And the winners are: Edmonton (large city category), Halifax (medium city category), and Yellowknife (small city category).

What is it about cities that inspire emotion? Bring up the name of a major Canadian city and chances are you’ll get an opinion in return. Most people have something to say about where they live, where they refuse to live, and where they dream of living.

After three years of looking at what makes a city great, we’ve found that the lives of Canadians are deeply affected by how well their cities address their needs. Everything from the air you breathe, to the economic climate, to how you get to work can be a function of your city.

As proof of citizen passion, last year’s Sustainable Cities survey elicited plenty of reader comments, with feedback ranging from hearty praise to furious outrage. In response, we sought to further improve our ranking methodology.

Bigger and better
With the help of our Advisory Board, consisting of lead advisor The Natural Step Canada (TNS) and advisors Greening Greater Toronto and Smart Growth BC, we modified our survey component to better capture factors that cities themselves could control. For example, we asked cities if they integrate sustainability into municipal decision-making.

Why? “Municipalities are uniquely positioned to respond to the diverse challenges and opportunities inherent in sustainable development,” says Alaya Boisvert, Advisory Intern at TNS.

We also expanded our indicators to better represent results-oriented factors, such as improved air quality data, domestic and overall water usage and the number of people employed in cultural industries. Our indicator categories changed accordingly: Ecological Integrity, Economic Security, and Social Well-Being now measure the results of a city’s efforts, quantified via publicly available statistics; Governance and Empowerment along with Infrastructure and Built Environment measure how well a city supports, engages, and represents its citizens. For a full list of indicators and their classifications, go here.

Our Advisory Board emphasized the importance of understanding that our indicators, while comprehensive, are not perfect. Some cities and issues are studied more intensely or more often than others, and cities vary in their reporting methods. Data we’d like quantified in all cities, such as the number of homeless people or the presence of hormones in drinking water, are not universally available. We will evolve our methodology as data improves but for now, our indicators are proxies to gauge where cities are on their journey toward sustainability.

“The results of individual indicators are not a complete measure of success,” says TNS. “They serve to illustrate performance in key areas and show strengths and challenges cities are facing.”

We also adopted TNS’ strategic approach of backcasting in order to better define our goals for sustainable cities. Backcasting involves imagining a successful outcome in the future and asking what we need to do to get there. See our sidebar for a visual representation of backcasting and for our idea of a truly sustainable city.

These changes mark our best, most robust Sustainable Cities ranking yet.

How they did
Yellowknife remained as the top small city, but with updated data and new criteria, our other city leaders from last year fell behind. Ottawa needs improvement in areas such as providing tax incentives to attract green businesses, city council ethnic diversity, and median commuting distance. Quebec City needs to focus on poor air quality and lack of retrofit programs and tax incentives for green businesses. Cities must continue to evolve: what worked five years ago may not work now.
 
Some cities are better at collecting and measuring sustainability-related performance data. For example, of the cities that responded to our survey, all except Charlottetown had some kind of GHG reduction target in place, but only four – Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and Halifax – could quantify their current progress.

Similarly, all but Winnipeg had waste diversion targets. Though most could quantify their progress, only Halifax separates residential and non-residential diversion rates. Montreal collects diversion rates of specific types of waste.

Several cities had strong affordable housing programs, with smaller cities excelling in this area: both Halifax and Saskatoon support low-income homeowners and projects through tax exemptions. Saskatoon also prioritizes city reviews for approved affordable housing projects, and Saint John’s utilities have relief programs for low-income earners. These programs translated into reality: Halifax, Saskatoon, and Saint John residents spend about 18 per cent of their annual income on shelter, whereas Charlottetown residents spend 25 per cent. Many municipalities made connections with their provincial governments to provide affordable housing – and in April, we’ll be doing our inaugural Sustainable Provinces ranking.

We were also glad to see cities rewarding environmentally-minded citizens. For example, Toronto and Ottawa offer rebates for efficient toilets and other appliances. Toronto also has sustainable energy loan funds, green condo loans for developers, and has just established a green and cool roof incentive program. Winnipeg offers property tax credits for retrofits to older homes.

But it’s up to citizens to take advantage of these programs, and to demand that their local councillors do better. It’s up to the people to ride on bike paths, use public parks, and patronize responsible businesses. Your city councillors can only take action if these needs are conveyed.

Peter Johnson, Chair of Greening Greater Toronto’s Measurement and Performance Working Group, sums it up this way.

“Sustainable cities are created by good government policies and programs, and by the actions taken by those who work and live in those cities.”

It’s clear that learning about and understanding sustainability has become important across Canada. Overall, cities are doing a good job of self-regulating: setting GHG emission reduction targets for the city corporation, banning pesticide on city-owned property and mandating environmentally friendly design for new city buildings. We challenge councils to extend these programs to the whole city, and fully integrate what are often seen as side initiatives. And we challenge citizens to do everything they can to make their city resilient, inclusive, and sustainable.

With primary research by Victoria Goodday; assistance by Monika Warzecha; French translation by Adeline Cohen. For more information on the ranking, go here.