Item - 2025.IE23.9

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:  

1. City Council direct the Executive Director, Environment, Climate and Forestry, to work with the Chief Communications Officer to incorporate information on climate action into the City's existing and planned public advertising campaigns, where relevant, and by the end of first quarter 2026, to develop a greenwashing statement for publication on the City's website, and to develop a third-party advertiser greenwashing declaration that advertisers would be required to sign as a condition of advertising on City assets.

2. City Council direct the Executive Director, Environment, Climate and Forestry, to include in the City’s public greenwashing statement and on the City’s website, information on how complaints alleging that advertisements carried on City assets contravene the anti-greenwashing provisions of the Competition Act can be submitted to Competition Bureau Canada, including a link to the Competition Bureau’s complaint form.

This report responds to direction from City Council to report back by the second quarter of 2025 on a policy to decline fossil fuel advocacy advertising on City assets unless:

-  such advertising is consistent with TransformTO; and

-  any claims in the proposed advertisement have been independently verified as substantiated, per section 74.01 of the Competition Act, and paragraph 8 of the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards. 

Concerns were raised in 2024 following reports of Toronto Transit Commission vehicles wrapped in fossil fuel advocacy advertising, as such advertising was "greenwashing" and was counter to the climate goals of TransformTO. Greenwashing is defined as environmental claims that are false, misleading or deceptive, or not adequately and properly tested or substantiated as required.

Staff recommend the following approach, made up of three components, to address potential greenwashing on non-Toronto Transit Commission assets which aligns with a forthcoming report to the Toronto Transit Commission Board of Directors in July 2025. Note that the following approach would not apply to advertising for products or technologies that use fossil fuels, such as vehicles and appliances, among others.

1.  Proactive public information on climate mitigation and resilience that would be incorporated into the City’s existing and planned public campaigns and direct Torontonians to up-to-date, accurate information and helpful actions.

2.  A statement on the City's website, similar to the approach the City took on federal cannabis legislation, reinforcing the Competition Act's new greenwashing provisions (which are already law and must be complied with by all City divisions, agencies, and corporations) that require claims about the environmental benefits of a product, business, or business activity be supported by adequate and proper testing, and in accordance with an internationally recognized methodology. The statement would also reiterate the Competition Bureau's positive "principles for compliance", specifically that environmental claims: be truthful; be adequately and properly tested; be clear and specific; avoid exaggeration; and, where claims are about the future, be supported by a specific and adequate plan.

3.  A proactive third-party advertiser greenwashing declaration that advertisers would be required to sign on a go-forward basis before advertising could be accepted on City property. The declaration component of the approach is designed to mitigate legal risks to the City in the absence of a third-party advertising policy by facilitating a self-screening undertaken by the advertisers.

Taken together, the components of the approach would support and reinforce the Competition Bureau's new greenwashing provisions, underscore the City's concern about the issue of fossil fuel greenwashing and its negative effects, require that third-party advertisers take a proactive approach to prevent greenwashing, and have little to no impact on City advertising revenue given the low percentage of expected fossil fuel advocacy advertising following the implementation of the Competition Bureau's greenwashing provisions in 2024.

The statement on the City's website and the proactive third-party advertiser greenwashing declaration would be implemented by the end of first quarter of 2026, with proactive public information on climate mitigation and resilience incorporated into the City's existing and planned communications on an ongoing basis, where relevant.

This approach would be communicated to all City divisions, agencies, and corporations, to underscore that all advertising or sponsorship proposals must comply with the Competition Act’s new greenwashing provisions for any City-owned property, space or asset (including parks, squares, community centres, events, etc.).

The recommended approach is also consistent with approaches currently being developed by other municipal jurisdictions across Canada, including the City of Ottawa and the City of Montreal.