News Release
Halifax Places First in National Sustainable Cities Ranking
(Friday, January 30, 2009) - Yesterday, Corporate Knights Magazine unveiled their third-annual Corporate Knights Most Sustainable Cities in Canada list. "HRM's sustainability initiatives and efforts have paid off as Corporate Knights Magazine ranked the municipality first for medium-sized Canadian cities. It is so rewarding for HRM to get recognized in this way by this organization."said Mayor Peter Kelly.
Founded in 2002, Corporate Knights Inc. is an independent Canadian media company focussed on promoting and reinforcing sustainable development in Canada.
This year HRM ranked 1st in the medium-sized cities category and 5th overall in the country. In 2008, HRM placed 2nd in the medium-sized cities category and also finished 5th overall. In 2007, the criteria were not as refined and did not categorize the cities by size, HRM ranked 17th overall.
"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 greenhouse 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. Cities are assessed based on five categories: Ecological Integrity; Economic Security; Governance and Empowerment; Infrastructure and Built Environment and Social Well-Being. HRM had the highest Governance and Empowerment score of all cities. Initiatives such as the Harbour Solutions Project, pesticide use reduction program, the upcoming corporate sustainability filter, composting and recycling systems, and the Alderney 5 Geothermal Energy Project were some of the significant factors in HRM's excellent ranking.
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Contact:
Mayor Peter Kelly, Halifax Regional Municipality, 902-490-4010
Peter Duncan, Acting SEMO (Sustainable Environment Management Office) Manager,
490-5449
