Building Climate-Ready Infrastructure and Housing: “Game-changing” online platform gets an upgrade

Municipalities across Canada are facing growing pressure to ensure that new infrastructure and housing projects are low-carbon and climate-resilient.

“Building new infrastructure and housing without considering climate change doesn’t cut it anymore,” says Megan Meaney, Executive Director of ICLEI Canada. “Municipalities are recognizing the need to protect investments from climate change impacts while contributing to a low-carbon future.”

Climate Insight is helping local governments meet this challenge head-on. This free, online platform developed by ICLEI Canada with support from Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada offers tools, data, and inspiration to help community practitioners build low-carbon, climate-resilient infrastructure.

Helping communities build low-carbon, resilient infrastructure

Climate Insight launched in the fall of 2024 as part of a Climate Toolkit for Housing and Infrastructure. It is already supporting over 11,000 users across the country. From engineers and planners to policy staff and asset managers, municipal teams are using the platform to access climate data, case studies, and actionable solutions that support their work.

“There is so much great material throughout the platform,” says Joad Clement, Municipal Energy Advisor with the City of Airdrie. “We have added Climate Insight as a key resource for our policy planning team.”

Climate Insight is especially valuable for small and remote communities with limited capacity. It is designed to provide curated infrastructure and public housing information in one central location, simplifying access to information that would otherwise take hours—or days—to track down.

“It offers so many articles, insights, and tools right at my fingertips,” explains Jinny Toffelmire, Environment Team Leader with the Town of Okotoks. “This will build capacity in my team, since we won’t have to do Google searches that would take us hours. And knowing that the information has been vetted by ICLEI is a game-changer.”

Use Climate Insight to find relevant, actionable data and information on building low-carbon, resilient housing and infrastructure.

Release II: Improved and more personalized

With its second release, Climate Insight is now more valuable and user-friendly, thanks to functionality updates.

• Expanded map layers, including additional social vulnerability data, allow users to assess climate risk and equity when making infrastructure and housing decisions.
• An improved search function helps practitioners find what they need faster.
• The Solutions Finder can now rank infrastructure options based on their relevance to each user.
• The ability to login and save resources means that users can save and return to curated materials.

“The new mapping tool is a game-changer for climate action planning,” says Sara MacRae, Manager of Climate and Energy at the County of Dufferin. “By integrating social vulnerability layers, it goes beyond just identifying risks—it helps prioritize projects where they’re needed most.”

Built by and for Canadian practitioners

As Climate Insight continues to evolve, it is being shaped by direct input from Canadian municipal practitioners. Free webinars and training sessions are being offered to help more people make use of the platform’s tools and updates.

“Climate Insight puts high-quality, curated, actionable information into the hands of those building climate-ready infrastructure and housing,” says Ewa Jackson, Managing Director of ICLEI Canada. “Users tell us that once they start exploring its features and see what it can do, it quickly becomes an essential tool.”

Available at ClimateInsight.ca in English and PerspectivesClimatiques.ca in French, the platform is accessible to any Canadian community looking to build more climate-ready housing and infrastructure.

Climate Insight is funded in part by the Government of Canada. It is delivered by ICLEI Canada with support from Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada.