About Us
Tracking Calgary’s progress. Designing healthier communities.
Sustainable Calgary is a nonprofit organization committed to building a healthier, more sustainable city—through data, design, and community collaboration.
We produce Calgary’s State of Our City report every four years, work alongside residents and designers to reimagine neighbourhoods, lead research on healthy built environments, share what we learn, and offer consulting services in research, evaluation, and strategy to support others advancing change.
Why We Do This
There are many tangible things we can do to improve our city and our planet. Doing this essential work starts with acknowledging where we’re at.
In 2025, we face stark challenges—climate change, biodiversity loss, growing inequity, and global conflict. Our mission doesn’t flinch from this reality. It speaks directly to the urgency and grief many of us feel.
Our vision, on the other hand, points us toward joy and connection. It reminds us that building a better world also brings pride, purpose, and everyday delight. Let’s make our communities better—and enjoy doing it!
Mission
The window of opportunity for Calgary’s gradual transition to a sustainable future has closed. We must now embark on a rapid transition or face the real prospect of significantly compromised quality of life and livelihoods and a precarious future for our children and their city. Through research, education, advocacy and action (REAacT) Sustainable Calgary works to create the capacity for an urgent/rapid and radical transformation of how we live, work and play in a world of unprecedented systemic challenges - climate emergency, social and economic injustice, and weakened democratic institutions.
Vision
Calgary is a place where each and every citizen, in all stages of life, experiences a sense of belonging and safety, and derives a sense of joy in contributing to the community in whatever way they so choose. All Calgarians enjoy a high quality of life, and a sense of pride in our city, pursuing diverse lifestyles that are within the limits of the finite planet we call home while not impinging on the opportunity for other communities in the global village to achieve the same.
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Our Evolution
Since 1998, Sustainable Calgary has worked to measure what matters and act where it counts.
Our first State of Our City report was published in 1998, followed by the Citizen’s Agenda in 2005, where more than 1,000 Calgarians identified 12 policy priorities to reverse Calgary’s most unsustainable trends.
We were early champions of laneway housing through Liveable Laneways, helped prototype a circular economy in Manchester, developed equity-seeking solutions for the Deerfoot Divide, and since 2013 have led national collaborations like Active Neighbourhoods Canada—bringing together residents, designers, and researchers to codesign healthier cities.
Measuring What Matters
Every four years, our State of Our City report evaluates Calgary’s progress across 40 indicators in seven domains: economy, governance, resource use, community, wellness, education, and natural environment.
These indicators help identify gaps, shape priorities, and tell the story of Calgary’s progress—and setbacks. They also help Sustainable Calgary pick our projects! In 2020, this work was recognized with the Community Indicators Legacy Award from the Community Indicators Consortium.
Codesigning for Health
Community design affects human health—and the health of other living beings. We work with local residents to codesign changes to the built environment that support walking, biking, safety, play, joy, and connection - with an equity lens.
Through Active Neighbourhoods Canada (2013–2020), we helped communities prototype low-cost interventions and advocate for major infrastructure investments. We expanded this work through the Housing Transportation Food Nexus program, with spinoffs like Reimagine Catwalks, which revitalizes pedestrian cut-throughs in Calgary’s suburbs.
Realizing how powerful kids are as design collaborators, we launched Stepping Towards a Greener Tomorrow, which reimagines school routes through child-led design.
We've scaled up by informing policy at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels and regularly sharing our insights through conferences, classrooms, and strategic consultations.
Our built and prototype projects include:
Acadia Pop Rocks, Destination Marlborough, The Connaught Open Street, The Martindale Calm Collector, and The Meridian Active Alley.
Notable projects we catalyzed or contributed to include:
A permanent road diet, 4th Avenue Flyover, and funding for a new pedestrian bridge in Bridgeland
Trail expansions in High River connecting schools to the active transportation network
Cycling infrastructure in Marlborough and Manchester
New investments in walking and biking routes in Calgary’s northeast
The Heritage Communities Local Area Plan
Awards include:
2018 Tactical Urbanism Award (DTALKS + City of Calgary MOVEMENT)
2019 Mayor’s Urban Design Award (Community)
2020 Community Indicators Legacy Award
2022 Mayor’s Urban Design Award (Community – runner-up)
2024 National Urban Design Award (Community)
How We Work
We collaborate with citizens, researchers, and institutions across sectors to ask the right questions, gather evidence, and prototype solutions together.
Our approach includes:
Community Engagement – understanding diverse community priorities and challenges
Research & Evaluation – understanding needs, outcomes, and systems
Prototyping – designing and testing ideas at demonstration scale
Policy Design – shaping decision-making with lived experience and evidence
Knowledge Sharing – mobilizing insights to build capacity and influence systems
We apply this approach across key focus areas: active transportation, non-market affordable housing, food security, energy transition, urban sprawl, and the circular economy.
Let’s Build the City We Want
We’re always looking for collaborators, funders, partners, and neighbours who care about Calgary’s future.
Want to get involved?
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