Rain Garden Rebate Programs: A Great Example

Hi all,  Many of you work in water conservation or stormwater management, but even if you don’t, you may find this rain garden rebate program interesting. It is a partnership between the City of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and an environmental organization called REEP Green Solutions.  Four aspects of this program make it excellent:  1.     The size of the rebate. You may recall that incentives are most effective when they are substantial enough to be taken seriously by the target audience. The value of this rebate is $2000, which is a sufficient amount to cover most rain garden material purchases. 2.     The easy step-by-step process. The City of Guelph has an easy 4-step process to get the rain garden rebate: Book a rain garden visit, send in your pre-approval application, install the rain garden and keep the receipts, and fill out the final application form. Making the process barrier-free is an important part of this successful program.  3.     The number and quality of educational resources. REEP has a Healthy Yards 101 webpage that includes a rain garden plant list, a rain garden maintenance guide, Youtube videos (e.g. how to design your rain garden; options for laying down permeable paving), a rain barrel maintenance guide, and more.  4.     The public commitments made. Both REEP and the City of Guelph have created a sign for those who have installed a rain garden to make their commitment public. The sign says “I’m protecting our watershed. You can too!” and includes a link to guelph.ca/raingarden so that people can check it out themselves. This is one way to encourage neighbours and make installing a rain garden a social norm within the community.  

To learn more about REEP’s rain garden rebate program, click here. To access the educational resources, click here.