When we think of urban landowners, our minds (or mine, anyway) may jump to picturing vulture real-estate investment funds and greedy businessmen in black profiting from gentrification.  While the links between these private investments and the housing crisis have been long documented, we (or I) can’t forget that government entities own and control typically larger areas for public infrastructure, parks, and government buildings. And that land ownership determines much more than just real estate markets.

In Canada, some of the largest landholders are public school districts. This means that the choices schools make in how they create and manage their landscapes influence the overall urban environment: they can either pave the way for greener, healthier cities or maintain asphalt jungles. Most importantly, schools can impact the implementation – or not- of land-based climate resilience practices by utilizing ecological services, such as cooling their surroundings and managing stormwater. Around the world, there are already projects utilizing schoolland for climate-related strategies, especially in -oh surprise- Northern Europe, with Germany and the UK as pioneers and Scandinavian countries as strong expanders of the approach. 

Few Canadian schools have realized this potential but one exception is Irma Coulson Public School. This kindergarten to Grade 8 center with 1,000-plus students in Milton (Ontario) became Canada’s first-ever Climate Ready School in 2022. This milestone was achieved thanks to a partnership between the Halton District School Board and the non-profit Evergreen, drawing inspiration from Berlin schoolyards’ experiences. Together, they transformed, in a bit more than two years, the school grounds from primarily asphalt and compacted soil into a green, sponge-like landscape that can absorb all the rainwater that falls on-site. To provide more shade, the size of the tree canopy cover was tripled – the goal is to increase it by 47 times in the long term. Irma Coulson’s 4.5 hectares have thus been turned into a regenerative space that provides a park-like hub for the neighboring community, helping mitigate flood risk and moderating temperatures.  Beyond climate resilience, greener schoolyards have been shown to help children focus and develop positive behaviors, as they offer direct daily access to nature. This is in itself a significant social equality factor as not every family has access to resources – a country house, a car, or just enough leisure time – that ensure experiences in nature.

Several initiatives help scale out green schoolyards across Canada. For example, Tree Canada’s Greening Canada’s School Grounds program offers grants for schools of up to $10,000; or the Green Communities Guide, to help public entities plan nature-based solutions that strengthen community resilience and reduce climate risks.