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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - For the second consecutive year, Yellowknife was named Canada's most sustainable small city by a national business magazine.

For the past three years, Corporate Knights - a magazine based out of Toronto - has rated Canadian cities on their sustainability, which it defines as communities with "a viable economy fuelled by a healthy population and leaves the smallest environmental footprint possible."

The city's network of trails, which puts an emphasis on foot and bicycle travel, is just one of the ways Mayor Gord Van Tighem says the city is moving to make itself more sustainable. The efforts have not gone unnoticed, as Corporate Knights - a Toronto-based business magazine - has recognized Yellowknife as Canada's top sustainable small city for the second year running. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

The rankings are based on an average score from five categories: social well-being, governance and empowerment, infrastructure and the built environment, economic security and ecological integrity.

This year Yellowknife beat out runner-up Saskatoon by a score of 6.14 to 6.12.

The magazine listed Yellowknife's move to integrate energy efficiency into its building codes, its high population density, its high ratio of homeless shelter beds to population and an annual arts competition as factors that make it sustainable.

"I thought it was interesting that Yellowknife was the only city that repeated while the other guys went down," said Mayor Gord Van Tighem, referencing the fact Ottawa and Quebec City fell as the top large- and medium-sized sustainable cities last year, replaced by Edmonton and Halifax.

Van Tighem said Yellowknife's geography and environment have helped to shape it into the sustainable city it is today.

"One of the benefits of where we are located and the makeup of the ground is we have been manoeuvred and planned into staying very compact," he said.

"That's one of the keys. It's sort of a European model of a sustainable city," he said, adding you can take

Yellowknife's motto - "Multim in Parvo" or "many things in a small place" - literally.

The benefits of a small city means residents are less dependent on cars and release less greenhouse gas emissions because people can access their work or businesses by foot.

The city also has alternatives for residents without vehicles.

"For a community our size to have a public transit system is a little bit unusual but it's there," he said.

As well, cold winters mean Yellowknifers want to build their homes and businesses so they provide maximum energy efficiency, he said.

The city is not resting on its laurels though.

Mark Henry, the city's energy co-ordinator, said the community energy plan has had a major influence on the direction of the city, adding the city's energy-conscious building standards and move towards wood-pellet heating are "very progressive."

"We're leading the country," he said.

Van Tighem said the city has also focused on maintaining green spaces and enhancing trail routes to emphasize foot and bicycle travel.

For the future, Van Tighem pointed to initiatives like the Con Mine geothermal studies which the city is undertaking.

He said if the city can find a way to harness the underground heat, it's a long-term, low-application and high-return investment.

Henry said the city will install wood-pellet boilers in two lift stations and hopes to put one in the solid waste facility's baler room this year. As well, the city will look at redistributing heat that is currently being wasted from the Multiplex's ice plant, which could also heat a portion of the future fieldhouse.

The small cities category is open to communities with populations under 250,000.

Yellowknife beat out Saskatoon, Saint John, Charlottetown, Whitehorse and St. John's.

In a survey sent to Corporate Knights, the city revealed it plans to spend 5.4 per cent of its $59 million operating budget on sustainable initiatives this year.

Although Yellowknifer tried to goad the mayor into a Joe Namath-like guarantee that the city would run the three-peat next year, Van Tighem said: "we are working to stay ahead of everybody."