Sustainable buildings

Revitalizing community buildings

This award recognizes a program or project that demonstrates innovative approaches to decarbonize and increase the resiliency of the buildings in which your community members live, work and play. While all municipal building types are eligible, we encourage the submission of projects that contribute to healthier, more efficient and more 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 25 to 40 percent reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of community buildings owned by municipalities and not-for-profit organizations.
• 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.
• Retrofit projects for sustainability that include innovative stakeholder engagement approaches.

Who can apply?

All Canadian municipalities and their partners are eligible to apply for an FCM Sustainable Communities Award.

Learn about our 2022 community buildings retrofit category winners, a group of municipalities from Ontario—Toronto, Brampton, Markham, Barrie, Caledon, Halton Hills and King—who teamed up to find the best ways to reduce emissions from ice rink buildings.

Learn about our 2022 affordable housing retrofit category winner, the City of Hamilton, ON, and CityHousing Hamilton and their transformation of 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 Community Buildings Retrofit initiative and Sustainable Municipal Buildings offers.

Applications are now closed. Winners will be announced in 2025.