Social and affordable housing has a wide range of benefits for families and for communities. However, when new affordable housing developments are announced they often face community opposition, which can be a barrier to building these much-needed developments.

To better understand why communities are opposed to affordable housing and how providers can understand and respond to opposition, Civida conducted an applied research project on affordable housing and neighbourhoods exploring key questions. The result is a suite of resources designed for housing providers, developers, housing agencies, and the public to both better understand and respond to concerns about affordable housing.

Read the blog post.

This project was funded in 2019 through the Foundation’s Grant Program.

The Alberta Invasive Species Council updated their Invasive Plants of Alberta Guide. The new version of this guide includes provincial distribution maps, information on prevention initiatives, and indicates the species that are problematic in specific habitats. There are several invasive plant species that are particularly problematic in urban areas that homeowners and REALTORS® should be aware of. These can be a liability as landowners are responsible for controlling or eradicating prohibited noxious or noxious invasive plant species that persist on their property as per the Weed Control Act.

This project was funded in 2020 through the Foundation’s Grant Program.

The Federation of Calgary Communities completed a rewrite of their resource Guide to the Planning Process, and developed additional tools to assist residents, community associations, and other nonprofits as they learn to navigate the new planning processes in Calgary.

This project was funded in 2019 through the Foundation’s Grant Program.

Rural properties benefit from woodlots and shelterbelts (eco-buffers) by reducing possible forest fire risks, reducing soil erosion and wind impacts on buildings, and enhances overall aesthetics. Proper woodlot management ensures the health of forested lands and increases the value of the land.

Real estate professionals authorized to trade in rural properties can provide clients with access to professional advice on the forested portions of rural land through the Agroforestry and Woodlot Extension Society (AWES). AWES developed a suite of resources for municipalities, property owners and REALTORS® to better manage and assess their woodlots.

These resources build on a previous project funded by the Foundation on determining the Value of Trees.

Read the blog post.

Explore the resources:

This project was funded in 2020 through the Foundation’s Grant Program.

The COVID-19 pandemic and related public health have drawn people’s attention to how critically important their homes, neighbourhoods, and communities are to their health. Public health works proactively to create the conditions for long-term recovery by focusing not only on the disease but on promoting the health of people. Healthy people are the foundation of a healthy economy.

The Healthy Homes & Healthy Communities Toolkit is a user-friendly website, informed by engagement with real estate professionals, planners and developers, consumers, and municipalities. The toolkit identifies nine common factors that support healthy homes and healthy communities. The nine key factor pages summarize key points and terms, highlight sample criteria and recommendations, and connect to existing supports and programs. Each of these nine factors is aligned with three key societal areas of concern: environmental stewardship, economic recovery, and COVID-19 pandemic recovery.

Read the blog post.

This project was funded in 2020 through the Foundation’s Grant Program.

The Green Communities Guide is an essential tool to help communities plan and implement nature-based solutions and strategies to conserve water, protect water quality, preserve agricultural land, and protect critical open spaces and wildlife habitats.

The newly updated guide offers enhanced resources for realtors, municipalities, land-use planners, and developers to help communities plan and implement strategies to conserve valuable natural assets in the face of development and expanding communities.

This project was funded in 2020 through the Foundation’s Grant Program.

In 2020, the Center for Civilization at the University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) and Evergreen laid the foundations of the Civic Commons Catalyst (i.e. “The Catalyst”)—an interdisciplinary research and innovation platform embedded with SAPL’s City Building Design Lab (CBDLab).

With the CBDLab and its partner faculties leading an inter-and trans-disciplinary city-building research agenda—and its growing list of civil society and government partners—the Catalyst is consciously designed as vehicle for transformational and long-term change for the real estate and other city-building industries, organizations and sectors. Aimed at taking underutilized spatial assets in Albertan cities and catalyzing them into positive assets for the community that can revitalize their downtowns, the Catalyst is identifying zones of opportunity so that assets can be networked together and help focus strategies for economic development and impact investment.

Read the media release November 30, 2021: City-building research positioned to catalyze downtown reinvention

This project was funded in 2021 through the Foundation’s Grant Program.

Making your home more energy-efficient and sustainable doesn’t have to be hard! In this live episode of What On EARTH Can We Do? the Alberta Emerald Foundation team sits down with green building technology experts Melanie Ross at the SAIT and Peter Graul to find out what green building technologies are and how we can use them to make our homes greener.

The Alberta Real Estate Foundation’s Executive Director, Patti Morris, took part:

“This conversation is so timely. This summer, in celebration of our 30th anniversary and three decades of service to the province, we held engagement sessions with our stakeholders in the real estate industry, past recipients of our grant programs, and others to help chart our future. We heard that the real estate industry is facing massive changes – demographic, cultural, social, environmental and financial. Critical amongst these relating to green building technologies are the sustainability of urban housing and commercial development, changes in the technology of homes and energy efficiency, and the impacts of climate change.”

The Foundation supports the Alberta Emerald Foundation’s year-round programming to share stories, through the Emerald Awards, speaker series, documentary series, tutorials, and this podcast. We recently funded SAIT for the development of green building education for real estate professionals.

The goal of this project is to quantify the amount and value of the land that could be released for other uses, as well as the potential foregone capital and operating costs of providing and maintaining parking infrastructure. This new research report explores how Canada’s personal mobility systems are poised to be radically transformed by the convergence of four disruptive technology and business model innovations: vehicle automation, connectivity, electrification, and car sharing.

The study was carried out by the Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Research (CESAR) initiative at the University of Calgary with support from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation and the Transition Accelerator.

Explore the Research Report here.

Read the blog – What if our Cities only Needed a Fraction of their Parking Spaces? by lead researcher David B. Layzell.

This project was funded in 2019 through the Foundation’s Grant Program.

The goal of this project is to support the creation of sustainable, efficient, and resilient housing co-ops in Alberta. Despite minimal growth of new housing co-operatives in Alberta, a co-op model can effectively engage tenant-members in making decisions that provide affordable options, a range of community benefits, and be good stewards of the housing stock.

The Sustainable Housing Initiative, a division of the Rural Development Network, partnered with the Alberta Community and Cooperative Association and the Northern Alberta Cooperative Housing Association to create new resources to support the growth of co-operative housing in northern Alberta.

Explore the Research Report, Guidebook, and the Calculator Tool here.

This project was funded in 2020 through the Foundation’s Grant Program.

Heritage districts and heritage places of interest can create niche markets for shopping, living, and eating in “differentiated” heritage environments that contribute to urban liveability and the attraction of talent. The Calgary Heritage Initiative’s Heritage Inspires YYC includes a tab for realtors and comprehensive FAQs that cover everything from place-making to urban planning policy and the steps needed to designate a heritage property. It features 36 community histories, 17 flyover videos of potential heritage districts, 50+ examples of new uses for old buildings, as well as success stories of revitalization and designation. Visitors to the website can learn about how heritage contributes to economic recovery, sustainability, and urban liveability.

The purpose of this guide is to support new and landless farmers to choose a path towards accessing land. In researching and writing this guide, the driving question has been: how have new farmers secured land? There are several different options to consider from leasing and purchasing to community farms and incubator plots – each with its own set of pros and cons.

This document was originally produced by Young Agrarians for new and young farmers in British Columbia. This guide has been adapted to the Alberta context by Organic Alberta with financial support from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation.