Background • Berkeley, California (BER) • Calgary, Alberta (CAL) • Edmonton, Alberta (EDM) • Denver, Colorado (DEN) • Halifax, Nova ScoCa (HAL) • Hamilton, Ontario (HAM) • Helsinki, Finland (HEL) • Milwaukee, Wisconsin (MIL) • Niagara Region, Ontario (NIA) • North Vancouver, BriCsh Columbia (NVAN) • Portland, Oregon (POR) • Vancouver, BriCsh Columbia (VAN) • Victoria, BriCsh Columbia (VIC) • Washington, DC (WAS)
Edmonton Project
• How Best to Embed and Catalyze Sustainability Principles in Culture to Achieve Desired Outcomes?
• Best PracCce Scan of Leading North American MunicipaliCes
• What Were CriCcal Success Factors for the Leaders!!!
Key Findings • SCll Struggling with Cultural
Acceptance of Sustainability • “Decision Support Tools Needed”
Background • “If we had $150 million to invest in legacy funds for the community that would help address economic development and new revenue sources for the City, how would I convince Council to invest it in a sustainable community energy project verse for example shave and pave?” Jeff Fielding, CAO City of Burlington.
Background “We are looking at developing a simple, cheap, and easy to use tool that helps us make be\er decisions and allows us to determine the sustainability return on investment of infrastructure.” James Parvey, Senior Principal Engineer, City of Tacoma, Washington
Project Overview http://www.llga.org/call.php?idCall=27
Background “We have done pilot evaluaCons for social return on investment of our social housing and return on investment of our green buildings but it focused mainly on environmental returns. What we need is a simple tool that we can use to demonstrate all 3 pillars at once to Council.” Carolyn Bowen, Manager, Office of Sustainability, City of Calgary
Statement of Need
A simple, open sourced, and accessible SROI tool for Canadian MunicipaliCes does not currently exist. Such a tool would create a common approach to SROI that would allow for municipaliCes to benchmark, collaborate on reporCng and on data availability and collecCon issues, as well as provide consistency in communicaCons to the public and senior levels of government.
Proposed ObjecCves 1. Develop an inexpensive tool that could be uClized by Canadian
MunicipaliCes that will provide a consistent and replicable approach to determining Sustainability Return on Investment (1st order esCmates);
2. Increase capacity of municipaliCes and others in the use of such a SROI tool; and,
3. Create a standardized and replicable source of data for the tool that can be used by Canadian municipaliCes as well as by other senior levels of government.
Possible Deliverables Discussions with Calgary led to the following proposed deliverables: • A report on the current state of SROI uClizaCon in North America; • A report on municipal needs for an SROI tool; • Terms of reference and design criteria for the development of the tool
with recommendaCons on how to proceed; • A detailed work plan for the design and development of the SROI tool; • A beta test of the SROI Tool; • A report on beta test of the tool and recommended revisions; • A final operaConal municipal SROI tool; • A central accessible database on cosCng informaCon for infrastructure and
other relevant social, economic and environmental data. Regionally applicable standards, measures and indicators assembled throughout the project duraCon;
• A resource guide on the use of SROI and the Tool; • Delivery of a capacity building/training workshop(s) for project partners.
PotenCal Partners • P3 Canada • Infrastructure Canada • Infrastructure Ontario and Other
Provincial Departments • Canadian AssociaCon of Municipal
Administrators • North American Urban Sustainability
Directors Network • InsCtute for Sustainable Infrastructure • Chief Financial Officers Network • Canadian General Accountants • NGO’s • MunicipaliCes • Private Sector
Status of Calgary Proposal • Feedback on esCmated budget provided; • Money this fiscal year, want to move now; • Moving to develop an RFP to seek a contractor; • Interested in further discussions and partnerships with FCM;
• Idea for FCM to build on what Calgary creates; • Request made for CEC to arrange call.
Considera4ons for FCM Having GMF as a collaborator/leader on this iniCaCve would provide the
following strategic benefits to FCM: 1. Provide the Green Municipal Fund with a tool it can use to determine the
sustainability return on investment of funded projects; 2. Provide GMF with an opportunity to posiCon itself as a leader in building
capacity for a strategic knowledge gap idenCfied by municipaliCes in raising the municipal bar in North America;
3. Provide GMF with a standardized tool that (a) would allow for seamless uClizaCon for applicants; (b) allow for a standardized sustainable infrastructure indicator and measurement framework to be used by municipaliCes creaCng more reliable and accurate benchmarking;
4. Inclusion and use in any proposed federal long-‐term infrastructure plan; 5. Others?
About Cowan Environmental Consul4ng Cowan Environmental Consul1ng specializes in providing innova1ve assistance and
advice for your organiza1onal needs related to sustainability and environmental programs and services. Our business focus is in finding prac1cal local and cost effec1ve solu1ons to today’s most pressing environmental issues. Our mission is to work with organiza1ons and businesses that truly see the value in the concept of sustainability and are interested taking advantage of the benefits that are possible when decisions are made using a social, economic and environmental lens. We want to work with organiza1ons to remove sustainability roadblocks and produce leading edge prac1cal programs and tools to create success in whatever our clients are striving to achieve. Organiza1ons are standing on the cusp of a new way of doing business, a new way of making choices. If your organiza1on is ready to make sustainability a key aspect of your business then we want to work with you.
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