Recent Posts

Community Check-in: For our friends new and old, allow us to re-introduce ourselves!

The past year or so has been busy for ClimateActionWR and we just wanted to take a moment to re-introduce ourselves for those who may be unfamiliar and to provide a space for those who have been following along for some time to share what climate action projects they have been up to.

We are ClimateActionWR, a collaboration between local organizations, community members, and municipalities focused on climate change mitigation in Waterloo Region, co-led by Reep Green Solutions (Reep) and Sustainable Waterloo Region (SWR). We coordinate the activities of our community’s climate action strategy, TransformWR, measure and monitor progress on emissions reductions, and engage the community in climate action initiatives. Our community is working together to achieve Waterloo Region’s long-term goal of an 80% greenhouse gas emission reduction (based on 2010 levels) by 2050 (80by50). The TransformWR strategy outlines our community’s pathway to 80by50, and identifies local actions that can be taken in Waterloo Region to reduce emissions 30% by 2030. 

In June 2021, all eight area municipalities in Waterloo Region endorsed TransformWR: Waterloo Region’s Transition to an Equitable, Prosperous, Resilient, Low Carbon Community. With a strong climate action plan, our councils unanimously adopted an additional ambitious and science-backed short-term community goal to achieve a 50% greenhouse gas reduction by 2030. The TransformWR strategy was developed through the ClimateActionWR collaborative, with joint funding from the local municipalities and from the Federation of  Canadian Municipalities under a T2050 grant. Led by ClimateActionWR staff, the project team included representatives from Reep, SWR, the cities, the townships, and the Region. ClimateActionWR via Unless Design Partners connected with over 1,600 community members to discuss what they wanted the future of Waterloo Region to look like, and their insights on how we can get there by transitioning to a low carbon community. This directly informed our vision of 2050, and the principles for designing a low carbon future, which were key inputs into the development of the technical pathway, led by energy consultants from WalterFedy. To inform this process, technical consultation included workshops, surveys, and conversations with over 100 technical experts, locally, nationally, and internationally, including municipal leadership and staff.  

This past year the ClimateActionWR collaborative has been fortunate to be included as one of 19 communities across Canada participating in Tamarack Institute’s Climate Transition Cohort, which will conclude late 2022. This training has developed the collaborative’s understanding of using an equity lens when implementing climate action strategies, all while leveraging the values of a collective impact model and collaborative leadership to create system changes and movement building in our communities. This has provided the ClimateActionWR collaborative an opportunity to connect and network with other municipalities and organizations across Canada to exchange ideas and best practices. Through this experience our team has learned many tools and ideas on how to create movement building in our community that maximizes all our strengths, levers and appropriately uses an equity lens in decisions making and strategic directions moving forward. 

Based on our history, ClimateActionWR is not new to collective work and has a foundation of collaboration. We are currently building on our foundation of collective work and using our learnings from the cohort to evolve to become more robust and inclusive as our region works toward implementing the TransformWR Strategy. It is only by integrating equity into all of our actions and decisions that we can transform into a low carbon community that enriches all of its members. We look forward to bringing more organizations and community members into our work as a collective and having more voices represented in our local climate movement. 

This past year we have been busy in the community chatting with many of you at local events to let everyone know that the strategy is ready and accessible in its entirety on our website. We have been focusing this past year on spreading the message that we are building a better future for our community through climate action, and that every individual, municipality, organization and business has a role to play! Going forward we are working towards building awareness in the community, so that everyone knows and takes ownership of their role in taking on climate action and implementing the TransformWR strategy. Stay tuned to our social media (@climateactionwr) and events calendar for upcoming ClimateActionWR events and campaigns heading into 2023!

We want to hear from you!

The TransformWR strategy is our entire community’s climate action plan and requires an all hands on deck approach. We’d love to hear about all the great work that is already underway in our community! If your business, or organization has a story to share about how you’re implementing the TransformWR strategy and building a better Waterloo Region through climate action, then email us at connect@climateactionwr.ca so we can spotlight your tremendous work and all celebrate together!