Our History and Values

Our History

Since our beginning in 1996, Greenest City has worked with Toronto’s communities to create innovative projects that promote health, support community action, and enhance social and environmental justice in Toronto. Our programs equip and inspire participants of all ages and stages to achieve local solutions that improve the state of the environment.

Greenest City is an award-winning organization that has built a reputation as a trusted community builder within the Parkdale community of Toronto, and maintained our position as a desired project partner among peers, city and province-wide.

Our Values

Diversity

We embrace diversity by recognizing and sharing the knowledge, experience and stories of community members.

Respect

We foster respect for the environment, the community and each other through the actions we take, the programs we run and the way in which we communicate with others.

Personal Growth

We provide the space, support and opportunity for people to learn and take initiative.

Leadership

We recognize leadership comes in many different forms and support community members in the discovery of how they can lead. We encourage community members to set an example for others by sharing their knowledge and learning in culturally and age appropriate ways.

Collaboration

We reach beyond traditional boundaries to collaborate with individuals and groups with environmental, health and social interests.

Righting Relations

Greenest City commits, as a settler-led organization, to work beyond truth and reconciliation with the Indigenous people of Turtle Island and work towards righting relations with the land, insects, and all the beings, and righting relations with the many different Indigenous nations and people who call Tkoronto home.

Our Mission

Greenest City builds healthy, inclusive neighbourhoods through education and empowerment to preserve, protect and improve the environment. We are dedicated to growing good food, sharing good food and connecting people with community and the environment.

Land Acknowledgement

Greenest City is a settler organization. We would like to acknowledge with respect and gratitude that we are on the traditional sacred territory of the Wyandot (Huron-Wendat) people, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Anishinabeg. Particularly, this area is the current treaty territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. 

This land is governed by The Dish with One Spoon Treaty, an agreement originally between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg to peaceably share and care for this land and its resources. The treaty has since expanded to include all people who live on this land, meaning that we are all accountable for upholding the terms and spirit of the treaty. 

Other historical treaties that still apply to this territory are the Two-Row Wampum Treaty and the Toronto Purchase Treaty No. 13. Treaties are ongoing, living documents that require our action and accountability. We are responsible for upholding these treaties as well as implementing the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

Today, the meeting place of Toronto - from the Kanienʼkéha (Mohawk) word Tkaronto - remains the home of many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island. We are grateful for the opportunity to live and work on this land.