About Us

Sustainability Guelph is a project of Guelph Sustainable Solutions partnership

-- a group of leaders from business, academia, and local government who are working together to promote economic, social, and environmental sustainability in the Guelph community.

History of Guelph Sustainable Solutions:

  • In January 2007, the University of Guelph held a one-day conference on "Aligning Cities and Universities for the Benefit of the Environment” where the main topic was how to create greater engagement between cities, business and universities.
  • In May 2007, Mayor Farbridge brought together a group including representatives from the University of Guelph, The Co-operators and Linamar to discuss the possibility of forming a partnership to support and profile the city as a model of sustainability. Other businesses, including McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Meridian Credit Union, and Guelph Hydro joined subsequent meetings.
  • In May 2008, the group met and decided that hosting a sustainability conference/ workshop would be the best next step to better understand how to move forward on a partnership with business, the city, and university.
  • The group also agreed on a vision, mission, and goal of the partnership:
    • Vision: Guelph is recognized nationally as a sustainable community
    • Mission: To encourage all private, public and non-profit sector organizations in Guelph to incorporate sustainability principles into their business practices.
    • Goal: By December 2011, an increasing majority of Guelph jobs are with organizations that have incorporated sustainability principles into their business practices.
  • The group began planning the first Sustainable Solutions Workshop, which was held at River Run Centre on January 7, 2009 and attracted more than 100 participants. The roundtable discussions formed the basis for a statement called "Sustainable Guelph: Our Commitment,” meant to capture the common vision, principles and commitment to action of the participants.
  • In March 2009, work began on a Trillium grant application to hire a person to design and manage the program including a series of sector and community events, developing a business toolkit, and writing a marketing plan including rolling out the program beyond the business community to the not-for-profit, educational and government sectors. In June a collaborative application was submitted with the Chamber of Commerce as lead, along with Guelph Environmental Leadership and Trellis, and was successful in being granted $86,300 over two years for the project.
  • The Second Annual Workshop took place on January 6, 2010 at the Linamar Training Centre. The workshop again attracted about 100 participants.