Just launched: Carbon Emissions Inventory 2024

Grants

We fund high impact climate solutions to create low-carbon, equitable cities.

Measurable reductions in carbon emissions

Scale or Replication Potential

Alignment with equity principles

Qualified leadership

Get in touch

You don't have to call yourself a climate organization to do climate work.

If your work directly with, or intersect with, climate reductions you may be a strong fit.

Already doing climate work?

Core Applicants

We want to hear from municipalities, nonprofits, and registered charities working on large-scale carbon reduction.

Working on adjacent issues?

Adjacent Applicants

Organizations focused on housing, health, workforce, or economic development can be a strong fit when the work intersects with emissions reductions.

TAF support included

Partnership Model

Beyond funding, grantees gain access to TAF’s networks, measurement support, and opportunities to scale proven solutions across the GTHA.

We Focus on Promising Intersections

Looking for potential to scale across communities or sectors and align with equity values.

Energy Efficiency
Renewable Energy
Equity
Community Engagement
Building emissions performance standards
Policy + Advocacy
EV Charging + Transportation
Embodied Carbon
Air Quality

Measurement

GHG Carbon Explainer

  • We invest in companies that cut emissions. They scale. Emissions drop.

  • We measure the result — tonnes reduced, capital mobilized, co-benefits delivered — and that's a Carbonstone.

  • The methodology follows international GHG Protocol standards and tracks impact over a 20-year horizon.

What makes a strong application

Beyond meeting eligibility requirements we're interested in leverage, not just delivery.

  • Impact

    Clear theory of change connecting the work to broader systems change.

  • Science

    A well-planned and evidence-based approach.

  • Delivery

    A capable team positioned to deliver.

  • Capital Mobilisation

    Show how TAF's funding can bring additional funders towards low-carbon activity.

Work with us

High-impact climate solution?

Two grants, one standard: Does it cut emissions?

Concept Development Grant

For promising ideas that need refining before they're ready for a full proposal. Concept grants often lead to Standard Grant applications.

  • Research & development
  • Testing feasibility
  • Building evidence
  • Developing models

Standard Grant

We're comfortable funding any part of the process as long as there's clarity on the path to broader impact.

  • Implementation, scaling, and replication of climate solutions
  • From early-stage to scale up
  • Multi-Year applications welcome
How to apply

Not sure? Most of our partnerships begin with a conversation.

Low Carbon, High Impacts

A chamber of commerce, a YMCA, and a community alliance walk into a climate fund.

GHG Reductions Through Industrial Waste Heat Diversion

Hamilton Chamber of Commerce

Industrial emissions account for roughly 68% of Hamilton's total emissions, unlike in most GTHA cities.

The Chamber of Commerce partnered with local manufacturers, McMaster University, and the City of Hamilton to map waste-heat sources from steel manufacturing in the Bayfront Industrial Area and assess the feasibility of diverting that heat to warm nearby buildings.

TAF's Take

Waste heat recovery can unlock deep industrial emissions cuts while strengthening local partnerships across sectors.

Standard Grant $189,500

What we do in a year

All Grant recipients

15

Avg grantees per year

$1.5 M

Avg per year

$109,500

Median Grant Size

The grants we made in the nineties are still eliminating 20,000 tonnes a year.

TAF's first major project — upgrading Toronto's street and lane lighting — continues to reduce carbon emissions by 20,000 tonnes each year. An early grant helped build the Exhibition Place solar plant, the largest in Canada at the time. Eight grants to the Ontario Clean Air Alliance helped shut down every coal-fired power plant in the province. And over eight years, $335,000 built Smart Commute from a pilot into what is now a regional Metrolinx program.

Long bets on systemic change. That's still how we work.

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