Case study: Côte-de-Beaupré Adopts an Integrated, Development Plan

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Aspen Heights: Redefining affordable housing in Saskatoon

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Heartland Housing Foundation: Building a sustainable future in Fort Saskatchewan

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Building a better future: CABN’s net-zero affordable housing pilot

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Pine Tree Park: Transforming affordable housing with energy efficiency and solar power

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Rossland Yards: Transforming affordable housing in Rossland, BC

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy

Transforming communities with Sustainable Affordable Housing: Article series

In a series of six articles, we highlight impactful projects funded by GMF's Sustainable Affordable Housing (SAH) initiative, demonstrating how energy-efficient, community-centered housing can foster resilience and well-being.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

YWCA Banff: Building stability and community through affordable housing

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

Guide: Equity and non-energy benefits of community building retrofits

Explore the equity and other non-energy benefits of retrofitting community buildings.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Regional Energy Coach list

Get in touch with a Regional Energy Coach in your region and start your energy efficiency journey

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.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Webinar recording: The real impact of home-energy efficiency financing

Watch our webinar to discover how you can achieve your climate goals by implementing a home-energy efficiency financing program in your community

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy

Webinar recording: Transform your approach to energy efficiency with the Housing Providers’ Toolkit

Watch the discussion on how to take advantage of the Housing Providers’ Toolkit.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Guide: Taking your indoor swimming pool to net zero

A guide with key measures and lessons learned to help you build a plan for net-zero indoor swimming pools.

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.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Project cash flow calculator

Our energy project calculator is designed to aid housing providers in quantifying the associated costs of sustainable, affordable housing projects. Use the calculator to understand the viability of a potential project and make informed decisions.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Funders list for sustainable affordable housing

Access additional funding sources from across Canada to support your next affordable housing project.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Toolkit: Navigating energy efficient affordable housing projects

Discover a toolkit designed for affordable housing providers aiming to prioritize energy efficiency. This toolkit offers insights into the benefits of energy-efficient housing, addresses unique challenges, and provides practical tools to identify solutions.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Webinar recording: How to start reducing GHG emissions in community buildings

Watch the discussion on how to create a GHG reduction pathway for community buildings.

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.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Factsheets: Community Buildings Retrofit initiative

Learn how to retrofit existing community buildings to lower GHG emissions and extend their life cycle.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Webinar Recording: Enhance comfort and energy savings with municipal building envelopes

Watch this webinar to explore strategies for optimizing municipal building envelopes, enhancing both comfort and energy efficiency.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Webinar recording: Energy efficiency for reaching net zero

Learn how municipalities can advance energy efficiency initiatives to reach net-zero targets.

Energy

Webinar recording: Planning for net-zero emissions

Municipal leaders and experts discuss strategies for achieving net-zero emissions targets and scaling up climate action efforts at the local level.

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.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Video: Durham Region, ON launches novel financing model

A video showcasing innovative and accessible financing options for home-energy upgrades.

Land Use

Learning Journey: Brownfields Redevelopment in your community

Find out how to rehabilitate and redevelop brownfields

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 and community buildings

Energy

Video: Retrofitting community buildings for maximum GHG reduction impact

A short video explaining the pathway approach of retrofitting a building - using an outcomes-oriented approach - to achieve (near) net zero carbon buildings over time.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Community Buildings Retrofit Advisory Service

The CBR Advisory Service is a new service that is intended to help smaller municipalities by matching them to industry leaders who understand best practices in the CBR field and can help provide personalized coaching and advice, including clarified goals, insights, and replicable results.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Community Efficiency Financing market guide

Guide to help Canadian municipalities assess potential home energy upgrade programs

Local energy generation

Energy

Webinar recording: An introduction to district energy

Learn how a centralized heating and cooling system can help your municipality reduce GHG emissions and save money.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Webinar recording: Supporting small and medium municipalities through the Community Buildings Retrofit initiative

Watch this webinar recording to learn about successful examples of completed retrofits, how municipalities can choose the right funding options and to answer any questions about the funding process.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Webinar recording: Affordable housing providers’ impact on energy poverty

The webinar will feature a housing project helping moderate income households while achieving high environmental standards.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Guide: Taking your indoor ice rink to net zero

A practical guide to get you started on your own net zero retrofit plan and to help you develop an actionable roadmap to net zero ice rinks.

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.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy

Understanding energy efficiency: A guide for affordable housing providers

This guide is for affordable housing providers, such as municipalities or housing cooperatives, interested in improving energy efficiency in their buildings.

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 and community buildings

Energy

Webinar: Transitioning ice rinks to net-zero

Learn the basics of building retrofits for facility buildings

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Resource library: Community Buildings Retrofit

Find practical case studies and guidance for planning your local community building retrofit.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Webinar recording: Introduction to local home-energy financing programs

Learn the basics on delivering local financing programs for home-energy upgrades.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Video: Saskatoon delivers Saskatchewan’s first local home-energy financing program

Learn how the City of Saskatoon designed its Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) to help residents retrofit their homes and reduce GHG emissions.

Community efficiency financing

Energy | Housing

Video: Nelson scales up local program to support home-energy upgrades

In this video, Carmen Proctor, Climate & Energy Manager at the City of Nelson, tells the story of the program’s success to date, shares key lessons learned from running the program, and highlights their next steps to scale up the program.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Webinar recording: Asset management and energy conservation

Learn how the non-profit housing sector can integrate energy management into asset management to reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Resources: Community Efficiency Financing

Read guidebooks and case studies to see how municipalities are designing home upgrade financing programs.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Video: Kingston supports homeowners with financing program for energy upgrades

Hear from Julie Salter-Keane, Manager of Climate Leadership at the City of Kingston, as she discusses the City’s program implementation and their approach to designing a strong local program.

Energy

Factsheet: Governance strategies for deep decarbonization

This factsheet provides senior municipal leaders with governance strategies for achieving deep emissions reductions in each decarbonization pathway.

Energy

Factsheet: Governance components for deep decarbonization

This factsheet introduces senior municipal leaders to key components of a good governance structure for deep emissions reductions and implementation actions.

Energy

Factsheet: Municipal governance for deep decarbonization

This factsheet provides senior municipal leaders with the pathways and steps for achieving deep decarbonization and net-zero emissions by 2050.

Energy

Climate Action Accelerator for Community Buildings

Is your municipality looking to drive climate action by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in municipally-owned buildings, but is unsure how to maximize time and impact, secure funding and partnerships, or how to get started? FCM’s Climate Action Accelerator for Community Buildings will help up to 20 small and mid-sized municipalities take climate action within their building portfolios.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Video: 5 keys for sustainable social housing success

Gordon Szaszi, Project Manager Housing Development, shares Niagara Regional Housing (NRH) experience creating the business case for a 67-unit affordable housing development for seniors.

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.

Energy

Video: Tips from Iqualuit’s LEED Silver aquatic centre

In this video, you will learn the key elements and lessons learned that helped Iqaluit succeed on building its energy efficient aquatic centre.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Video: 5 keys for sustainable social housing success

This video walks through the key sections of a successful business case: Needs Assessment, Organizational Readiness, Project Vision and Financials.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Video: New municipal financing program removes barriers to energy-efficiency upgrades for homeowners

Marie-Pierre Paquette discusses how the municipalities of Plessisville, Varennes and Verchères banded together to launch a joint pilot project that would bring energy-efficient home renovations within reach for more homeowners.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Video: Introduction to home energy upgrade programs

Watch this video to learn more about home energy upgrade programs and how they can help municipalities to tackle climate change, save money, and invest in the local economy.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Resources: Sustainable Affordable Housing

Learn how to retrofit existing housing for energy-efficiency and plan new builds for higher performance.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Video: New municipal financing program removes barriers to energy-efficiency upgrades for homeowners

Marie-Pierre Paquette discusses how the municipalities of Plessisville, Varennes and Verchères banded together to launch a joint pilot project that would bring energy-efficient home renovations within reach for more homeowners.

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: How to adapt green municipal projects to stand the test of time

Watch this webinar recording and explore how to build and adapt projects to make them truly sustainable in the long term.

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.

Energy

Introducing GMF’s Community Buildings Retrofit initiative

Discover how GMF can support your community building retrofits, from funding for energy monitoring, building commissioning, studies and capital projects to capacity-building activities and resources.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Video: 1,500 Toronto residents benefit from retrofit initiative

Bryan Purcell, of The Atmospheric Fund, tells the story of how an initiative to perform energy efficiency retrofits of 7 community housing buildings in Toronto achieved so much more.

Energy

Article series: Meet LC3’s climate leaders

Read our article series to get to know the leaders of the Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3) network, and learn how they are advancing effective ways to address climate change in big cities.

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.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

GMF’s Municipal Energy Roadmap

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

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.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Primer for elected officials: Municipal Energy Roadmap

This primer for elected officials outlines how the Municipal Energy Roadmap can help choose the right energy-related solutions for your buildings.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy

Regional Energy Coaches

Regional Energy Coaches help affordable housing providers plan energy efficiency retrofits and new builds.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Webinar recording: Making affordable housing sustainable

Watch this webinar recording to learn about the various forms of grant, loan and capacity building support we offer to help you retrofit existing units or build new ones.

Municipal and community buildings

Energy

Factsheets: Municipal Energy Roadmap

These factsheets offer specific guidance around building-level solutions, community-level solutions, and long-term strategies to help you drill down and meet your objectives.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Webinar recording: How to create an efficiency financing program for your community

An overview of the funding options, eligibility and application details of GMF’s Community Efficiency Financing program.

Community efficiency financing

Energy

Factsheets: Community Efficiency Financing

Learn how to design, deliver and market a home upgrade financing program for your community.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Factsheets: Sustainable Affordable Housing

Learn how to retrofit existing housing for energy-efficiency and plan new builds for higher performance.

Sustainable affordable housing

Energy | Housing

Webinar recording: Apply for GMF’s Sustainable Affordable Housing funding

Watch this joint webinar hosted by the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA to learn how to apply for FCM’s newest funding initiative – Sustainable Affordable Housing.

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.

Energy

Tool for municipal clean energy program development: Use the Energy Poverty and Equity Explorer to reduce energy poverty and greenhouse gases

The Energy Poverty and Equity Explorer tool, developed by Canadian Urban Sustainability Practitioners (CUSP), offers municipalities access to relevant data so they can better understand energy poverty, and other equity and affordability challenges in their communities.

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: How to create and implement a brownfield strategy

Land Use

Guide: Developing a municipal brownfield inventory

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

Land Use

Guide: Building partnerships for brownfield renewal in your municipality

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.

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.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.