City of Kingston Wins Sustainable Award

Published on: 2015/02/12 - in News

For the second time in three years, the City of Kingston has won a Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Sustainable Communities Brownfield Award.

Announced at the FCM conference in London, Ontario,the award honours the City’s innovative and efficient filtering solution to remediating groundwater at Emma Martin Park.

“We’re proud FCM continues to acknowledge the work we’re doing in Kingston with brownfield remediation,” said Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson. “The fact that this is the second time we have won this award signals how we’re moving our smart city vision forward by developing cost-effective, intelligent remediation solutions in consultation with community partners.”

The FCM announced in November that the City of Kingston had won yet another award – in 2013, the City was recognized by the organization for using trees in Belle Park to capture contaminants and prevent them from leaching into the river.

“This sustainable solution cost less to implement than the conventional excavation and landfilling approach to dealing with contaminated soil and groundwater. It also allowed users of this waterfront area to continue their rowing and canoe activities while construction work was conducted at the site,” says director, environment and sustainable initiatives, Paul MacLatchy.

In a release, the City of Kingston stated that this project supports its efforts to be environmentally responsible and economically healthy, describing those  goals as two of the pillars of the Sustainable Kingston Plan, the community-built plan to make Kingston Canada’s most sustainable city.

For more  information about the FCM awarded innovations at Emma Martin Park and Belle Park, visit this City of Kingston webpage. A video about the project can be viewed at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities website.


 Photo source: City’s Emma Martin Park webpage