advocacy. Their combined expertise, local insights, and dedication have laid the groundwork for a greener, more sustainable Toronto.
As Emily, our waste campaigner, mentioned, “What this collaborative did is what none of these partners could do alone - it was really rich in learning and building on the skills and capacity of different groups to achieve something great.”
Here’s to the continued success of our local reuse champions!
Greener City for All awardees posing with Mayor Olivia Chow, and TEA Senior Campaigner, Emily Alfred.
Learn more about the project!
- Green Neighbours Network of Toronto - project page
- U of T Trash Team - Ditching Disposables project with multiple years of research with Toronto businesses