Organizations that Work Towards Better Air Quality
Creating Healthy and Sustainable Environments (CHASE)
Creating Healthy and Sustainable Environments (CHASE) is a Canadian non-profit organization that works to incubate changes needed to transform our society. We collaborate with non-profit organizations, public health units, municipalities and other organizations to promote innovative policies, programs and technologies that help create healthier and more sustainable communities. Chase provides resources and information to individuals on the intersection of air, health, and climate change. You can find more information here.
Green Communities Canada
Across Canada, Green Communities Canada leads initiatives that support active school travel, school travel planning, and school bus electrification. This work takes place in collaboration with diverse partners to support transformative action at the local, provincial, and federal levels. The purpose of these programs is to get more children walking and wheeling to school, which reduces emissions, improves air quality, and increases community well-being.
Please click on this link to learn more about their initiatives.
Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE)
CAPE is a physician-led charity working at the intersection of environment and health.
In April 2022, CAPE released its comprehensive review of the recent scientific literature on health impacts linked to traffic-related air pollution. The report, “Mobilizing Evidence: Activating change on traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) health impacts”, brings together hard evidence of the need to clean the air for health promotion, illness prevention, and environmental justice. The report summarizes the findings from nearly 1,200 scientific papers, bringing out environmentally-driven health impacts and disparities arising from traffic-related air pollution exposure. Read more at www.cape.ca/reports.
On June 8, 2022, Clean Air Day, CAPE will launch its campaign for a ban on advertising by the oil and gas industry and for gas-powered vehicles and homes, along with a wide coalition of allies. This campaign will draw from the success of similar campaigns against smoking advertising and advertising junk foods to children. Read more at https://cape.ca/focus/fossil-fuel-ad-ban/.
Climate Caucus
We are a non-partisan network of 470+ local elected climate leaders. Collectively, we create and implement 21st-century local government climate policy in Canada. Our resources include inspiring examples of local government action on transportation, buildings, waste and other key areas to reduce emissions in our communities. For more information, please visit this website.
Clean Air Council
The Clean Air Council is a network of 30+ municipalities and health units from across Ontario. Since 2000, Clean Air Council members have worked collaboratively on the development and implementation of clean air, climate change, sustainability and resilience actions. The Clean Air Council is based on the premise that municipalities benefit from actions that reduce energy use, reduce emissions, make the movement of people and goods more efficient, and make communities more livable, competitive and resilient.
Clean Air Council members work collaboratively on agreed upon priorities. Members track, analyze and determine the outcomes of actions and bring together experts and practitioners to share experiences and lessons learned.There are many benefits to a collaborative approach to addressing complex issues. Having multiple jurisdictions at the same table enhances networking and the exchange of resources and information. It ensures that clean air and climate change efforts are not unnecessarily duplicated. Working together, Clean Air Council members achieve far more with fewer resources and reduced risk. For more information please visit this link.
The Canadian Lung Association
The Canadian Lung Association focuses much of their time on the intersection between air quality and health. They provide a list of resources and information for individuals on both outdoor and indoor air quality. You can find more information here.
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
The Ontario Clean Air Alliance led the successful campaign to phase-out Ontario’s five dirty coal-fired power plants. We are now working to move Ontario towards a 100% renewable future through an integrated combination of energy conservation and efficiency, water power imports from Quebec and cost-effective Made-in-Ontario green energy. For more information please visit this link.
Clean Air Partnership
Increasing the capacity of communities, businesses and individuals to make the transition to low emissions vehicles are critical to help mitigate the effects of climate change, reduce energy use and costs and improve air quality.
Funded by the M.H. Brigham Foundation, CAP works with Plug’n Drive to advance electric vehicle (EV) uptake through rebates on second hand EVs. Ontario drivers qualify for $1,000 toward the purchase of a used fully electric car. This incentive does not include plug-in hybrids. The car must be registered and insured in Ontario, be for personal-use and have a resale sticker price below $50,000 CDN before taxes. For more information please visit this link.
Sierra Club Canada Foundation - Ontario Chapter
Breathe Easy is an Ottawa-based citizen science initiative run by Sierra Club Canada Foundation’s Ontario chapter. The program’s goal is to increase the understanding about air pollution through a combination of citizen science and community outreach. Breathe Easy uses low-cost air quality monitors to supplement the city’s single permanent air quality monitoring station. The program is also collaborating with organizations and area schools to promote air quality education. Breathe Easy is carried out in cooperation with Ecology Ottawa and with funding from the Ottawa Community Foundation. For more information please visit this link.
New Brunswick Lung Association
The New Brunswick Lung Association has been promoting clean air in the province for decades. From our years of smoking cessation initiatives and healthy public policy advocacy to our public education and awareness campaigns, New Brunswick Lung has positioned itself as leaders in the clear air sector. We work with a network of passionate citizen scientists to monitor fine particulate pollution in the province in partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada. Our Drive Electric initiatives help Atlantic Canadians overcome the barriers to adopting new technology, through educational resources and providing hands-on EV test drive experiences. You can find more information here.
West Central Airshed (WCAS)
The West Central Airshed (WCAS) is a not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder organization. With 12 continuous monitoring stations, WCAS provides independent, accessible air quality data. We provide our members with a forum for discussion and a trusted voice on air quality issues. Through monitoring, collaboration, and education, we work to improve regional air quality. To learn more about air quality issues and to access our educational resources, visit www.wcas.ca.
Bike Brampton
BikeBrampton is a group of volunteers that encourages, promotes and advocates for increased safe cycling in Brampton and Caledon. Our goal is for more people to cycle or walk for shorter trips instead of using cars to get around.
BikeBrampton partners with Punjabi Community Health Services to run the Community Cycling Program (CCP) on behalf of the Region of Peel. The CCP promotes safe cycling through encouragement, mentorship, education and skills training. Pedalwise is a mentorship program that teams experienced cyclists with those wishing to improve their cycling skills and confidence. BikeWrx is a program that teaches basic bike repair skills. The bike library offers free loaner bikes and ensures bike accessibility is not an obstacle to increased cycling behaviour.
In addition to these formalized programs, BikeBrampton volunteers participate in community outreach in schools, community centres and along the roads and trails where cyclists travel. Please visit the BikeBrampton website for more information on our programs and activities.
Markham Cycles
Markham Cycles is Markham’s community bicycle hub, launched in 2019, and the first of its kind in York Region. It is a critical piece of Markham’s cycling infrastructure, and a key driver in getting more Markham residents out on their bikes.
Our goal is to build cycling culture in Markham by removing barriers, providing education and making it easier for people to start cycling. Due to the generous support of our funders and partners, we offer free programs and workshops to anyone who is interested in cycling. These programs include access to bikes and tools at drop-in bike repair sessions, workshops on cycling topics, cycling mentorship and loans, community bike rides, bike rescue and youth-focused programs.
Markham Cycles is a project of The Centre for Active Transportation at Clean Air Partnership, a registered charity. We work in close cooperation with the City of Markham, the Markham’s Cycling and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and the other partners and funders listed below to deliver our cycling programming in Markham. For more information please visit this link.
