One of the most ambitious and far-reaching sustainability plans anywhere in the world, imagineCALGARY is a City-led, community- owned initiative that focuses on creating broad support and action towards the 100-year Vision of the plan. John Lewis of Intelligent Futures has been involved in this award-winning plan for more than five years – from the development of the methodology to the implementation of the plan.

The imagineCALGARY Plan was built upon the engagement of over 18,000 citizens in what is widely regarded as the largest civic visioning project ever undertaken in the world. The unique engagement efforts in this plan allowed for the input of a wide representation of the community, including harder-to-reach populations such as youth, urban aboriginals, seniors and diverse ethno-cultural groups.

The Goals and Targets of the imagineCALGARY Plan were developed with the direct involvement of nearly 150 citizens representing a wide variety of stakeholders throughout Calgary. Using a unique “hybrid” approach, the plan was developed with the entire community in mind.

Currently, 56 organizations have signed on to the imagineCALGARY Partnership to collectively act towards the Vision of the imagineCALGARY Plan. John led the development of this unique governance model, which features a distributed approach to keeping the plan alive and current within Partner organizations, and across the community.

imagineCALGARY has influenced sustainability planning initiatives globally, including Saint John, New Brunswick; Portland, Oregon; and Durban, South Africa.

You can download a copy of the award-winning imagineCALGARY Plan in PDF for more information.

“John Lewis (President of Intelligent Futures) has been integral in maintaining enthusiasm and inspiration as the imagineCALGARY movement has evolved over the last number of years.  He has been critical in its transition to a fully community-owned entity, helping Partners to bridge and navigate successfully into a new form of autonomous operation.  He has provided guidance where no road map exists.  Without John, reaching the point we have today would not have been achieved nearly as well.  His insight and clever means of communication and delivery has been essential!”

- Debbie Korzeniowski, imagineCALGARY Steering Committee Co-Coordinator