Dive Brief:

• The City of Toronto issued its first green bond Wednesday, a 300 million Canadian dollar ($228.3 million) offering that will fund projects to fight and adapt to the effects of climate change. Toronto follows Ottawa as the second Canadian city to engage in green financing.
• The proceeds from the bond — which came with the lowest borrowing cost the city has seen for a 30-year bond — will largely go to public transportation and light rail projects, according to the Financial Post. The city said proceeds would also go to air, water and soil pollution control.
• The city on Wednesday also joined the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, working with private partners and other Canadian cities on a public education effort to reduce food waste. Vancouver and Montreal also joined the effort. 

Dive Insight:

The two announcements fit into Toronto's ambitious sustainability goals. In 2017, the city council set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050, with 75% of the city’s energy being renewable by mid-century. The green bond program will allow Toronto to raise necessary funds to build out infrastructure to meet those goals, especially in the realm of transportation.

Ottawa used its CA$102 million ($77.6 million) green bond last year to pay for light rail projects, a way to focus investors around a cleaner form of transportation and help cover the high up-front cost of new infrastructure. The bonds have caught on as a tool for cities and companies to raise money for sustainable projects (Apple offered a $1 billion bond last year to finance clean energy), especially as investors need to meet certain climate goals. According to the Climate Bond Initiative, green bonds hit a record $155.5 billion issuance in 2017.

Joining the food waste initiative is a less direct step to sustainability goals, but addresses a major problem. According to a press statement from Toronto Mayor John Tory, the average Canadian household wastes 140 kilograms (309 pounds) of food a year. The Love Food Hate Waste campaign started in the United Kingdom a decade ago and has been linked to a reduction in consumer food waste of more than 20%. Bringing a similar reduction across Canada would mean serious savings in waste and energy linked to the food system.