Canada is committed to integrating environmental protection and sustainability into all aspects of the planning and delivery of the 2025 G7 Summit.
2025 G7 Summit Sustainability Policy
This year’s Summit in Kananaskis served as a leading example of what an environmentally sustainable event can look like. Guided by the 2025 G7 Summit Sustainability Policy, environmental impacts from the Summit were minimized in alignment with:
In addition to meeting or exceeding all relevant legal and policy requirements, the program continues to integrate greening best practices and requirements throughout Canada’s Presidency by leveraging Canadian clean tech and innovations.
These include:
- Green event certifications
- Net-zero emissions and renewable energy
- Zero waste and single-use plastic reduction
- Climate resilience planning
- Wildlife safety
- Environmental collaboration with local communities and partners
Environmental initiatives
To minimize the environmental footprint of the Summit, Canada implemented a range of initiatives, in collaboration with local communities, academia, and organizations.
Green event certifications
This year, Canada pursued three green event certifications. Two of these have been achieved.
ISO Certified by BSI Canada
Gold Certified by the University of Calgary
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The Summit has achieved the highest level of certification of the University of Calgary’s Sustainable Event Certification. This certification recognizes sustainability across all aspects of event planning, including venues, transportation, accommodations, communications, food and drink, waste reduction, materials, staffing, and innovation.
Pursuing TRUE for Events Certification
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The Summit will achieve TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency) for Event certification. This is a zero-waste rating system designed to help event organizers reduce waste and use resources more efficiently. Early self-assessment indicates that certification at the Gold level is possible, with official results expected later this summer.
The 2025 G7 Summit is the first G7 Summit and the first event in Canada to pursue the TRUE certification. It is also the second G7 Summit to certify under ISO 20121, after France in 2019. Through our certifications, independent auditors verify our progress in support of our commitment to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Net-zero emissions and renewable energy
Natural Resources Canada is providing support to calculate emissions from Summit operations, including travel and waste. This is being done using their RETScreen Clean Energy Management Software platform, a Canadian-developed tool now used internationally for clean energy planning and reporting.
To further reduce our impact:
- A carbon offset strategy is in development with the University of Calgary.
- We are exploring the use of renewable energy credits – a market-based instrument that certifies how the generation and consumption of clean renewable electricity is tracked across the world.
Zero waste and single-use plastic reduction
The Summit achieved a 97% waste diversion rate from landfill at two official Summit sites after all waste reduction measures were put into effect. We aimed to achieve zero waste through several innovative approaches, partnering with Canadian entrepreneurs and expertise. Key initiatives include:
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Working with S-Cubed Environmental and Green Calgary to sort and audit waste.
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Using Oscar Sort, the AI Recycling Assistant from Intuitive AI, to identify items being thrown out and guide users to the correct bin, enhancing recycling accuracy and minimizing waste.
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Distributing recyclable Canadian aluminum water bottles from NORTH Water to reduce single-use plastics.
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Composting food waste with Eco-Growth Environmental’s commercial dehydrators, significantly reducing the volume of compostable material and supporting local Alberta farms.
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Transforming plastic waste into high-quality, durable products with Full Circle Plastics, for applications ranging from municipal outdoor furniture to industrial use products.
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Leveraging Cochrane BioChar, an Indigenous-owned business that turns waste wood into biochar. Biochar is an organic, carbon-rich material made up of organic residues that can be used to improve soil health and productivity.
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Enhancing waste diversion through the Go Zero program, which recycles traditionally unrecyclable products and repurposes them into new products.
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Recovering and redistributing surplus food and meals to local community organizations through La Tablée des Chefs.
Many of these partners are successful Canadian exporters, with support from Global Affairs Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service.
Climate resilience planning
The Summits Management Office produced a detailed climate risk and vulnerability assessment for Summit locations and key transportation routes, in collaboration with WSP Canada. This short-term, event-specific analysis accounted for seasonal weather, geography, and infrastructure conditions to identify potential climate hazards that might occur during the event and potential adaptation and risk reduction measures. The findings were shared with partners to support emergency readiness.
We also supported a community-led FireSmart event on June 7 in the Peaks of Grassi neighbourhood in Canmore, in collaboration with the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley and the Town of Canmore. The purpose of this project is to find effective options to help the Town of Canmore and its residents prepare for and prevent wildfires.
Wildlife safety and biodiversity
To help protect local wildlife and keep people safe, we have taken steps to promote biodiversity and minimize wildlife encounters in the region:
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In collaboration with Friends of Kananaskis Country, wildlife-attractant buffaloberry bushes were removed from high-risk areas around the main Summit venue to limit wildlife encounters, increasing safety for residents, visitors and animals both during the event and over the long term.
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With the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley, we’re supporting a fruit tree removal program in the Town of Canmore to prevent bears from being attracted into residential areas.
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In partnership with the Calgary Urban Species Response Team and Bird Friendly Calgary, post-Summit bird collision risk assessments are being carried out at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity to identify mitigation measures for high-risk buildings.
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Summit staff have been trained on best practices related to wildlife awareness and resources are available on our Information for Visitors webpage.
Environmental collaboration with local communities and partners
Ongoing collaboration with local communities in the Bow Valley region helped to shape Summit planning by reflecting local environmental priorities and ideas.
Examples include:
- Collaborating with the University of Calgary to certify the event through their Sustainable Events badge program, and to leverage academia expertise on carbon offsetting to develop a procurement strategy for offsetting emissions.
- Mobilizing youth participation in local schools, including through a student-led mock G7 Summit focused on environmental issues and solutions.
- Collaborating with Alberta Parks, Parks Canada (Banff National Park), and the Kananaskis Improvement District to ensure good stewardship of the surrounding provincial and national parks.
- Leveraging regional contracting and environmental expertise from Public Services and Procurement Canada’s Western Region team.
