Factsheets: Working with nature to improve infrastructure projects outcomes
Key considerations for integrating nature-based solutions
By integrating nature-based solutions into your infrastructure, building or retrofit planning, you can not only build resilience to climate change but also help to sustain local biodiversity, improve air and water quality, and offer physical and mental health benefits. Within the development of green infrastructure, natural assets such as wetlands, forests, meadows, shorelines, lakes, ponds, and groundwater aquifers can be incorporated into municipal services such as stormwater management, flood control, and erosion control in order to promote resilience to climate change and achieve a net gain in biodiversity.
This factsheet will give you valuable information about why integrating nature-based solutions into municipal infrastructure projects is a great investment. Defining key terms such as biodiversity, natural assets, and green infrastructure, it will guide you through important considerations for integrating the benefits of nature into your projects.
Related Resources
See AllWebinar recording: How housing providers can help residents during energy retrofits
Watch the discussion on how to take advantage of the Housing Providers’ Toolkit.
Webinar recording: New GMF funding and support to accelerate community energy systems
Watch our webinar to explore GMF’s new funded learning offer: Accelerating Community Energy Systems. Discover best practices, funding insights and strategies for your municipality.
Aspen Heights: Redefining affordable housing in Saskatoon
Heartland Housing Foundation: Building a sustainable future in Fort Saskatchewan
Building a better future: CABN’s net-zero affordable housing pilot
Pine Tree Park: Transforming affordable housing with energy efficiency and solar power
Rossland Yards: Transforming affordable housing in Rossland, BC
YWCA Banff: Building stability and community through affordable housing
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.
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.
Guide: Equity and non-energy benefits of community building retrofits
Explore the equity and other non-energy benefits of retrofitting community buildings.
Regional Energy Coach list
Get in touch with a Regional Energy Coach in your region and start your energy efficiency journey
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Funders list for sustainable affordable housing
Access additional funding sources from across Canada to support your next affordable housing project.
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.
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.
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.
Factsheets: Community Buildings Retrofit initiative
Learn how to retrofit existing community buildings to lower GHG emissions and extend their life cycle.
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.
Webinar recording: Energy efficiency for reaching net zero
Learn how municipalities can advance energy efficiency initiatives to reach net-zero targets.
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.
Webinar Recording: Sustainable municipal water management
Watch the webinar recording to discover current trends and research on the importance of sustainable municipal water management.
Learning Journey: Brownfields Redevelopment in your community
Find out how to rehabilitate and redevelop brownfields
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Webinar recording: How to start the conversation about circular economies in your municipality
Webinar: Transitioning ice rinks to net-zero
Learn the basics of building retrofits for facility buildings
Resource library: Community Buildings Retrofit
Find practical case studies and guidance for planning your local community building retrofit.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Resources: Sustainable Affordable Housing
Learn how to retrofit existing housing for energy-efficiency and plan new builds for higher performance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
GMF’s Municipal Energy Roadmap
Solutions for Canadian communities to achieve significant GHG emissions reductions in buildings and meet long-term sustainability objectives.
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.
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.
Regional Energy Coaches
Regional Energy Coaches help affordable housing providers plan energy efficiency retrofits and new builds.
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.
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.
Factsheets: Sustainable Affordable Housing
Learn how to retrofit existing housing for energy-efficiency and plan new builds for higher performance.
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.
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.
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.
Report: Sustainable land use practices in Canadian municipalities
A snapshot of emerging trends, key issues and best practices in sustainable land use.
Report: Water management trends in Canadian municipalities
A snapshot of existing and emerging water management trends, best practices and opportunities for innovation.
Guide: LiBRe best practices framework
The LiBRe program is structured around a best practices framework for becoming a municipal leader in brownfield renewal.
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.
Guide: Developing a municipal brownfield inventory
Free guidebook. 10 steps to creating your brownfield inventory. Libre Guidebook series.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Brownfield Roadmap: Nova Scotia
Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the processes, legislative framework and funding for redeveloping brownfields in Nova Scotia.
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.
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.
Tool: Finding Remediation Service Providers
Get a sense of the services required at different project stages and find providers using various directories.
Tool: Sustainable Site Assessments
You can use various techniques to find out whether a suspected brownfield site contains contaminated soil or groundwater.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tool: Sustainable remediation
Almost every Canadian municipality is home to a brownfield site.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Brownfield Roadmap: New Brunswick
Use this easy-to-follow path to navigate the processes, legislative framework and funding for redeveloping brownfields in New Brunswick.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Guide: Tendering a municipal brownfield project
Conducting an efficient tendering process is a key step in managing a successful brownfield redevelopment project.
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.
Related Funding
See AllCapital project: Construction of new sustainable municipal and community buildings
Available funding: Commission and construct a new high-efficiency municipal or community building.
See Funding OpportunityCapital project: Retrofit of existing municipal buildings
Available funding: Retrofit a municipal building or portfolio of municipal buildings for higher energy performance and significant GHG emissions reduction.
See Funding OpportunityStudy: Retrofit pathway for municipal buildings
Available funding: Outline the design of a proposed retrofit of an existing municipal building or portfolio of existing municipal buildings.
See Funding OpportunityPilot: Net-Zero Transformation
Available funding: Evaluate innovative GHG reduction solutions in real-world conditions.
See Funding OpportunityCapital project: Net-Zero Transformation
Available funding: Deploy a full scale best-in-class GHG reduction solution.
See Funding OpportunityBusiness case: Organic Waste-to-Energy
Available funding: Assess viable waste-to-energy systems and business models for your project.
See Funding OpportunityStudy: Organic Waste-to-Energy
Available funding: Outline the design of a proposed organic waste-to-energy system.
See Funding OpportunityCapital project: Organic Waste-to-Energy
Available funding: Construct, commission and begin operation of an organic waste-to-energy system.
See Funding OpportunityStudy: New construction of municipal and community buildings
Available funding: Outline the design of a proposed new high-efficiency municipal or community building.
See Funding OpportunityStudy: Net-Zero Transformation
Available funding: Assess new approaches and solutions to bring your community closer to net-zero.
See Funding OpportunityPlan: Net-Zero Transformation
Available funding: Conduct integrated planning exercises to support the municipal transition to net zero.
See Funding OpportunityCapital project: Community Energy Systems
Available funding: Construct, commission and rapidly deploy a community energy system.
See Funding OpportunityStudy: Community Energy Systems
Available funding: Outline the design of a proposed community energy system.
See Funding OpportunityBusiness case: Community Energy Systems
Available funding: Assess viable community energy projects and their business models.
See Funding OpportunityStudy: GHG reduction pathway feasibility
Determine the best approach to integrating energy and GHG reductions into longer-term management plans.
See Funding OpportunityCapital project: GHG impact retrofit
Retrofit a building to achieve a minimum 30% reduction in GHG emissions; ideal for shovel-ready projects.
See Funding OpportunityCapital project: GHG reduction pathway retrofit
Retrofit a building using an outcomes-oriented approach to achieving (near) net zero carbon buildings over time.
See Funding OpportunityCapital project: New construction of sustainable affordable housing
A capital project for an initiative that constructs new affordable housing projects to a higher environmental performance standard.
See Funding OpportunityCapital project: Retrofit of sustainable affordable housing
A capital project for an initiative that supports the integration of leading-edge deep energy efficiency measures and onsite renewable energy generation in existing affordable housing retrofit and new build projects.
See Funding OpportunityPilot project: Retrofit or new construction of sustainable affordable housing
A pilot project for an initiative that supports the integration of leading-edge deep energy efficiency measures and onsite renewable energy generation in existing affordable housing retrofit and new build projects.
See Funding OpportunityStudy: Retrofit or new construction of sustainable affordable housing
A feasibility study for an initiative that supports the integration of leading-edge deep energy efficiency measures and onsite renewable energy generation in existing affordable housing retrofit and new build projects.
See Funding OpportunityPlanning: Early support grant for sustainable affordable housing projects
The development of deliverables required in pplications for additional funding (e.g., GMF’s Sustainable Affordable Housing (SAH) study grant or the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) Seed Funding program) as you progress through the next stages of energy-efficient affordable housing projects.
See Funding Opportunity