Welcome to the Green Communities Guide

The Green Communities Guide is an essential tool to help communities plan and implement nature-based solutions and strategies to conserve water, protect water quality, preserve agricultural land, and protect critical open spaces and wildlife habitat.

The Forgotten Solution

Why Green Communities? Because nature is one of the most effective ways of combating climate change and nature-based climate solutions - actions that are in harmony with nature that incorporate nature conservation and support biodiversity protection - can provide cost-effective approaches to mitigate climate change.

A Complete Online Resource

Designed for use by municipal planners, developers, community groups and more, this living resource highlights innovative, nature-based approaches communities are taking to managing development with respect to its impacts on our natural systems. This Guide features innovative approaches to sustainable development including riparian management, xeriscaping, naturalization, storm water wetlands, brownfield reclamation, permaculture and much more, and includes recommended practices and project considerations as well as the business, nature and community-side of each nature-based solution.

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The Stewardship Directory

A valuable companion resource to the Green Communities Guide, this online directory helps connect community stewardship groups, organizations, businesses and governments to share their experiences and lessons learned in stewardship and natural resource management.

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The Latest News

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NBS is more cost-effective and often better at attenuating climate impacts than conventional engineering solutions

An article published in the October 2024 edition of Science of the Total Environment reviewed studies on NBS between 2000 and 2021. The authors concluded that nature-based solutions are more cost-effective…

Help Shape Alberta's Nature Strategy

Alberta Environment and Protected Areas is developing a nature strategy for the province. A nature strategy will be a made-in-Alberta approach for conserving, managing and restoring nature to support…

Edmonton tree inventory shows almost $2.7B in 'green infrastructure'

The city maintains an inventory of all trees growing on or along city-owned boulevards, roadways and parks. This accounts for about 380,000 trees of the city's estimated 12.8 million. One of the most…

More green spaces and trees needed to combat urban heat island effect in Hannover, Germany

A recent study on the urban heat island effect in Hannover, Germany showed that green spaces and treed areas have a mitigating effect on extreme heat conditions studied between 2018 and 2020, highlighting…

NBS more widely accepted and promoted at COP28

Nature-based solutions were more broadly accepted and promoted at COP28 than in recent years, as part of a suite of strategies to address climate change, which also includes transitioning to renewable…

British integrated engineering firm demonstrating benefits of NBS in Manchester

Buro Happold, an integrated consulting engineering and advising firm based in the UK, demonstrates the multiple benefits to people and nature that can be gained by implementing NBS in urban spaces. …