Community Buildings Retrofit (CBR) initiative

Community Buildings Retrofit (CBR) initiative

GMF’s Community Buildings Retrofit (CBR) initiative exceeded its established funding targets, approving over $18.8 million in loans and $11.4 million in grants in 2023-24, with funding approved for 60 projects in more than 50 municipalities. In the Atlantic region, CBR received the strongest uptake of all GMF offers (44 percent relative to 7 percent of the population).

Meeting municipalities where they are at on their road to net-zero emissions is a central commitment in the CBR initiative. In 2023-24, the maximum amount of funding available to any municipality was increased to $10 million. The majority of the projects approved in 2023 were feasibility studies and building monitoring and analysis grants, both of which are key milestones for communities seeking to improve their operational efficiency and reduce their GHG emissions.

GMF also expanded the CBR offer to include the Community Buildings Retrofit Advisory Service. Delivered by GMF’s Capacity Development team, this free knowledge and skill-building initiative is tailored to each community’s specific needs and designed to help projects achieve their best results. This year, the service worked with 18 participating communities.

How we build capacity: Enhancing expertise through knowledge sharing 

In December 2023, GMF hosted the highest-attended Capacity Development event of Q3. 133 attendees participated in a webinar hosted in collaboration with the Climate Challenge Network, titled Pathways to Net Zero Swimming Pools. The webinar showcased results and lessons from a cohort project involving three Ontario municipalities. This project assessed the feasibility of significantly reducing GHG emissions in community centers with indoor pools. The study found that achieving net-zero carbon emissions in these facilities is both feasible and financially viable using a “net zero over time” approach. 

The webinar highlighted the substantial potential for GHG reductions in indoor swimming pools, which are essential community facilities providing critical social and public health benefits. It demonstrated a replicable approach for other communities to cost-effectively reduce emissions in the short term while planning for deeper reductions over time. The insights from this project are also being shared through a guide titled Taking Your Indoor Swimming Pool to Net Zero – which received over 160 downloads within its first month of being published.