Thanks to a new scheme called ‘Live Green Toronto’, Citizens in the Canadian city can now apply for subsidies if they take part in environmental initiatives designed to reduce the city’s overall carbon emissions.<br/><br/>

On the official website, David Miller, City Mayor, outlines the thinking behind the scheme:<br/><br/>

“Living green. Here in Toronto, it’s more than a trend; it’s becoming a way of life…<br/><br/>

…As you may have heard, Toronto has targeted an 80% reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It’s an ambitious target, and we’re rising to the challenge. To reach our target we not only need to take big, bold steps as a local government, we also need every resident of Toronto to take action in their home and in their neighbourhood.<br/><br/>

The Live Green Toronto program is designed to inspire and support every resident who wants to do something right now to make Toronto an even greener city.”<br/><br/>

It is reported that an estimated $20 million is available for the project over the next five years.<br/><br/>

Any potential projects will be moderated by ‘Community Animators’, who will work with city officials, but will not technically be civil servants. They will work with the public to help improve on their original plans, and will award initial payments of between $1000 and $25,000 for each accepted idea. The cost is proportional to the size and impact of the project.<br/><br/>

Once ideas are accepted, their inventors can apply for full grants to have the systems implemented. These begin at $25,000, and rise to $250,000.<br/><br/>

Plans have already been accepted for a city-wide plantation of neighbourhood trees, and a solar heated water system.<br/><br/>

The ‘Live Green Toronto’ program is certainly a refreshing approach to climate control. With its impetus on the city’s citizens, it is looking to develop a sustainable future in the only place where it can be truly sustained: the general public. With ordinary people on board, the city of Toronto will find it easier than most to make the complicated switch to renewable and sustainable energy.<br/><br/>

Indeed the city’s officials recognise that encouragement is the key to success, and each year announce the ‘Green Toronto Awards’; a recognition of the work performed each year by citizens and companies based in the city.<br/><br/>

With it’s catchy slogan, “Winter, spring, summer, fall…Who’s the greenest of them all? You tell us!”, the competition can now work with the ‘Live Green Toronto’ program to in the first instance encourage eco-friendliness, but on the second count, reward it. Because the city officials know that - for such a public led system to work - it has to keep up a continual enthusiasm for the project.<br/><br/>

And City Mayor David Miller is keen to see the project copied in city’s and towns across the globe. If it succeeds, perhaps it will. If it does, it could mark a bold new step in the relationship between people and their governments when it comes to tackling global warming.<br/><br/>

Chris Woolfrey is the Carbon Emissions expert at EcoSwitch The environmental social network.

Is it easier to have a bunch of people that are brand new to a
team, or one that you mould from those you inherit?

In my business life I only had the latter. An existing group of
employees, in each business who I had to work with, from each
new day one. Never a new set that I could grow for myself.

There are different challenges in each case.

With an existing team you have to challenge and change ideas and
behaviours set in their ways, unchallenged, sometimes for years.
You run the risk that they have had poor experiences of what
good quality performance is - or, as they say, what ‘good looks
like’. This may not be good at all - not necessarily their fault
though as no-one showed them differently!

In every business management I had, the outgoing manager was
either leaving the business, retiring or being demoted. In one
store I managed I was the first manager to be promoted out of
there since the war!

That meant that whilst I had the numbers in place with some
experience, it was quite a challenge to ensure that they came on
board quickly, with what my own ideas of good performance and
business delivery were.

Like a new football manager, I had to gradually change the
personnel until they fit the team I wanted, with the exception
of those who were prepared to change and develop. However, there
were rare opportunities to transfer anyone out and definitely
not for a fee. Occasionally someone might seriously transgress
(like the supervisor who, I found out, regularly sent her staff
out to the supermarket to do her weekly food shop for her - in
business time - I demoted her to the ranks and she never showed
up again!).

In developing a new team from scratch, the challenges are still
significant. Their skills and understanding of organisational
processes can be lacking, especially if new recruits to the
organisation. Yet these individuals aren’t tarnished with poor
behaviours, inherited from past underperforming models in the
management hierarchy.

The easiest? I don’t know, as I never had a brand new team. Yet,
in both cases, it is vital to set in stone standards that are
clearly stated and as rigid as necessary to deliver the quality
outputs the business needs. In both cases it is vital that the
incoming manager is able to be the best example possible.

Then sticking firmly to the path, with consistency, fairness as
well as building trusting relationships is the only way to
success. There will be ups and downs, with failures and
omissions, but this will guide you through successfully in the
end.

With such a template, both types of team will work well and
deliver outstanding results.