News Release

HRM Places Second in National Sustainable Cities Ranking

(Wednesday, February 13, 2008) - Halifax Regional Municipality's efforts to become a more sustainable municipality received national recognition this week with the release of Corporate Knights magazine's Second Annual Ranking of Canada's Most Sustainable Cities.

HRM ranked 2nd in the medium cities category and 5th overall in the country. This was a marked improvement over last year, when HRM placed 17th out of 24.

"This achievement highlights HRM's strong commitment to the environment and to ensuring we have a healthy, vibrant and sustainable community," said Mayor Peter Kelly. "Being recognized by an independent third party certainly shows that we are on the right track.

"The Corporate Knights ranking also gives us a good performance indicator for our environmental sustainability priorities, such as our corporate and community green house gas plans and our climate change strategy."

The comprehensive ranking identifies Canadian cities whose practices leave the smallest environmental footprint possible and create a healthy, thriving population. Initiatives such as the Harbour Solutions Project, pesticide use reduction program, composting and recycling systems, and the Alderney 5 advanced geothermal energy project were some of the significant factors in HRM's excellent ranking.

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Mayor Peter Kelly
490-4010