Our History
The Tomorrow Foundation for a Sustainable Future is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2020. Founded in 1970 as “STOP – Save Tomorrow Oppose Pollution”, the Foundation has been promoting awareness of and conducting research on environmental sustainability for nearly half a century.
In 1985, with the cooperation of the City of Edmonton and the Province of Alberta, the Tomorrow Foundation opened the Edmonton Energy Conservation Centre—a demonstration project and resource centre—in a turn of the 20th century two-storey brick house on Saskatchewan Drive which had been extensively retrofitted with a wide variety of energy conservation measures. This location would become the home of the Environmental Resource Centre (ERC), a central hub for Edmontonians seeking environmental information in the days before the internet. The ERC also provided office space for a variety of environmental groups including the Sierra Club, CPAWS, the Alberta Wilderness Association, the Alberta Environmental Network, and the Toxics Watch Society.
The ERC would also be the headquarters for the Tomorrow Foundation’s most successful and enduring project. Destination Conservation (DC) was an innovative school-based program integrating energy efficiency education for students, technical training for custodial staff, and energy-saving retrofits for school facilities. The Tomorrow Foundation delivered the program to thousands of schools across Canada and the USA from 1987 until 2004. The program is still delivered by various providers across Canada.
In 2016, with the support of the Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF), the Foundation emerged from a lengthy hiatus to initiate a series of three projects in partnership with Paths for People to provide advocacy and education regarding the need for high-quality biking and walking routes in Edmonton. The projects resulted in a significant shift in Edmonton’s active transportation policy, including the construction of the downtown bike grid and the funding and planning of a bike grid for the south side.
In 2019, with ECF’s support again, the Foundation partnered with The Local Good to bring the Green Drinks: Climate Emergency series to Edmontonians.
In 2020, Tomorrow Foundation worked on a community science air quality project and presented to city council for action on climate.