In his 2006 UBCM Speech, Premier Gordon Campbell challenged local governments to increase urban densities, reduce building costs and create positive environmental and health outcomes (build smaller, faster and smarter). To help, the Premier committed to establishing Green City Awards to provide substantial cash awards to local governments, large and small, achieving integrated community design and management that encourages physical activity, energy conservation, and environmental benefits. The awards will profile best practices to give local government concrete case studies to learn from. It will also enable recipients to further invest in initiatives that result in greener and healthier communities. The emphasis of the awards will be on implementation of many practices and progress towards results.
The Program is a $2.5 million direct award program that commits $500,000 a year over 5 years. In recognition of the differences between communities of varying sizes, the awards will be given to municipalities in 6 categories based on the latest BC Stats population data. Two additional categories will award regional districts for the important and distinctive work that they do in electoral areas and across the region.
In addition to these categories, 2008 will be the first year of the new Green City Partnership Award which will be provided to both a local government and non-government partner whose collaboration has led to the creation of a leading edge development that broke new ground in the practice of innovation and urban sustainability.
An eligible recipient is a local government and nominations will only be accepted through a self nomination process. For the Green City Partnership Award, in addition to the local government, co-recipients include Non-Governmental Organizations, Not-for-Profit groups, as well as for-profit private corporations. Each municipality may nominate themselves once per year. Regional districts may nominate themselves for each RD category (Electoral Area and Regional) annually.
All Nomination Forms and supporting documentation must be received at the Ministry of Community Services by April 18, 2008 in order to be considered for the second annual awards ceremony during the annual UBCM Convention (September 22 – 26, 2008).
Successful communities will be those that most effectively demonstrate how they are achieving the selection criteria included in the Program Guides. Before completing the Nomination Form, nominees should ensure they have read the Green City Awards Program Guide (PDF-214KB) and the Green City Partnership Award Program Guide (PDF-204KB) which provide critical information relating to:
- Eligibility
- Selection criteria
- Supporting documentation