The Climate and Equity Lab works alongside communities pushed to the margins of the climate crisis — learning from the solutions they are already building, and working to provide and mobilize the support needed to scale them.
The Lab At A Glance
The Climate and Equity Lab was founded by Gore Mutual Foundation, York University, and Social Innovation Canada — different sectors working alongside frontline community organizations in Toronto, Vancouver, and Waterloo Region. Three phases. Three cities. A single driving question: what would it take for systems to actually support and scale what communities are already building?
WHAT IS A SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB?
A social innovation lab brings together people who don’t usually work together — researchers, insurers, community organizations, governments, lived experts — to understand a complex problem, test ideas, and figure out what actually works. Rather than designing solutions in advance and hoping they land, a lab starts with questions and learns its way toward answers. The goal is to build trust and relationships alongside evidence, and to adapt based on what the work reveals over time.
The Lab Process
Phase 1
We set out to answer a foundational question: how does climate change disproportionately impact communities made vulnerable by poverty, inadequate housing, and systemic barriers in Canadian urban environments — and what approaches might address those impacts?
This Discovery phase pointed to five key levers for change with potential to address not only these impacts, but also the conditions that shape them.
Phase 1 engaged over 100 stakeholders and experts
York University’s research included a literature review, 14 in-depth interviews with housing adaptation experts, and a review of municipal policies in three regions
Phase 2
In Phase 2, we dove deeper on the promising approaches identified in Phase 1, focusing on those that the Lab was best suited to support. Through workshops with lived experts, prototyping sessions with key stakeholders, and academic research and systems analysis, we surfaced promising interventions already being lifted up by communities — as well as outstanding barriers and measures to strengthen these interventions.
Across research and engagement, one insight stood out clearly: the most effective responses to climate risk are community-led and rooted in local knowledge, relationships, and trust.
Workshops brought together over 120 stakeholders across 80 organizations.
Researchers at York University led 8 workshops with lived experts to understand existing equity gaps and how to close these in the interventions that were surfaced.
Phase 3
Phase 3 asks the next question: what would it take for systems to actually support and scale what communities are already building?
Phase 1
We set out to answer a foundational question: how does climate change disproportionately impact communities made vulnerable by poverty, inadequate housing, and systemic barriers in Canadian urban environments — and what approaches might address those impacts?
This Discovery phase pointed to five key levers for change with potential to address not only these impacts, but also the conditions that shape them.
Phase 1 engaged over 100 stakeholders and experts
York University’s research included a literature review, 14 in-depth interviews with housing adaptation experts, and a review of municipal policies in three regions
Phase 1 engaged over 100 stakeholders and experts
York University’s research included a literature review, 14 in-depth interviews with housing adaptation experts, and a review of municipal policies in three regions
Phase 2
In Phase 2, we dove deeper on the promising approaches identified in Phase 1, focusing on those that the Lab was best suited to support. Through workshops with lived experts, prototyping sessions with key stakeholders, and academic research and systems analysis, we surfaced promising interventions already being lifted up by communities — as well as outstanding barriers and measures to strengthen these interventions.
Across research and engagement, one insight stood out clearly: the most effective responses to climate risk are community-led and rooted in local knowledge, relationships, and trust.
Community-based workshops brought together over 80 contributors in Vancouver, Toronto, and Cambridge.
Workshops brought together more than 120 stakeholders across 80 organizations.
Researchers at York University led 8 workshops with lived experts to understand existing equity gaps and how to close these in the interventions that were surfaced.
Phase 3
Phase 3 asks the next question: what would it take for systems to actually support and scale what communities are already building?
THE LAB’S THEORY OF CHANGE
Communities that are most vulnerable to climate impacts are already building the knowledge, relationships, and practices of resilience — often outside of and despite existing systems.
When we deepen our understanding of the problem alongside communities, connect that learning to rigorous research, and make it legible to the systems and funders with the power to act, we create conditions for community-led resilience to become durable and scalable.
In other words: trust and evidence, built together, move systems.
Practice communities
Canada’s cities face growing climate impacts like flooding, extreme heat, and aging infrastructure. And no two face exactly the same conditions. Place-based solutions matter. What the Lab is working to understand and share are the conditions that allow community-led resilience to take root, and how those conditions might be better supported across different contexts.
In each city, a diverse cross-section of community organizations, spanning housing providers, social services, employment supports, community development, and frontline advocacy, gathered to share their experience and shape the direction of the Lab’s work.
Vancouver
Aboriginal Housing Management Association
Aryze Developments
BC Housing
BC Indigenous Housing Society
BC Non-Profit Housing Association
BC Poverty Reduction Coalition
Brightside Community Homes Foundation
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
City of Maple Ridge
City of New Westminster
City of Vancouver
CityHive
CleanBC
Climate Disaster Project
ClimateReady BC
Climate Recentred
Community Social Planning Council
Community-Engaged Research Initiative (SFU)
Create Climate Equity
David Suzuki Foundation
Dunbar Earthquake and Emergency Preparedness
Eastside Movement for Business and Economic Renewal Society (EMBERS)
Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (Government of BC)
Emily Carr University (DESIS Lab)
Foundations for Social Change
Fraser Basin Council
Good Neighbour Kitsilano
Gore Mutual Insurance Company
Hey Neighbour Collective
Kambo Energy Group
Kitsilano Neighbourhood House
Lookout Housing and Health Society
Metro Vancouver Aboriginal Executive Council
Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
PHS Community Services Society
Praxis Spinal Cord Institute
Real Estate Foundation of BC
Simon Fraser University
Starfish Canada
The Centre for Climate Justice (UBC)
Union Gospel Mission
University of British Columbia
University of Victoria
Urban Climate Leadership (MakeWay & Tamarack Institute)
Vancity Community Foundation
Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre
Vancouver Emergency Management Agency (VEMA)
Kitchener-Waterloo
A Better Tent City
ACORN Waterloo Region
Anishnabeg Outreach Employment and Training Inc.
Beyond Housing
Cambridge Food Bank
Children and Youth Planning Table
Citizens for Cambridge
City of Kitchener
City of Waterloo
ClimateActionWR
Coalition of Muslim Women of KW
COMPASS Refugee Centre
Conestoga College
Co-operators
Crow Shield Lodge
Enviro-Stewards Inc.
Equitable Life of Canada
Flourishing Enterprise Institute (WLU)
Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region
House of Friendship
Indwell
Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation (University of Waterloo)
Kinbridge Community Association
K-W Urban Native Wigwam Project
Love Your Neighbour Communities
Mamas for Mamas
Partners for Action (P4A) (University of Waterloo)
rare Charitable Research Reserve
Reception House Waterloo Region
Region of Waterloo
Reep Green Solutions
Seeds of Diversity
SHIP
Social Development Centre Waterloo Region
SPECTRUM
Sustainable Waterloo Region
Tamarack Institute
Union Co-operative
University of Waterloo
Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR)
Waterloo Region Community Foundation
Waterloo Region Grassroots Response
Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership
Wilfrid Laurier University
Willow River Community Land Trust
Wisahkotewinowak
Women’s Crisis Services
YMCA Three Rivers
YWCA Kitchener-Waterloo
Toronto
Arup
C40 Cities
CAMH
Canadian Climate Challenge
Canadian Foundation for the Prevention of Family Violence
Canadian Red Cross
Catalysts’ Circle
Catholic Crosscultural Services
Catherine Donnelly Foundation
Centre for Community Energy Transformation
Circle Community LandTrust
City of Toronto
Climate Ready Homes (TRCA)
Climate Resilient Communities
Climateverse
Co-operators
Community Resilience to Extreme Weather (CREW)
Covenant House Toronto
David Suzuki Foundation
Definity Foundation
Director Collaborative Centre for Climate Health & Sustainable Care
East Scarborough Storefront
Efficiency Canada
Evergreen
Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council
Foresight Canada
Future of Good
Good Futures Collective
Holland Bloorview
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
Indigenous Climate Action
Indigenous Youth Roots
Laidlaw Foundation
Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3)
MaRS Climate Action
Mastercard Foundation
McMaster University
OCADU Resilience Lab
OCADU Systems Lab
Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association
Passive House Canada
Peter Gilgan Foundation
Philanthropic Foundations of Canada
Project Neutral & Climate Conversations
Sinai Health
Social Economy through Social Inclusion (SETSI)
Student Energy
Sustainable Impact
Tamarack Institute
The 519
Think Smaller
TNG Community Services
Toronto Atmospheric Fund
Toronto Climate Action Network (TCAN)
Toronto Emergency Management
Toronto Environmental Alliance
United Way
University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Urban Climate Leadership
Urban Just Transitions
Wellesley Institute
Women’s College Hospital
Woodgreen
York University
We are deeply grateful to the community members who contributed their time, knowledge, and lived experiences through the Lab’s workshops, which include TCHC residents and low-income, high-rise tenants in Toronto, community members with lived experience of housing precarity in Waterloo Region, and SRO residents in Vancouver.
Our partners
The Climate & Equity Lab is a collaboration between different sectoral partners: Gore Mutual Foundation, Social Innovation Canada, York University, Co-operators and Peter Gilgan Foundation.
