Item - 2023.IE6.6

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council direct the Director, Environment and Climate in consultation with Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, General Manager, Children's Services, General Manager, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, General Manager, Seniors Services and Long-Term Care, Chief Procurement Officer, Purchasing and Materials Management and Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to report on Toronto's next consumption-based emissions inventory in 2027, following the release of the 2026 Canadian Census and recommend methods that consumption-based emissions can be meaningfully measured to assist with future target setting.

2. City Council direct the Director, Environment and Climate to include in future reports progress and actions in meeting Toronto Cool Food Pledge and the C40 Good Food Cities Declaration commitments.

3. City Council direct the Director, Environment and Climate to include updates on Toronto's progress in meeting the Toronto Cool Food Pledge and the C40 Good Food Cities Declaration commitments in the annual TransformTO Net Zero Status Updates.

4. City Council direct the General Manager, Environment and Climate, in consultation with the Chief Purchasing Officer, to report back to Infrastructure and Environment Committee in the first quarter of 2024 with recommendations on whether Toronto should adopt a policy on Plant-based purchasing savings for City and climate, comparable to a program in the City of Vancouver.

Overview of consumption-based emissions inventory

A consumption-based emissions inventory estimates the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing, transporting, using and disposing of goods and services consumed by a particular community or entity in a given time frame (e.g., typically one year). Similar to calculations that estimate a household's carbon footprint, consumption-based emissions focus on consumers. The emissions associated from the purchases of goods and services by Toronto residents, such as the food that appears on supermarket shelves, consumer goods purchased at a department store or larger items like personal vehicles are captured by a consumption-based emissions inventory.  Typically, for these products and services, the majority of greenhouse gas emissions are generated outside of Toronto's geographic boundary because many of them are not produced in Toronto. 

Complementary to consumption-based emissions inventory, a sector-based emissions inventory [1] measures the greenhouse gases attributable to emissions generating activities taking place within the geographic boundary of the city, as well as some indirect emissions from waste produced in the city, and transmission of electricity into the city boundary in a given time period (typically one year).  When examining where enhanced impact can be achieved that reduce emissions from both consumption and sector-based inventories, transportation (specifically purchasing vehicles and associated gasoline consumption) and natural gas usage present as the greatest opportunities for residents and businesses to reduce emissions through actions that support non-automobile low carbon transportation modes like walking, cycling and taking transit.

Report overview and key findings

This report outlines Toronto's inaugural consumption-based emissions inventory. It provides three different baseline points for the year 2019 - community-wide, corporate and a subcategory of corporate emissions that account for the food that the City procures and serves through three key City Divisions.  This report also provides observations from an additional analysis on emissions from embodied carbon found in buildings and linear infrastructure which is an emerging issue and opportunity for local government action. 

In summary, the key findings of the baseline year for 2019 are:

- Toronto’s community-wide consumption-based emissions were roughly 39 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. When compared to Toronto's sector-based emissions inventory, the emissions related to consumption were 2.5 times greater[2] than sector-based emissions reported in 2019 (15.6 megatonnes).  With 1,141,709 households in the city, this equates to approximately 34 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per-household. For reference, the Canadian average for consumption-based emissions was estimated at about 37 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per-household.

- There are five main categories that constitute Toronto's consumption-based inventory: food, transportation, services, housing, and goods. Among these categories, food accounts for the majority of consumption-based emissions. The food category includes all food consumed by Toronto residents, broken down by meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and other foods consumed at home as well as eating out. Consumption-based emissions from food capture the production, transport, sale, and preparation of food. This includes emissions from fertilizer use, livestock farming, operation of trucks and other equipment, building construction and operation, and fuel used in refrigeration and cooking (for food prepared outside the home, including eating out).

- Toronto’s corporate consumption-based emissions inventory was 2.4 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and is about six per cent of the total community-wide consumption-based emissions. The largest sources of corporate emissions were from construction and maintenance, utilities, and transportation. Among City Divisions, Agencies, and Corporations, the Toronto Transit Commission, Toronto Water, and Transportation Services were the greatest sources of consumption-based emissions, driven heavily by their significant expenditures on capital projects. Toronto's corporate consumption-based emissions inventory captures all emissions associated with the activities of the corporation including goods and services procured for City Divisions, Agencies, and Corporations. The corporate consumption-based emissions inventory excludes emissions from non-City entities, such as residents, businesses, or other non-municipal government institutions. In addition, it does not include emissions associated with employee commuting.  A corporate consumption-based emissions inventory is important because it allows for a more comprehensive review of all greenhouse gas emissions that can potentially be reduced by local government.

- The procurement of food for municipally-delivered programs was 46 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent which is about two per cent of the total corporate consumption-based emissions inventory. Of those emissions, nearly half were from beef and lamb consumption, which comprised only three per cent of total food purchased by weight. Seniors Services and Long-Term Care, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, and Children’s Services, procure and serve seven million meals for the year 2019 amounting to approximately 3,000 tonnes of food.

- The complementary 2019 Buildings and Linear Infrastructure Emissions Analysis  found that construction and maintenance of buildings and linear infrastructure (such as roads, railways and water infrastructure) in Toronto accounted for 1,513 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Of this total, buildings comprised 1,065 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, while linear infrastructure comprised 448 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent; however, these findings include some overlap with calculations from the community and corporate-wide inventories and therefore should be understood as part of the context of those two other consumption-based emissions inventories.

Future consumption-based emissions inventory reporting

consumption-based emissions inventories are developed using a wide range of data from local, national, and international sources. These data inform computer models that are used to predict consumer behavior and their corresponding impacts from material consumption. However, due to limited data availability, the data sources and models used in Toronto's consumption-based emissions inventory were based upon United States data.

Because of the current limitations on data availability and evolving consumption-based emissions inventory methodology[3], it is recommended that Toronto's next consumption-based emissions inventory be produced in 2027, following the release of the 2026 national census when data will be comparable to the 2019 consumption-based emissions inventory for progress monitoring.

Nevertheless, the findings of Toronto's inaugural consumption-based emissions inventory can still be incorporated into policy, program and project activities across the City. The information in the report could be used to consider near term policy- or category-specific targets, or even set targets based upon readily available, actionable data that indicate changes in consumption-based emissions without directly monitoring those emissions (“actionable data indicators” or ADI).

For instance, work has already been initiated specific to food-related emissions as part of the City's commitment to reduce the emissions from the food that it procures.  In 2019, the City of Toronto became a signatory of the World Resources Institute's Cool Food Pledge and pledged to decrease emissions from public food procurement by 25 per cent by 2030 relative to 2019 levels.  It is therefore recommended that the City continue to calculate and report on an annual basis to the Cool Food Pledge and C40 on progress towards Toronto's food procurement-related commitments and to summarize Toronto's progress on the City's website with identification of the actions taken yearly to reach the 2030 goal.  This information can be analyzed as part of Toronto's 2027 consumption-based emissions inventory report. 

With respect to building emissions, in 2022, City Planning updated the Toronto Green Standard Version 4 which applies to new buildings and included revisions in the "Embodied Emissions in Materials" performance measures which apply to the emissions produced by materials used to construct buildings and limit these emissions to 350 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per square metres for Tier 2 mid-high rise, non-residential buildings and City-owned facilities and 250 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per square metres for Tier 3 mid-high rise and non-residential buildings (2023.PH3.19).  Both Environment and Climate and City Planning will continue to refine and adjust actions being taken to address embodied carbon in buildings as further refinement and studies become available.

While methodologies and practices for tracking consumption-based emissions is a nascent field, it shows potential for unique opportunities to support local government in future with developing targets, policies, and programs that can help shift Toronto residents towards more responsible production and consumption of goods and services in order to reduce Toronto's global carbon footprint.

[1) https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/8e55-2020-Sector-based-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions-Inventory.pdf
[2] Attachment A: 2019 Community-Wide Consumption-Based Emissions Inventory Report provides call-out boxes to highlight and compare specific categories that appear for both Toronto's consumption-based emissions inventory and sector-based emissions inventory.
[3] In particular, the results calculated from majority of the consumption categories in the report were based on national-level statistical data, including those in the United States. Multiple assumptions were made to estimate local or household-level consumption patterns by Toronto residents.