Case studies: 2020 Sustainable Communities Award winners

Municipal and community buildings

Land Use

Factsheets: Working with nature to improve infrastructure project outcomes

Learn how you can integrate nature-based solutions into your community’s infrastructure project planning

Community efficiency financing

Land Use

Webinar recording: Making sustainable land use decisions in your municipality

Watch our webinar to explore tools for sustainable land use decision-making. Learn to assess financial and climate impacts and apply practical strategies for your municipality.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Webinar recording: Accelerate your community’s net-zero transformation with new GMF funding

Watch our webinar to discover how GMF’s new funding can help you upgrade infrastructure and reduce local GHG emissions.

Zero-emission vehicles

Transportation

Futureproofing multifamily buildings for EV charging

This report outlines how Canadian decision-makers can support futureproofing of multifamily buildings and ensure all residents can access EV charging at home.

Land Use

Toolkit: Making sustainable land use decisions in your municipality

Solutions for Canadian communities to achieve significant GHG emissions reductions in buildings and meet long-term sustainability objectives.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy | Housing

Webinar recording: How to get a project started, tips for small francophone communities

If you’re a small francophone municipality looking to develop sustainability projects and access funding, watch this webinar to learn how others overcame common challenges.

Waste

Webinar recording: Net-Zero Circularity: Procurement

Watch this webinar recording to see how circular procurement can help put the principles of a circular economy into action.

Webinar recording: Become a Climate Champion for Your Community

Watch this webinar recording to see how community climate champions face unique challenges in their role as they drive forward new ideas, mobilize partners, build relationships, and make tough decisions.

Water

Webinar Recording: Sustainable municipal water management

Watch the webinar recording to discover current trends and research on the importance of sustainable municipal water management.

Land Use

Learning Journey: Brownfields Redevelopment in your community

Find out how to rehabilitate and redevelop brownfields

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

Webinar recording: Removing funding and policy barriers to municipal fleet electrification

Watch this recording to learn how to electrify your municipal fleet of vehicles, reduce GHG emissions and build a healthier community.

Waste

Resources: Strengthening your municipality’s circular economy initiatives

Find case studies, exercises and worksheets to help your municipality reduce waste and strengthen its circular economy initiatives.

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

Webinar recording: Expert advice on electric vehicles for municipalities

Watch this webinar recording to hear from industry experts and municipal staff who have already embraced electrification on lessons learned and how to overcome common challenges.

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

Article series: How communities across Canada are electrifying their municipal fleets

This article series features inspiring ideas and projects being implemented in Canadian cities and towns of all sizes. Each article explores an innovative approach to electrifying municipal fleets.

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

Kingston overcomes fleet electrification barriers by adopting a leasing model

Confronted with financial, technological and policy barriers to electrification, the city developed a proactive strategy around a leasing policy to build their EV fleets. Discover how leasing can ease supply chain issues and support electrification until advanced EV technology becomes available in the market. This article is part of a series called Electrifying municipal vehicles.

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

Calgary scales its electric fleets to reduce transportation emissions

When municipal staff was tasked with incorporating hybrid and fully electric vehicles into the municipal fleet, they encountered a variety of procurement, operational and process barriers. Learn how they broke through these barriers and acquired more than 30 EVs in 3 years to create one of the fastest growing EV fleets in western Canada. This article is part of a series called Electrifying municipal vehicles.

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

West Vancouver overcomes fleet charging barriers by upgrading the electrical capacity of municipal facilities

Facing common roadblocks related to lack of charging infrastructure? Learn how the city overcame these barriers by conducting a full electrical system update of two key municipal facilities and installing chargers for existing and future EVs. This article is part of a series called Electrifying municipal vehicles.

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

Webinar recording: How to electrify your municipal fleet

Learn how to electrify your municipal fleet of vehicles, leading to reduced GHG emissions and healthier communities.

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

Priority Municipal Actions to Enable Zero Emission Vehicle Adoption

GMF and Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3) collaborated to create six priority municipal actions to accelerate zero emission vehicle adoption.

Land Use

Webinar recording: Benefits of integrated intensification for sustainable community development

This webinar teaches participants how land use decisions are tied to the fiscal health of a municipality and its ability to achieve climate targets.

Waste

Webinar recording: How to start the conversation about circular economies in your municipality

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

Video: The ongoing story of Banff’s hybrid bus fleet project

Listen to Michael Hay, Manager of Environment & Sustainability telling the story of Banff’s hybrid bus fleet

Water

Video: Yorkton meets their feasibility study goals by valuing community involvement

Glenda Holmes, Water Works Manager, explains how a feasibility study helped the City of Yorkton ramp up the environmental benefits of its new water treatment plant by treating the wastewater it produced.

Land Use

Video: new purpose for a 20-year-old brownfield site

Tara Tran, Senior planner, shares tips on how to sustain your efforts and progress in brownfield (or others) projects.

Municipal fleet electrification

Transportation

Video: New electric vehicle-sharing system reduces emissions and generates revenue

Six municipalities in Quebec have added electric vehicles to their fleets and made them available to residents through a car-sharing system.

Energy | Housing

Webinar recording: Take your project from study to capital

Watch this webinar recording and discover how others have successfully converted studies into a capital project that provides social, economic and environmental benefits.

Energy

Webinar recording: The 5 keys to a green municipal project business case

Watch this webinar recording and discover the five critical focus areas you need to address to get your project started, from financing and partnerships to integrating a triple-bottom-line approach.

Waste

Circular Cities & Regions Initiative

Interested in learning more about how the circular economy can come to life in cities and regions? Review the CCRI webinar recordings featuring speakers from leading organizations and global cities.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmaps

GMF's Brownfield Roadmaps provide a detailed overview of the process of bringing contaminated or abandoned sites back into productive use in your province or territory.

Energy | Housing

Webinar recordings: Best practices in municipal sustainability

How are cities and communities of all sizes tackling their environmental challenges? Find out from our five-part webinar series on innovations and opportunities in municipal energy, waste, water, transportation and land use initiatives.

Waste

Report: Solid waste management in Canadian municipalities

Expanding responsibility for producers to include the post-consumer stage of their products is a key solution for financial and environmental sustainability in the waste sector.

Land Use

Report: Sustainable land use practices in Canadian municipalities

A snapshot of emerging trends, key issues and best practices in sustainable land use.

Water

Report: Water management trends in Canadian municipalities

A snapshot of existing and emerging water management trends, best practices and opportunities for innovation.

Land Use

Guide: LiBRe best practices framework

The LiBRe program is structured around a best practices framework for becoming a municipal leader in brownfield renewal.

Land Use

Guide: Getting started on your brownfield sites

Discover how to raise awareness and secure a formal commitment to support brownfield redevelopment in your municipality. Read the guide.

Land Use

Guide: Developing a municipal brownfield inventory

Free guidebook. 10 steps to creating your brownfield inventory. Libre Guidebook series.

Land Use

Guide: How to create and implement a brownfield strategy

Land Use

Guide: Building partnerships for brownfield renewal in your municipality

Transportation

Webinar recording: Engaging students to increase public transit ridership

Watch our webinar recording and discover tools, resources and inspiration your municipality can use to develop an initiative that gets more students riding public transit.

Transportation

Guide: Engaging students to increase public transit ridership

This guide provides step-by-step information and tools for building a partnership between your municipality and school boards, engaging stakeholders and implementing a student transit pass program.

Waste

Webinar recordings: Plastic waste management solutions for Canadian municipalities

Watch our webinar recordings to see how your Canadian municipality can reduce and better manage your plastic waste through innovative solutions and approaches.

Transportation

Guide: 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards project guide: Transportation – Kingston

Learn how to apply the best practices and strategies used by Kingston, ON, one of our 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards transportation co-winners.

Waste

Guide: 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards project guide: Waste

Learn how to implement the best practices and strategies used by Kitimat-Stikine, BC, our 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards waste winner.

Transportation

Guide: 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards project guide: Transportation – Montreal

Learn how to apply the best practices and strategies used by Montreal, QC, one of our 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards transportation co-winners.

Water

Guide: 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards project guide: Water

Learn how to implement the best practices and strategies used by Okotoks, AB, our 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards water winner.

Land Use

Guide: 2018 Sustainable Communities Awards project guide: Brownfields

Energy | Housing

Webinar recording: How to prepare a GMF capital project application

Need advice for preparing your GMF capital project funding application? Watch our webinar recording to hear tips from our staff and find out what reviewers are looking for.

Land Use

Guide: Evaluate and improve your municipal brownfield programs

See how two communities benefit from evaluating their brownfield programs and find tips you can use in your municipality to enhance your offering.

Land Use

Tool: Benefits of Sustainable Brownfield Activities

Cleaning up contaminants and redeveloping a brownfield site can bring communities a number of environmental, economic and social benefits. You can achieve even greater benefits by incorporating sustainable approaches throughout the site remediation and risk management activities.

Land Use

Tool: Sustainable Remediation and Risk Management Options

Any technique that remediates or manages the risk of contamination at a site has an environmental benefit as it eliminates or reduces exposure to contaminants. Some techniques, however, are more sustainable than others.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Yukon

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Manitoba

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the process, learn about the legislative framework and find funding for redeveloping brownfields in Manitoba.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Ontario

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the process, learn about the legislative framework and find funding for redeveloping brownfields in Ontario.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Nunavut

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the process, learn about the legislative framework and find funding for redeveloping brownfields in Nunavut.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Alberta

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the process, learn about the legislative framework and find funding for redeveloping brownfields in Alberta.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Nova Scotia

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the processes, legislative framework and funding for redeveloping brownfields in Nova Scotia.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Newfoundland and Labrador

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the processes, legislative framework and funding for redeveloping brownfields in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: British Columbia

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the process, learn about the legislative framework and find funding for redeveloping brownfields in BC.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Prince Edward Island

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the processes, legislative framework and funding for redeveloping brownfields in Prince Edward Island.

Land Use

Tool: Finding Remediation Service Providers

Get a sense of the services required at different project stages and find providers using various directories.

Land Use

Tool: Sustainable Site Assessments

You can use various techniques to find out whether a suspected brownfield site contains contaminated soil or groundwater.

Land Use

Case study: Ladysmith Waterfront Brownfield Study

The Town of Ladysmith commissioned three studies of contamination at a former industrial site on its waterfront, to review options for remediation.

Land Use

Phase II Environmental Site Assessment and Remedial Action Plan, Cooper Site

As part of a plan to build a University of Waterloo satellite campus next to its downtown core, the City of Stratford completed a Phase II Environmental Site Assessment and Remedial Action Plan for the Cooper Site, a 7-hectare former industrial site.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Quebec

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the process, learn about the legislative framework and find funding for redeveloping brownfields in Quebec.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: Northwest Territories

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the process, learn about the legislative framework and find funding for redeveloping brownfields in Northwest Territories.

Land Use

Tool: Sustainable remediation

Almost every Canadian municipality is home to a brownfield site.

Land Use

Webinar recording: How to build partnerships to help revitalize your brownfields

Waterfronts were once bustling engines of a past industrial economy; some now sit vacant — void of the productivity that once supported their communities.

Water

Guide: Best practices for scoping a wastewater upgrade project

Get your wastewater project off to a successful start with these best practices in defining project scope and engaging stakeholders. Part one in a three-part article series.

Water

Guide: Lessons in planning and designing a wastewater plant upgrade

Learn how to avoid one of the most common mistakes in wastewater plant upgrade projects: insufficient planning and analysis. Part two in a three-part article series.

Water

Guide: Tips for the building phase of a wastewater plant upgrade

Discover four practices that will help make the procurement, construction and start-up phase of your project a success. Part three in a three-part article series.

Waste

Six sustainability ideas that have gone mainstream in Canada: Article series

In a series of six articles, we explore inspiring projects and sustainability solutions being implemented in cities and towns of all sizes across Canada.

Land Use

Webinar recording: Fostering brownfield redevelopment

Learn best practices in brownfield revitalization you can apply in your municipality, and understand FCM's brownfield funding opportunities and resources.

Water

Tool: Checklist for a successful wastewater treatment plant upgrade

Follow this checklist based on best practices to help ensure success and address key issues during each phase of your project.

Water

Article series: Tips for a successful wastewater treatment plant upgrade

Implement a successful wastewater treatment plant upgrade with help from this series of three articles packed with best practices from GMF-funded projects. Read the articles.

Land Use

Tool: Evaluation tools for sustainable remediation and risk management

Browse through a range of tools to help you evaluate your options and compare potential benefits.

Land Use

Brownfield Roadmap: New Brunswick

Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the processes, legislative framework and funding for redeveloping brownfields in New Brunswick.

Land Use

Report: Leadership in Brownfield Renewal Program Annual Review

Discover brownfield redevelopment initiatives and advancements in Canadian municipalities made during the Leadership in Brownfield Renewal program's inaugural year.

Land Use

Webinar recording: Ideas to move brownfield projects forward

Join this webinar to get practical ideas for working with partners and community groups to bring abandoned properties back into productive use.

Water

Webinar recording: Wastewater best practices, strategies and solutions

Watch the webinar recordings from our three-part, online workshop series on wastewater best practices, strategies and solutions for Canadian municipalities.

Waste

Guide: Sustainable Neighbourhood Development

This guide, Sustainable Neighbourhood Development: Practical Solutions to Common Challenges, is designed to help you re-imagine your municipality's approach to planning, development and regulation.

Land Use

Guide: Promoting brownfield programs and opportunities in Canada

Read this step-by-step guide to marketing brownfield redevelopment opportunities to local developers and property owners.

Water

Webinar recording: Optimizing your wastewater treatment plant

Join our webinar to learn proven practices to help you identify ways to optimize your existing wastewater treatment resources. Speakers from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and the Grand River Conservation Authority will share lessons learned that you can apply in your municipality.

Transportation

Webinar recording: Solutions to municipal sustainability challenges

Watch our webinar recordings to learn how you can address sustainability challenges in waste management, transportation and asset management in your municipality.

Land Use

Webinar recording: Introduction to the brownfield redevelopment process

Watch this webinar recording for an introduction to the process of developing a brownfield site in your community, from the environmental assessment to site remediation.

Land Use

Guide: Tendering a municipal brownfield project

Conducting an efficient tendering process is a key step in managing a successful brownfield redevelopment project.

Water

Webinar recording: Managing stormwater through low impact development

Learn how to use green stormwater infrastructure, or low impact development, as an affordable alternative to grey stormwater infrastructure in your community.