This page is dedicated to targeted stakeholders to help us set the priorities and define the direction for a new Environment Strategy and Action Plan for the City of Calgary. If you believe there are other stakeholders who should share their input in the next phase of engagement, please email environment@calgary.ca with the subject line Environment Strategy so that we may reach out to them directly.

We encouraged you to share your ideas, and comment on ideas that others shared. You were invited to treat this page like you would a workshop and interact with each other; ask questions of each other; and, build on one another's thoughts. This is where the best ideas come from!

We recognize that each of you comes with your own experiences and expertise. We appreciate you taking the time to provide your input and have a thoughtful dialogue with each other.

We were collecting your input online from February 16 to March 15.

The feedback form is now closed. Thank you for sharing your ideas!

The City of Calgary is consolidating our environmental strategies to provide an updated vision for protecting and improving Calgary's environment into the future.

We understand that the challenges we collectively face are complex and significant. This initiative will combine and strengthen our departmental strategies to leverage and support our strategic efforts and actions to manage our land, biodiversity, water, energy and waste resources in a much more integrated way.

To help build our guiding environmental plan, we want to learn about your desires for the environment and how Calgary’s plan can bring social, health and economic benefits to the city and our community.

The goal is to provide a unified strategy that will highlight and focus on Calgary’s key environmental issues, opportunities and priorities. This plan will help us to clearly define The City’s environmental direction and the path forward to tackle our most critical environmental challenges and improve our environmental outcomes.

The project has outlined focus areas that will help define and guide Calgary’s Environment Strategy and Action Plan:

• Climate Adaptation - Prepare for and adapt to climate change impacts
• Efficient Energy Use and Buildings - Reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions
• Clean Air - Manage and protect air quality
• Sustainable Transportation - Make walking, cycling and public transit preferred choices
• Sustainable Neighbourhoods - Plan for a compact city and complete, healthy communities
• Healthy Ecosystems – Protect, restore and enhance natural areas, parks and trees and provide access to nature
• Water Stewardship - Support integrated watershed management: protect and improve the watersheds, improve water quality, reduce water consumption and flood risk
• Zero Waste and Responsible Consumption - Reduce consumption and waste generation

Calgary has a long history of environmental conservation through both community-led and corporate-led work and volunteerism. The Environment Strategy can build on these efforts by identifying where we need to focus action into the future. The Action Plan will outline our progress to date and our approach to achieving The City’s established targets on improving Calgary’s environment over the next ten years.

• People globally and locally have been calling for stronger action on a range of environmental issues.
• The environmental challenges we face are significant, complex, and interrelated.
• The City would like a unifying strategy to help alleviate some of the challenges with decision-making on environmental matters

The Environment Strategy and Action Plan will:

• Help renew and strengthen our commitment to achieve the Citizen Priority of A Healthy and Green City which states Calgary is a leader in caring about the health of the environment and promotes resilient neighbourhoods where residents connect with one another and can live active, healthy lifestyles. [starting on page 42 of document]
• Support The City to be responsive to the diverse and changing environment within Calgary’s context of an increasing population, fiscal constraints, changing technology, and global economies.
• Set out a clear vision, direction and goals for improving Calgary’s environment for all Calgarians.
• Support good health, quality of life; make the city a more sustainable and resilient place to live, work and do business; and, create economic opportunities in the green economy.
• Provide direction to achieve our Environmental Stewardship value which states Encouraging responsible use and protection of the natural environment through conservation and sustainable practices to protect and improve the quality of life in the community.

While the Environment Strategy and Action Plan will help us set our direction to achieving the citizen priority of ‘A Healthy and Green City’, we recognize Calgarians and targeted stakeholders, such as yourselves, as environmental stewards, and acknowledge your shared support of environmental assets. We value your input on how to best manage Calgary’s environment. This engagement approach ensures that The City, external targeted organizations and Calgarians are working collaboratively towards a shared future state. We recognize the value of input from all ages, experiences and demographics and appreciate how what matters to the individuals and organizations are used to build a stronger future together.

What was the direction from Council and why is an Environment Strategy and Action Plan needed?

At the 2019, March 18, Combined Meeting of Council, City Council unanimously supported Notice of Motion C2019-0285 directing Administration to develop a City-wide Environmental Strategy and Action Plan. The motion was based on the acknowledgement that The City has a number of specific environmentally themed strategies, policies, and action plans, but lacks a unifying long-term Environmental Strategy that defines the environmental direction for The City as a whole. It was noted that the absence of a unifying overarching Environmental Strategy presents challenges for decision-making on environmental matters for both Council and the community.

What is the purpose of the Environment Strategy and Action Plan?

The intent is to provide an overarching Plan for the environment that establishes and integrates environmental protection. This work encompasses all aspects of the environment, including improving and maintaining clean air, clean and safe water, healthy soils and more biodiversity, by supporting sustainable practices for energy, water, waste, emissions, urban forests and vegetation, transportation networks and community design and construction – anything that impacts the ecological integrity and health of natural areas, ecosystems and assets. 

Who are considered stakeholders for this project?
Calgarians, internal City staff and external targeted stakeholders that represent the business and development sector, non-governmental organizations and academia, the regional and regulatory sector, community groups and environmental groups are all considered stakeholders for this project. Ultimately, those who are interested in, or impacted by, this work.

What will you do with the results of this engagement?
This phase of engagement is to identify issues and opportunities to refine Calgary’s proposed environmental framework and actions. Proposed actions will then be shared with the stakeholders in phase 4 for prioritization, at which point there will be the final refinement to identify strategies and initiatives of greatest impact that the corporation and community can action.

Given the global pandemic, why are you doing engagement on this project now?
While Calgarians’ priorities are widespread during the pandemic, work at The City continues and people still want to be involved in decision-making processes. During a recent survey conducted by The City, released to Council June 2020, a majority of respondents agreed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, The City should still continue with online public engagement on projects and services.

So much research has already been done on environmental issues. Why are you writing a strategy rather than taking specific actions?
There is a lot of great research that has been done and we are using this as a foundation for this work. The goal of the Environment Strategy is to help us prioritize actions and unify existing work that is happening across our internal City departments and in our community. By taking this approach, we can be more intentional in how we focus resources and be more efficient in how we respond to environmental issues.

Your input, and the input of citizens and internal stakeholders, helps The City understand people’s perspectives, opinions, and concerns. Input collected in each phase of the project will be compiled and shared through a What We Heard report. Personally identifying information, profanity and comments that do not meet The City's Respectful Workplace Policy or the Online Tool Moderation Practice will be removed.

Although it would be a great outcome, the goal of public engagement is not to reach consensus or make everyone happy. Public engagement is also not about voting or collecting representative information. Public engagement is about considering the input, ideas and perspectives of people who are interested or impacted by decisions, before decisions are made.

To learn more about engagement at The City, visit engage.calgary.ca/about.

Objectives for Public Engagement for this project are:

1. Understand Calgarians’ shared values related to Calgary’s environmental future.
2. Understand what topic areas within the environment strategy Calgarians feel most impacted by and are most concerned about.
3. Prioritize solutions/actions identified by internal and targeted stakeholders.

The engagement process for this project begins with work set out by the project team which has been ongoing and sets the parameters for phase 1 and 2 engagement which seeks to understand what environmental factors matter most and are most concerning to Calgarians. Input from phase 1 and 2 will then be shared with internal and external subject-matter experts to identify issues and opportunities to refine Calgary’s proposed environmental framework and actions. Proposed actions will then be shared with the public in phase 4 for prioritization, at which point there will be the final refinement to identify strategies and initiatives of greatest impact that the corporation and community can action.

Thank you for providing your input into the engagement. The best plans are developed when we all work together.

This engagement asked for your input on a range of ideas, including:

• learning about your organization and its mandate;
• what environmental actions you think should be prioritized;
• the biggest challenges you anticipate;
• opportunities for a green economy;
• what actions have already had a positive impact on our environment; and,
• what actions could have a positive impact on our environment.

The feedback form is now closed.

In phase 2 engagement, we asked the public what key action they thought we need to take to achieve a healthy and sustainable environmental future for Calgary and why it was important. Here are the main themes from public engagement:

1. This theme focuses on complete communities as a key environmental action. It suggests that we need to control the city’s growth and make better use of space. It notes that the city’s continued urban sprawl is counterbalance to reducing environmental impact.
2. This theme focuses on the need for strong leadership and recognizes government as an important leader with the resources and authority to implement policies and regulations that will further achieve a healthy and sustainable future for Calgary.
3. This theme focuses on establishing better processes for reducing waste and redirecting away from landfills. Suggestions included a wider range of recycling options (eg. metal), options for re-using (eg. building materials), reducing/banning some plastics, and advocating for regulations regarding packaging materials.
4. This theme focuses on increasing support for Calgary's natural environment. It suggests that we need to conserve existing natural spaces and plan for more. This theme highlights the need for more balance between built environment and natural spaces.

7) What actions do you believe could have the most positive impact to improve environmental wellbeing in Calgary?

Step 1: Scroll through each focus area and tell us what actions you believe could have significant positive impact on our environment. Write your ideas on post-it notes. Please note, there is a character limit with this tool (it is a function of the tool and we are unable to change it) so please put one idea per post-it. You can make multiple contributions by adding more post-its.

Step 2: Tell us which actions should be prioritized. These are the areas you think we should focus additional efforts and resources towards. Prioritize these by scrolling through the submissions and clicking the thumbs up on actions you think should be prioritized.

Note: action recommendations could be City-led or community-led

Your input, along with feedback from internal stakeholders will be reviewed and used to develop proposed environmental actions. The proposed Environmental Strategy and Action Plan Framework will be presented to the Executive Leadership Team before being presented to SPC on Utilities and Corporate Services June 23, 2021 followed by City Council July 26, 2021. Actions will then be brought back to the public in phase 4 engagement before being brought back to you and internal stakeholders to make a final refinement to identify strategies and initiatives of greatest impact that the corporation and community can action.

DID YOU KNOW?

We want you to feel included in engagement. This means that we want you to feel respected; we want you to know your opinion is valued; and, we want you to be supported to participate in The City’s engagement process. We do not want you to experience any difficulties to sharing your ideas and opinions with us. We try to design engagement activities so that everyone that wants to be involved, can be.

We use your answers to the following evaluation and demographic questions to understand which voices from the community are missing so we can be better at including them next time. We work with internal and external colleagues to help ensure that our engagement activities are welcoming to all.