500 Cool Communities by 2025

There are over 5,000 communities across Canada. What if we helped them to organize for climate action?

We need to reach 36 million people across Canada and help them become part of Canada's commitment to climate action. We need to help them act in ways that help them improve their lives -- by saving money, coping with extreme weather, adapting to climate change, creating local jobs,  improving their quality of life.

One of the best ways to connect with people is through our communities and the groups we belong to, but there is very little support for community planning and action. It's the missing link in Canada's climate plans.

It's time we organize our communities and harness the power and potential of community groups and volunteers in helping Canada shift to a low-carbon future.

Cool Communities are communities that are organized and ready to act. They will have the following five elements:

1. a lead green group
2. a community network of local groups
3. a community scan to research local assets, needs, and who is doing what
4. a community climate action plan connecting climate action with community needs and opportunities
5. community action, including engagement (public workshops, public awareness, and promoting climate solutions and incentives) and projects (such as energy conservation, community power, active transportation, local food, extreme weather planning and complete community planning)

Cool Communities are able to promote climate solutions that make sense for their community - matching climate action with social benefit.

Are you ready to organize?

Read our Really Simple Guide to Organizing Communities for a super flexible approach that can be adapted to your community.

See also this presentation on Community Action, available in pdf and Powerpoint formats:

Looking for Project Ideas?

We've got 50+ Ideas and links for community climate projects:

Looking for examples of a Cool Community?

Community organizing is nothing new (our twist is to focus on a community network and the co-benefits of climate action). Here are some other organizations and models you can connect with and that can also adopt a Cool Community approach.

Transition Towns
Transition Towns is a global movement of community-led initiatives to organize and support the transition to a sustainable future. They start with a group of citizens coming together to form a Transition Town, and then grow from there to build working groups and networks around issues of interest. There are a number of Transition Towns across Canada. Transition Guelph is great example of how well they can support local groups and initiatives.

Green Neigbours
Green Neighbours is a fast growing network of ward-based neighbourhood green groups in Toronto. So fast, there is now a Green Neighbours Network of Toronto. The two oldest. Green 13 and Green Neighbours 21 have been active as volunteer community groups for years, raising awareness and collaborating on community projects.

Climate Action Canada is helping setting up a green neighbours group in the villages of Parkdale and Roncesvalles in Toronto as a pilot for the revised Guide to Organizing a Community (above). See the Green Parkdale website for information.

Green Communities
Green Communities are a Canada wide network of community-based non profit businesses that excel in offering community programs.

Healthy Communities The healthy communities model was started in the 1980s as a multi-sector, integrated approach to solving environmental, social, economic, and health issues at the community level. Four provincial networks now exist (Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition,BC Healthy Communities,Réseau québécois de Villes et Villages en santé, Mouvement Acadien des Communautés en Santé du Nouveau-Brunswick) as well as a national network.

Other Community Models

Climate Action Waterloo Region

ClimateActionWR is a collaboration between local organizations and community members focused on climate change mitigation, and is led by Sustainable Waterloo Region and REEP Green Solutions (a Green Community). It coordinates efforts to implement the Cimate Action Plan for Waterloo Region. This is one of the best examples of collaboration between local government, business, and organizations in promoting climate action at the community level.