Since 2000, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund (FCM’s GMF) has been one of Canada’s premier investors in transformative climate solutions. As FCM’s flagship program, we help Canadian communities and capital markets build for a climate resilient future.  

GMF facilitates access to risk-adjusted investment opportunities by connecting investors with cities and homeowners in fast-growing borrower markets. We unlock strong return potential while supporting scalable investments in high-quality assets across Canada. Let us be your bridge to meaningful, nationwide impact.

 Learn how we help unlock and scale investment opportunities 

 

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2,336

sustainability projects approved

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$1.6 billion

worth of approved sustainability projects

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2.9 million

tonnes of greenhouse gases avoided

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13,129

person-years of national employment

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$1.24 billion

contributed to the national GDP

Let’s explore investment opportunities together

FCM’s Green Municipal Find is uniquely positioned to scale climate solutions by acting as a trusted conduit between municipalities, their partners and private investors.  

Let's explore together how we can connect you with high-potential partnership opportunities and help you access scalable projects with strong return prospects. 

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Community Efficiency Financing

GMF’s Community Efficiency Financing (CEF) is Canada’s only national program transforming the residential retrofit market. It empowers communities with flexible, long-term financing for energy-efficiency and resilience upgrades in low-rise residential buildings.  

CEF supports risk-adjusted investment opportunities through high-quality models like Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), helping establish scalable, enduring financing solutions across the country. This program has accelerated PACE adoption nationwide, building momentum, attracting follow-on investment from investors and banks, and unlocking broader pools of private capital through regional partnerships.  

Discover how CEF’s innovative financing models are scaling impactful climate solutions.

Contact us to explore how you can take advantage of climate resilience financing opportunities by partnering with GMF.

Learn about CEF’s innovative financing models and the success being replicated across the country.

District energy

Municipalities can influence nearly half of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions through infrastructure upgrades and other sustainability projects, yet many communities still face challenges accessing private and public capital to finance sustainable projects. That’s where private investors can make a difference in addressing this gap and building more resilient communities.

GMF's funding support catalyzes the growth of large energy projects, and demonstrates the projects’ viability, attracting significant follow-on private capital.  

By partnering with GMF, investors gain access to scalable projects with substantial return potential, all while keeping transaction costs efficient.

Contact us to discuss our renewable energy opportunities.

Learn more about how we can unlock and expand investment opportunities together to accelerate the adoption of large energy and infrastructure projects

Community Energy Systems

Meet community energy needs, increase energy efficiency, and build grid resilience

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A first-of-its-kind geothermal community in Markham: The Berczy Glen Geoexchange Community Energy System

A neighbourhood in Markham, Ontario, will be the first net-zero community in Canada to connect all of its houses to a geothermal energy system.

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Leading in sustainable investment 

With 25 years of experience, we identify catalytic sustainability projects and empower municipal governments through funding and capacity building, helping communities and capital markets build for a climate-resilient future.  

As a highly ranked signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, our commitment to sustainability begins with our own operations.  

Looking to invest in scalable projects with strong ROI potential for and measurable sustainability outcomes? Partner with us for proven results and lasting impact.

Read about our achievements in FY 23-24 and learn about our approach to impact investing.

GMF’s approach to sustainable investing

Leading in sustainable financial management

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Delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, GMF manages approximately $2.4B in programs funded by the Government of Canada.

Background

The Region of Waterloo in southern Ontario treats its wastewater at a number of plants including the three largest: Waterloo, Kitchener and Galt.  These three plants produce 13,000 to 22,200 cubic metres of methane-rich biogas per day (equivalent to the carbon footprint of 2,700 people) as a byproduct of processing. They use some of this biogas to produce heat for their own use, while flaring off excess biogas and purchasing electricity from the grid for their energy needs. 

As the Region’s population grows, the amount of wastewater is expected to increase, leading to higher electricity consumption and emissions created from flaring biogas—both of which are contrary to the Region’s mandate to improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and produce and use renewable energy. Electricity costs in Ontario are also expected to rise, increasing municipal costs. The Region saw these projections as an opportunity to upgrade facility infrastructure to better align with climate change–related goals and help in the transition toward net zero. 

Project goals

The Region planned to lower electricity costs and eliminate biogas flaring by installing dual-fuel (biogas and natural gas) cogeneration facilities at all three wastewater treatment plants. These facilities would utilize 100 percent of their biogas and reduce emissions.

Approach

The planning phases for the project involved projecting population growth (and the corresponding increase in wastewater quantities) and determining how that would affect the plants’ capacities and electricity and heat requirements. Modelling suggested that while the cogeneration facilities would initially use natural gas as a supplement, the proportion of natural gas needed would decrease as additional wastewater and therefore biogas became available.

One key idea was to coordinate facility capacity with population growth over the equipment’s estimated 20-year lifespan to maximize biogas usage and reduce emissions, rather than matching their capacity to current biogas availability.

After consulting with community members and other stakeholders, the Region designed and constructed the project. They completed and brought the cogeneration facilities online in 2022.

Results

Upon project completion, the Region began monitoring and optimizing performance. They diverted all biogas into the new system, eliminating that source of emissions while also creating electricity and heat, providing an annual savings of $1.5 million and approximately 1,900 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). Over the 20-year lifespan of the facilities, the Region forecasts overall net savings of more than $16 million and 38,000 tCO2e.

The project won a 2022 Award of Excellence at the Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards.

Lessons learned

This project was highly complex both technically and contractually. The Region found it helpful to have a single contractor responsible for all three facility installations to find efficiencies and learnings throughout the development process. For instance, they redirected workers from site to site as needed to minimize downtime.

Working with multiple facilities also meant working with multiple electricity distribution companies. Fully understanding the differences between various local connection requirements and approval processes from the outset would have helped avoid delays.

Better understanding how the gas conditioning and cogeneration systems interface with each other would made it easier for operations staff to troubleshoot issues and seek technical support.  Entering a long-term service agreement with the gas conditioning supplier, like the one with the cogeneration supplier, may also have been beneficial.

A certain amount of technical troubleshooting related to with thermal efficiencies was required at system launch, which could have been avoided with a clearer understanding in advance of how the hot water loop systems were set up.

Next steps

The facilities are now in operation and ready to utilize current biogas levels as well as increased levels in the future as the population grows. As the amount of available biogas increases, the need for natural gas required will decrease—until eventually, there might be minimal to no need for it at all.
 

Outdoor view of three tall metal tanks mounted to concrete, with ladders for access.

Want to explore all GMF-funded projects? Check out the Projects Database for a complete overview of funded projects and get inspired by municipalities of all sizes, across Canada.

Visit the projects database

Innovation in construction: ENBIX's role in advancing emissions-neutral buildings

Launched in December 2023, the Emissions-Neutral Buildings Information Exchange (ENBIX) brings together partners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the construction, renovation and operation of buildings. Hosted by the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation and their local LC3 Centre the Climate Innovation Fund, this initiative is accelerating the transition to an emissions-neutral built environment for new and existing buildings across Alberta.

Launched in December 2023, the Emissions-Neutral Buildings Information Exchange (ENBIX) brings together partners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the construction, renovation and operation of buildings. Hosted by the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation and their local LC3 Centre the Climate Innovation Fund, this initiative is accelerating the transition to an emissions-neutral built environment for new and existing buildings across Alberta.  

The new initiative promotes sharing of innovative ideas, solutions, best practices and lessons among interested parties in the building and construction ecosystem, providing information on industry training opportunities, bringing together peer groups and zeroing in key topics like embodied carbon. It is industry-governed, with foundational support from the City of Calgary, the Calgary Construction Association, the City of Edmonton and its Emissions-Neutral Building Industry Advisory Group, and the Smart Sustainable Resilient Infrastructure Association.   

ENBIX is based on similar models including British Columbia’s Zero Emissions Building Exchange (ZEBx) hosted by ZEIC, the Metro Vancouver region’s LC3 Centre. During the development of ENBIX, ZEBx provided lessons learned from their early years of operations including information about the relationship between ZEBx and industry partners in BC.  

Meanwhile, the Halifax LC3 Centre, the Halifax Climate Investment, Innovation and Impact Fund (HCi3) has provided $80,000 in funding for another multi-party building exchange program that is preparing Nova Scotia’s building sector for a net-zero future. The Building to Zero Exchange (BTZx) is now live, growing capacity to scale up the creation of high-performance buildings.  

With three advanced energy performance building exchanges now launched, we have critical building industry experience being actively facilitated locally and across the LC3 Network  

Want to explore all GMF-funded projects? Check out the Projects Database for a complete overview of funded projects and get inspired by municipalities of all sizes, across Canada.

Visit the projects database

Pagination

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