The City of Ottawa kicked off its environment week activities today by announcing that it has teamed up with Zerofootprint to launch Zerofootprint Ottawa.

Ottawa – Councillor Peter Hume, Chair of the City’s Environmental Services Committee, joined David Pasieka, the President and Chief Operating Officer of Zerofootprint, to unveil a website designed to help Ottawa residents fight climate change.

“Each of us has the opportunity to minimize the environmental impact of our day-to-day activities,” said Mayor Larry O’Brien. “Together, we can make a difference as we work to protect Ottawa’s position as one of the cleanest and greenest cities in the world.”

Zerofootprint Ottawa (www.ottawa.zerofootprint.net) is an interactive website that lets residents, businesses, neighbourhood and community groups measure, track and reduce their carbon footprint. The partnership provides free access to the Zerofootprint Ottawa’s web-based carbon calculator and social network. The community-wide initiative engages individuals and organizations in the fight against climate change and provides information and services that help residents take action to combat global warming.

“We’re excited to help residents and businesses in our nation’s capital fight climate change,” commented Deborah Kaplan, the Executive Director of Zerofootprint. “Zerofootprint Ottawa will let people create groups around green goals and track their success at reducing their carbon emissions,”

Zerofootprint Ottawa is part of the Zerofootprint Cities campaign, which was unveiled at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in May 2007. The Zerofootprint website is one more tool to empower residents, businesses and communities across Ottawa to take action on climate change. Engaging citizens in cities across North America, and around the world, is an important part of a global solution.

The partnership with Zerofootprint adds no cost to the City. However, it will allow Ottawa residents and businesses to help Council meet its initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.

For more information:

Media contact
City of Ottawa: 613-580-2450

Zerofootprint: Deborah Kaplan, Executive Director 416-365-7557 ext. 122