Capital project: Signature initiative | Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM):

Your capital project may involve any type of initiative, so long as it has the capacity to create transformative change in the energy, transportation, waste, water or land use sector (or a combination of those sectors). It must have the potential to address environmental challenges and change the way other municipalities operate and deliver municipal services. It must also have a solid business case and the ability to deliver strong environmental, financial and social benefits directly to your community or through replication in other municipalities.

Signature initiatives do not have pre-set environmental targets/thresholds because the projects are unique and evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We prefer projects that have built-in mechanisms to encourage replication and widespread adoption (e.g., innovative business models, partnership models, new financing mechanisms).

Examples of what you might implement include, but are not limited to:

• Advanced, emerging and adaptive technologies
• Innovative financing mechanisms and business models (e.g., property assessed clean energy programs, innovative utility charges)
• Capacity building programs that generate direct environmental benefits (e.g., green job skills training)
• Projects and programs that generate environmental, economic and other benefits for the broader community
• Enabling greater adoption of sustainable infrastructure (e.g., demonstrating new products such as shared electric autonomous vehicles, creating smart grid projects that enable more integration of renewable generation within the community)