Climate change may be a global challenge, but climate action and solutions are often rooted much closer to home.
That’s because cities and municipalities are major drivers of carbon emissions – in Canada, half of our carbon emissions come from cities, created largely by buildings, transportation and energy systems. They also sit at the frontlines of climate impacts – from extreme heat events and wildfire smoke to flooding and infrastructure strain.
But cities and municipalities are also where climate solutions come to life: in bike lanes, public transit, smarter building codes, and community design that helps communities adapt to increasingly disruptive climate swings.
In Canada, municipalities have direct or indirect influence over a significant share of emissions through zoning regulations, building standards, transit infrastructure and local energy decisions, which makes them one of the most important levers for climate action.
And increasingly, they are stepping into that role, backed by people working to make change – like Cameron Esler, Sustainable Communities Manager at the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF), who has been working to drive meaningful action around community-based climate solutions across Canada. “In Sustainable Communities, we look at localized solutions as opposed to federal or national projects,” he says, adding that this work “has evolved from some campaigns we had run – and a lot of community organizing.”
Climate action starts at street level
DSF’s Municipal Climate Solutions initiative is built on this premise: that meaningful climate progress doesn’t only happen in international negotiations or federal policy – it happens locally, driven by people and organizations working toward change in city halls, community consultations and neighbourhood planning sessions. “We start by listening to what the community wants,” Esler says. “And we also look at the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a vetting point.”
The program works with local governments and communities to identify practical, place-based solutions that improve livability while reducing emissions – from expanding public transit access to rethinking building standards and urban design.
Rather than prescribing top-down solutions, it takes a bottom-up approach, working with communities to identify the issues that matter most, and then building climate solutions around those priorities.
DSF’s Municipal Climate Solutions initiative is built on this premise: that meaningful climate progress doesn’t only happen in international negotiations or federal policy – it happens locally, driven by people and organizations working toward change in city halls, community consultations and neighbourhood planning sessions. “We start by listening to what the community wants,” Esler says. “And we also look at the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a vetting point.”
The program works with local governments and communities to identify practical, place-based solutions that improve livability while reducing emissions – from expanding public transit access to rethinking building standards and urban design.
Rather than prescribing top-down solutions, it takes a bottom-up approach, working with communities to identify the issues that matter most, and then building climate solutions around those priorities.
According to Esler, in Regina the process began with youth engagement. Through community dialogue, young people identified transit accessibility as a major factor not only in reducing emissions, but also in accessing education, jobs and social opportunities. What emerged was a clear intersection between climate action and equity. “We realized better access to public transit was a climate solution the youth wanted,” he says.
The result was a policy enabling free transit for kids under 12, which led to increased ridership, improved accessibility and broader community uptake as families began using transit together.
In Vancouver, the focus has taken a different form – targeting building emissions. Working alongside partner organizations and community advocates, the initiative supported efforts to phase out the use of natural gas for heating in new builds. “We mobilized and organized around the building code,” says Esler. “And we won that fight.”
Across other regions, the work continues to adapt to local needs. Initiatives range from tree equity campaigns that address urban heat and access to green space, to bike lane expansion and street redesign, to community-based budgeting exercises that invite residents to shape more sustainable neighbourhoods.
Increasingly, there is also a growing focus on climate resilience at the neighbourhood level – ensuring communities are better equipped to respond to heat, smoke, flooding and other climate impacts.
How partnerships are driving community impact
Behind every successful Municipal Climate Action initiative is a network of partners and funders that make the work possible. “Working with community and business partners allows us to make communities more livable,” Esler says. “Our key success metric is usually change, but it’s also about empowerment,” he adds. “We mobilize our supporters to be active on the issues they care about.”
It reflects the same principles we discuss with our individual and institutional clients when it comes to impact investing. And as we work closely with them to align their investments with their values, we also walk the walk – doing our part to support community projects like the Municipal Climate Action initiative through sponsorship and partnership.
This is where the role of impact investing becomes especially clear, as it increasingly seeks to direct capital toward measurable, real-world outcomes. For investors, this reframes climate action not as an abstract or distant objective, but as something local and tangible – embedded in the systems people rely on every day.
For Genus, supporting this work also reflects a broader conviction: that meaningful impact can happen wherever we focus our efforts – taking shape on our streets, in our neighbourhoods and within the cities that are taking steps toward a more resilient future.
Interested in learning more about aligning your investments with your values and supporting local impact initiatives? Get started today with our values-based investment services.
References:
Municipal climate solutions – David Suzuki Foundation. (2024, April 16). David Suzuki Foundation. https://davidsuzuki.org/project/municipal-climate-solutions/
- Earth’s climate swings increasingly out of balance. (2026, March 20). World Meteorological Organization. https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/earths-climate-swings-increasingly-out-of-balance
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