Sustainable Infrastructure Policy & Guidelines

Regional Municipality of Durham, Ontario, Canada

The Regional Municipality of Durham is a rapidly growing upper tier municipality with a population of almost 700,000 people. The Region is responsible for providing transportation, water, wastewater, and waste management services to local municipalities through its Works Department.

As part of its Strategic Plan objectives for reducing GHG emissions and addressing climate risks, the Region sought to develop and implement a consistent policy and approach for capital project delivery across the Works Department. Pratus Group led this effort, developing a Sustainable Infrastructure Policy and suite of guidelines that are to be used on Region capital projects. The guidelines were informed by leading green standards and frameworks, including Envision, LEED, and the CAGBC ZCB standard. The guidelines were also structured to complement the Region’s sustainability standard for its corporate buildings.

Completion of this project required extensive engagement with Region staff. Engagement activities included structured interviews, facilitated workshops, and training sessions. Through this engagement, it was identified that staff would benefit from additional resources and tools to aid implementation of the policy and guidelines at the project level.

To support the development of these tools, Pratus Group assisted the Region with successfully obtaining grant funding support from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Green Municipal Fund. With this support, tools were developed including tracking and reporting templates, example RFP language, and an embodied carbon calculator.

The Region is preparing to pilot the guidelines, and the project will be completed in fall 2026.

Services Provided: Sustainability Standard Development, Stakeholder Engagement & Tool Development