Item - 2025.EX20.8

The Executive Committee:

1. Received the report (January 14, 2025) from the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for information.

The City of Toronto created positive impact across key Environment, Social, and Governance ("ESG") priorities in 2023, demonstrating commitment, innovation and transparency, through the performance disclosure and consideration of ESG risks and opportunities in the Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance Report ("ESG Report") contained in Attachment 1. The objective of the ESG Report is to communicate ESG commitments, define targeted outcomes, and to account for progress towards sustainability, positive socioeconomic outcomes and good governance, as well as demonstrating transparency, accountability, participation, responsiveness, progress measurement and leadership.

Climate action and ESG factors have established significant importance and gained attention globally in both private and public sectors. Numerous organizations are now measured on successfully managing ESG-related risks and opportunities. Corporations are formally assessed on their ESG impact and many public entities have yet to follow this practice. This ESG Report offers a snapshot of ESG performance and opportunity to reflect on improvements that can be made to City plans, actions and initiatives to successfully manage ESG risks and opportunities going forward. ESG factors are increasingly being incorporated in the risk assessments of Toronto's credit rating agencies, insurance companies and by investors. As this becomes standard practice, it is important to address ESG factors appropriately and with a sense of urgency.

This report includes key ESG highlights and achievements. Toronto continues to build and implement an integrated ESG approach, with responsible practices embedded across the organization to build a sustainable, transparent and resilient foundation in order to continue developing a government that is transparent, accountable, sustainability responsible, socially conscious, and minimizes ESG risks. This approach ensures progress is established on the commitments made to achieve ESG priorities.