As Toronto residents who care deeply about taking action on the climate crisis, what are we prepared to do?

The first draft of Toronto’s 2024 Budget is out, which sets out spending for city services like libraries, parks, roads, bike lanes, shelters, sewers, and many other important parts of our daily lives. Keep reading to take a deep dive into what this draft of the budget means for Toronto's climate and environmental action.

On behalf of the TEA team, thank you for attending the 2023 Greener City Celebration and joining us in celebrating 35 years of TEA!

Toronto Council unanimously voted at their December meeting to move forward to the next phase of the Single-Use Reduction Strategy. The plan includes a range of programs, business supports, and bylaws that will all work together to move our city away from wasteful, unnecessary single-use plastics and foodware, and towards waste free reusable alternatives.

For years, Toronto has been working on a Single-Use Reduction Strategy to tackle single-use bags, foodware and cutlery.  It’s currently in a voluntary phase focused on education and support for small businesses, and Toronto City Council is expected to vote on the next phase that includes regulations before the end of this year.

This year, the City of Toronto is hosting in-person and online consultations with the public before bringing forward a proposed budget for 2024. This a huge opportunity to name your priorities, like climate action, transit, housing, and more.

TEA submitted a letter to City Council in support of the City's overall direction to transition the Vehicle-for-Hire (VFH) industry to zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs) by 2030.

TEA submitted a letter to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee that commends the City of Toronto's plan to implement Mandatory Emissions Performance Standards for buildings in Toronto.

TEA submitted a letter to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee that commends City Staff’s work on finding solutions for retrofitting Toronto’s existing building stock.

TEA submitted a letter to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee that calls on City Council to safeguard Toronto’s waste diversion results.

TEA submitted a letter to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee about the City of Toronto's efforts to carry out a consumption-based emissions inventory for both community (city-wide) and corporate emissions. 

Last week, thanks to your emails, tweets, and posts, Toronto City Council agreed to move ahead with a set of new funding tools vital to the city’s long-term environmental and financial sustainability.

TEA and our allies sent a letter to the Ontario Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks asking for answers about the Etobicoke chemical spill.

The Canadian government has outlined a plan to make major grocery retailers cut down on the plastic packaging filling store shelves, and offer more groceries in bulk and refillable containers.

This is a big step towards eliminating plastics and single-use packaging.

As a fellow resident of St. James Town, I intimately understood the challenges and discomfort associated with heatwaves.

Less than half of non-alcoholic drink containers in Ontario are collected and recycled in the blue box. This is simply not good enough. Better deposit-return systems could be the solution we need to keep these containers out of landfills.

For the last 8 weeks, TEA’s summer hires, along with the interns at U of T Trash Team and Green Neighbours Network, set out across various neighbourhoods in Toronto to survey restaurants and cafes about their efforts, challenges & understanding of single-use waste reduction.

City Council has voted to ban some of the dirtiest engines on Earth. Now City Staff will put together a plan.

We need to retrofit buildings across Toronto. But far too often, retrofits have been used to justify evictions and steep rental increases. That needs to change.

This month marks a big change in how recycling works in Toronto - though most Torontonians won’t notice a thing.