For more than 25 years, EnviroCentre has helped municipalities, housing providers, schools, and communities solve complex challenges with practical, people-centred climate solutions. As 2025 ends, we’re already laying the groundwork for programs, events and partnerships across eastern Ontario for the year ahead.
This year, we delivered close to 30 programs and projects — each one designed to make our communities more resilient and sustainable.
Celebrating community changemakers
In October, we gathered for our annual reception to celebrate the movers, shakers and “magic makers” who make Ottawa more vibrant, and resilient. EnviroCentre was proud to distribute over $375,000 last year to community programs and organizations doing extraordinary work across the city.
Connecting the Dots on Greener Events
Events shape so much of our city. They bring people together, build community and shape how we celebrate, learn and do business.
And across the region, one big question keeps coming up: How do we make events greener, without making them harder?
That’s the conversation EnviroCentre is hosting on February 27. This symposium is not a lecture, it’s a conversation. It’s a chance for event organizers, business leaders, decision makers, vendors, to explore what’s already working, where the challenges are, and what greener events could look like in practice.
If you plan events — festivals, sporting events, conferences, community gatherings — we hope you’ll join the conversation.
Expanding climate solutions across Eastern Ontario
EnviroCentre has deep roots in Ottawa. Many of us live and work here. But our work now takes us farther afield. In 2025, we were proud to expand the Better Homes Loan program to three new communities, we now run this program in Ottawa, Peterborough, and Lanark. Through these programs we helped distribute over $3 million to help homeowners retrofit their homes, reducing emissions, improving comfort, and future proofing housing across the region. Watch part 1 of our Retrofit Accelerator project at Carver Place here.
Home energy retrofits at scale
In 2025, we completed the first ever mass, deep energy retrofit in eastern Ontario: 63 townhomes in the Carver Place Multifaith Housing Initiative community in Ottawa.
With our partners at the CABER program with Carleton University and McGill University, we are now gathering energy and non-energy impact data through the summer 2026.
Alongside this major project, our community energy work continued to grow:
- 50+ energy-coaching sessions delivered
- 5,461 homes retrofitted
- Over 588 heat pumps installed
- 2,000+ appliances replaced
- 1,000 smart thermostats added
These upgrades reduce emissions, cut energy costs, and help families live more comfortably.
Waste & Circular Economy
This year, our team piloted creative new waste-reduction solutions, including a reusable-cup trial with Run Ottawa. At the Run to Empower race event, 602 reusable cups helped demonstrate what circular systems could look like at scale.
Transportation: Moving people, connecting communities
Over 9,000 people joined us in June for our annual cycling Let’s Bike campaign— a celebration of low-carbon transportation and a friendly challenge that gets more people cycling to work and in their communities.
We also launched two pilot projects:
- Bike Valet at the Taste of Wellington in Wellington West.
- Tunes and Tracks, a wildly popular experiential musical campaign with OC Transpo
These initiatives help make sustainable transportation convenient, visible, and fun.
Growing the urban forest
Climate-resilient cities need resilient green infrastructure. Trees don’t just beautify communities — they mitigate heat, improve air quality, slow stormwater, and support biodiversity. The urban canopy is essential infrastructure.
This year we:
- Planted 7 tiny forests, with more than 4,500 trees, shrubs, and native plants
- Delivered our biggest planting year yet
- Partnered with the City of Ottawa to launch the Plant Your Place program
More than 1,263 trees were distributed to residents in May alone — with plans to double that number in 2026.
Hidden Harvest: 10,141 lbs of fruit (or… 2,353 full, reusable shopping bags gathered)
What does 10,141 lbs of fruit look like? Roughly:
- 1,268 Canadian live geese, or
- 54 wheelbarrows
This year, our incredible Hidden Harvest volunteers ran 106 harvest events across Ottawa — rescuing local fruit, reducing food waste, and strengthening community connections.
Looking ahead The world changed a lot in 2025. We know how challenging it can be to stay hopeful and committed to reducing and mitigating the effects of climate change in our communities.
But we are all in it together! Every day we meet other individuals and organizations who are committed to the practical, effective solutions that are available to us today. And that gives us optimism.
As we look toward 2026, we invite you to join us in this work. Together, we can build the resilient, low-carbon communities our future depends on.