FCM’s Sustainable Communities Awards

Award benefits Eligibility Award categories Meet the judges FAQs  Webinar

For 25 years, FCM's Sustainable Communities Awards have celebrated innovative and impactful sustainability initiatives in Canadian cities and communities of all sizes. We honour projects that demonstrate environmental responsibility and excellence while yielding social and economic benefits for communities.

Nominations close on June 28, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Nominate a project 

Award benefits

Increase the profile of your sustainability initiative and make a difference in municipalities across Canada: Nominate a sustainability initiative that can be replicated by others and help municipalities big and small tackle local priorities.  

Attend FCM’s Sustainable Communities Conference 2027, free of charge:

• Receive an award at the award ceremony.
• Give a TED Talk-style presentation at the conference that will be recorded and shared.
• Receive individual coaching on public-speaking and support to deliver your presentation.
• Connect with sustainability leaders from across Canada and discover new ways of approaching sustainability challenges.

Each winning project will receive one (1) complimentary full pass to the conference.

Read more award details on our FAQ page. 

Eligibility

All Canadian municipalities and their partners are eligible to apply for a Sustainable Communities Award. All awards are open to projects that have been started or completed within the last three years (since January 1, 2023). We encourage communities of all sizes from across the country to nominate a project for an award.

Please note that consultants and other partners may apply on behalf of their partner municipality but must indicate at least one contact who works at the municipality.

Find more information on our FAQ page or contact us if you have questions.

Award categories

Applicants are encouraged to apply for the award category that best represents the primary goal or environmental benefits of the initiative. 

Sustainable Transportation

This award recognizes a program or project that demonstrates bold and creative approaches to achieving net-zero transportation systems in Canadian communities of all sizes.

Examples of eligible initiatives:

• Solutions that advance net-zero and climate resilient transportation systems, including new and impactful approaches to transportation demand management that reduce vehicle kilometers travelled and shift modes away from private vehicle ownership (e.g. shared mobility, mobility hubs, congestion pricing, measurement of GHG impacts of mode shifts).  
• Creative or new solutions to advance fleet transitions to zero emission vehicles.  
• Programs or projects that are impactful in increasing access to net-zero transportation options for equity deserving communities.  
• New or creative approaches to planning for integrated mobility, transportation demand management and net-zero transportation.
• Impactful approaches to improving safety and accessibility of active transportation for children and youth.

 

Nominate a project

 

Past winners:

• 2024: An income-tiered pilot program that supports residents in purchasing e-bikes in the District of Saanich, in British Columbia—not only did it reduce emissions, but it helped participants save money in an equitable way, too.
• 2022: A project in the Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine region in Quebec that reduces the need for private vehicles by using Mobility as a Service (MaaS) technology to offer electric car and bike sharing, taxi services and other transport options. This project also included the municipal purchase of EVs.
• 2020: A light rail transit system that connects the three urban centres in the Region of Waterloo, in Ontario, with reliable, fast transportation that helps reduce GHG emissions and car dependency, while increasing investment and development in the rapidly growing region.

Discover how the Green Municipal Fund can support the next steps in your transportation projects with funding through our Municipal Fleet Electrification offers. 

 

Sustainable Buildings

This award recognizes a program or project that demonstrates innovative approaches to decarbonize and increase the resiliency of the buildings where your community lives, works, and plays. While all municipal building types are eligible, we also encourage nominations that contribute to healthier, more efficient, and affordable places to live for members of the community.

Examples of eligible initiatives:  

• New construction of community buildings owned by municipalities and not-for-profit organizations that achieve zero-carbon standards or meet ambitious energy targets through operational carbon reduction measures, efforts to reduce the building’s embodied carbon, grid-friendly design measures, energy efficiency and/or innovation.
  • Ideally, applications will align with the Canada Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Building Standard.
• Sustainable affordable housing projects that demonstrate improvement in housing affordability and/or address energy poverty through energy efficiency.  
• Retrofits that optimize the energy performance and a 35-50% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of community buildings owned by municipalities and not-for-profit organizations through operational carbon reduction measures, efforts to reduce the embodied carbon of the retrofit, energy efficiency, grid-friendly design measures, and innovation.  
• Innovative studies, programs, projects or policies that are significantly reducing emissions toward achieving net-zero targets over time in existing affordable housing and/or municipal buildings, including community-purpose buildings like recreational, cultural and athletic facilities.
• Retrofit projects that include comprehensive resident education programs that aim to reduce GHG emissions.  
• Projects that include innovative partner engagement approaches when undertaking complex retrofits.
• Projects that lower operating costs, which can be utilized for community benefits and the creation of local jobs.

 

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Past winners:

• 2024: Waterloo Region Housing (WRH) completed its first net-zero community housing build, featuring a variety of energy-efficient design elements as well as tenant amenity spaces to foster a sense of community.
• 2022: A group of municipalities from Ontario—Toronto, Brampton, Markham, Barrie, Caledon, Halton Hills and King—teamed up to find the best ways to reduce emissions from ice rink buildings.
• 2022: The City of Hamilton, Ontario, and CityHousing Hamilton transformed a failing 50-year-old apartment tower with 146 units of affordable housing into a landmark building with state-of-the-art performance in energy, health, comfort and accessibility.

 

Discover how the Green Municipal Fund can support your next sustainable building project with funding through our Sustainable Municipal Buildings offers.

 

Community Energy

This award recognizes a program or project that generates or stores energy for community use in an innovative, sustainable way to increase resilience to climate change and lower GHG emissions.

Examples of eligible initiatives:

• Community energy initiatives, like renewable energy generation or district energy solutions that are working towards total decarbonization.
• A project that identifies opportunities for low-carbon community energy systems (including renewable and district energy systems) and develops mechanisms to support implementation, such as innovative financing mechanisms (PACE programs, etc.).  
• Battery storage systems to increase energy security and community resilience.  
• Heat recovery systems (like sewage heat recovery systems) to boost energy resilience.
• Other energy solutions that improve community equity through unique ownership models that involve equity-seeking groups, community profit-sharing or reduced energy poverty.

 

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Past winners:

• 2024: Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, developed an innovative policy and implementation guide for the creation of district energy facilities that convert waste heat from sewage and solid waste into usable energy, which will reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
• 2020: The Town of Raymond, Alberta, installed a series of solar panels that offset 100% of the town’s operational electricity use and saves nearly 700 tonnes of CO2 per year.

 

Discover how the Green Municipal Fund can support energy projects in your community with our Community Energy Systems offers.

 

Climate Adaptation

This award recognizes a program or project that demonstrates innovative and equitable approaches to adaptation and increasing the resiliency of communities to climate change. A comprehensive integration of equity considerations and benefits with climate adaptation planning, operationalization, and/or projects will be factored into scoring.

Examples of eligible initiatives:  

• Adaptation programs or projects that demonstrate best practices on understanding climate risk or contributing to adaptation planning. This can also include updating design standards and principles for municipal buildings to integrate climate resilience features.
• Implementation of adaptation plans and actions into core systems and policies, for example by integrating climate risks into asset management, or embedding adaptation into budget cycles, land-use policies, or other decision-making processes.
• Robust co-creation and consultation of processes that work to better understand the lived experience of equity-deserving communities facing climate impacts.
• Infrastructure projects that reduce climate risk for communities, particularly where equity-deserving communities are prioritized.
• Watershed-scale coordination between local governments to manage flood risk.  
• New or improved municipal services that leave residents less exposed or vulnerable to climate impacts.
• A project that installs or upgrades critical infrastructure to withstand the impacts of climate change. The design should incorporate resilience measures to ensure long-term durability and safety under changing climate conditions.
• Unique financing structures used to accelerate the deployment of climate adaptation solutions.
• Partnerships between local governments and other local actors (i.e. local housing providers, universities, local businesses, insurance firms) that work to manage and reduce climate risk.

 

Nominate a project

 

Past winners:  

• 2024: The Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD) in British Columbia is redeveloping Dyke Road Park by removing failing hard infrastructure and invasive plants in favour of native species and visitor amenities with minimal impact on the surrounding environment, all with input and support from the K’ómoks First Nation.
• 2020: The City of Campbell River, in British Columbia, created an action plan to mitigate the risks of rising sea levels while respecting community values.

 

Discover how the Green Municipal Fund can support climate adaptation projects in your community with our Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation initiative.

 

Biodiversity and Nature-Based Solutions

This award recognizes projects that integrate ecosystems, biodiversity, and nature-based solutions such as watersheds, wetlands, forests, and urban green spaces into municipal asset management, community services, or land-use planning.

Examples of eligible initiatives:

• The implementation of new asset management systems or processes that integrate natural assets or ecosystem services that contribute to the provision of everyday municipal services.
• Initiatives that demonstrate how ecosystems or green infrastructure, including urban forests, provide a climate change resilience benefit.  
• Renewal, protection or creation of natural assets done in a way that restores, protects and increases community resiliency.
• Initiatives that restore and protect local biodiversity and ecosystem health, such as restoration projects of lost natural systems (e.g. “daylighting” streams and rivers).
• Initiatives that demonstrate nature-based solutions as a key part of the local government’s path to net-zero and nature-positive resilience.
• Urban forestry management strategies, reforestation programs and projects that aim to improve the resilience of urban tree canopies.
• Brownfield redevelopment done in a way that restores natural assets and services.
• Land use and developments that recognize and integrate natural systems and biodiversity into their planning.

 

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Past winners:

• 2024: Ville de Longueuil, in Quebec, adopted a plan that aims to expand its protected natural areas by 1,500 hectares to reach 21% of its territory by 2030.  
• 2024: The City of Surrey, in British Columbia, launched a living dyke pilot testing project on Mud Bay, in collaboration with Semiahmoo First Nation and the City of Delta, to protect critical coastal infrastructure and increase biodiversity.
• 2022: A group of partners, including Shawanaga First Nation and the Georgian Bay Biosphere, turned road construction in the Township of The Archipelago, Ontario, into conservation success and saved more than 3,500 turtle eggs.
• 2022: The Alberta municipality of Parkland County completed a project involving mapping, modelling and analysis to better understand the value of ecosystems and build a quantifiable business case for preserving and restoring them not only within their own borders, but across municipal boundaries as well.

Discover how the Green Municipal Fund can support nature projects in your community with our Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation and Growing Canada’s Community Canopies initiatives.

 

Waste

This award recognizes a program or project that focuses on reducing or diverting solid waste or recovering resources in an innovative manner that can possibly be replicated by other municipalities, in the spirit of embracing circularity. 

Examples of eligible initiatives:

• Composting, anaerobic digestion, or other processes to capture value from organic waste.
• Landfill gas capture, mitigation and/or beneficial use.
• Waste diversion programs or projects that use waste as a resource.
• Initiatives that support and foster a circular economy at the local or regional level (ex: circularity in drop-off centers, textile recycling, food waste to feed people, construction waste).
• Energy recovery from composting, wastewater or landfill (geothermal).

 

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Past winners:

• 2024: In Alberta, Strathcona County’s HodgePodge Lodge is a circular economy-focused community hub designed to divert waste from landfill by offering opportunities for reuse. Residents can both donate items and take things they need for free.
• 2022: Communities and waste management teamed up in Quebec’s Lac-Saint-Jean region to create Réemploi+, an organization that is creating a system for waste diversion and reuse while also developing skills training opportunities.
• 2022: The City of Guelph and Wellington County, in Ontario, increased access to affordable food and reduced food waste and emissions by implementing a circular food economy.

Discover how the Green Municipal Fund can support the next steps in your waste management projects with funding through our Organic Waste-to-Energy offers.

 

 

Accelerating Net-Zero Transformation

This award recognizes municipal initiatives that drive deep reductions in community GHG emissions. Winning initiatives will demonstrate a holistic approach that can be replicated in municipalities across Canada. Studies, plans and capital projects that aim to significantly reduce GHG emissions and advance climate action across the municipality will all be considered.

Examples of eligible initiatives:  

• Climate action programs that are driving deep reductions in community-wide GHG emissions, including community energy efficiency financing programs.
• Water conservation programs.
• Municipal integrated planning exercises that seek to significantly reduce GHG emissions while also generating significant co-benefits such as increased resilience, livability and equity.
• Policies, programs or partnerships that seek to replicate or scale up responses to reduce GHG emissions.

 

Nominate a project

 

Past winners:

• 2024: The Town of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, is reducing GHG emissions while tackling energy poverty by using leading-edge energy monitoring technology, an innovative client-oriented navigation program, and comprehensive social support services that address housing insecurity and homelessness.  
• 2022: A group of three small municipalities - Charlottetown and Stratford in P.E.I. and Wolfville, N.S.- teamed up with community interest corporation Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Atlantic to design and launch a regional program that offers financing to homeowners to help them retrofit their houses for better energy efficiency.  
• 2020: The City of Edmonton, in Alberta, developed a carbon neutral community that uses 100% renewable energy.  

 

Discover how the Green Municipal Fund can support your next innovative municipal project with our Net-Zero Transformation funding offers.