Climate Action and Progress

The City is committed to reducing emissions, building resilience, and creating a more sustainable future. Climate action and adaptation work together to protect Orillia’s future. Explore our targets, plans, and progress to see how we’re taking action, both within our operations and across the community.

Our targets

Cities around the world are setting science-based climate targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and limit global warming. Orillia is proud to be part of this global movement.

“Net-zero” means reducing greenhouse gas emissions as close to zero as possible and balancing any remaining emissions through natural or technological carbon removal. For Orillia, net-zero is achieved primarily through deep emissions reductions across buildings, transportation, energy, and operations.

Community climate targets

The community climate action targets are to reduce community-wide emissions by one-third by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. Reducing emissions across the community is essential.

Corporate climate targets

The corporate climate action target is to reach net-zero emissions across City operations by 2040. Reducing emissions from municipal buildings, fleet vehicles, infrastructure, and energy use.

Climate change adaptation

While reducing emissions is still important, there is a need to address impacts that are already happening and expected to increase. The Climate Change Adaptation Strategy highlights actions to help Orillia stay safe, resilient, and prepared across four key focus areas.

Adaptation helps us manage the impacts of climate change today and prepare for tomorrow. It complements mitigation efforts by ensuring our community remains safe, livable, and economically strong.

The four Adaptation Themes

People and health - Protecting residents from climate-related risks.
Built environment - Ensuring infrastructure and buildings can withstand future climate conditions.
Natural environment - Strengthening natural systems that protect our community.
Energy and economy - Building economic resilience in a changing climate.

Track Orillia's climate change adaptation progress

Community climate action

To reduce community-wide emissions by one-third by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050, Orillia’s Climate Future focuses on three transformative “Big Moves.” Together, these actions address the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in our community: buildings, transportation, and energy.

The three Big Moves

Big Move 1: Local renewable energy - Transitioning to clean, locally generated energy.
Big Move 2: Transportation - Reducing emissions from how we move.
Big Move 3: Buildings - Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings

Supporting actions for long-term success

Additional actions strengthen and enable long-term success. Reducing landfill waste lowers methane emissions while conserving resources and reducing disposal costs and supports a circular economy. Embedding climate action into how the City plans, invests, and makes decisions. Long-term coordination and transparent reporting helps the City stay on track.

Track Orillia's community climate action progress

Corporate climate action

The City of Orillia is committed to achieving net-zero emissions in municipal operations by 2040. The Corporate Climate Action Plan focuses on reducing emissions from City buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure by improving energy efficiency and transitioning to clean energy in a financially responsible way.

Leading by example

Corporate action matters. By leading through action, the City helps reduce long‑term costs, limit exposure to future carbon pricing, and protect public assets from climate‑related risks.

Electrifying the municipal fleet - The City is transitioning light-duty vehicles to electric wherever feasible and preparing for the gradual electrification of medium- and heavy-duty equipment.
Modernizing municipal buildings - Municipal buildings are being upgraded to improve energy performance and reduce heating-related emissions.
Expanding renewable energy - The City is increasing renewable energy generation on municipal facilities and exploring additional clean energy procurement strategies.
Climate-ready infrastructure and procurement - Climate considerations are being integrated into capital planning, infrastructure design, asset management, and procurement decisions.

Track Orillia's corporate climate action progress