We live in a time when advances in technology have given us an opportunity to provide safe access to public resources such as water, food and energy to a greater percentage of people than ever before. As our understanding of the natural world improves, so does our ability to use resources in a way that protects our legacy for future generations. In Canada, our local governments help bring us clean water, provide safe roads, build us places to work and play, build systems to protect us from natural disasters, help protect our water supplies, deal with our garbage and even help generate the energy we use. Our local governments are also the closest level of organization we have in deciding how we want to live together as communities and what kind of future we want to leave to coming generations. Managing the infrastructure that provides these services goes far beyond fixing pipes and potholes. It requires all of us to understand and participate in the decisions that will determine how we receive services in the years to come. This has never been more important than now with our service delivery threatened by climate change, rising costs of energy and competing priorities for how to spend our infrastructure dollars. My work with AIM Network seeks to turn these problems into opportunities. We can use these difficult situations to look at infrastructure in a new way: with greater community involvement, a new respect for our natural assets, and decisions based on long-term, generational thinking. It may not be easy, but there is a path to building a better world. If you are interested in any of the resources and training that AIM Network provides, or if you want to see any of the free-to-municipality tools that AIM has developed for small and mid-sized communities, come see us at aimnetwork.ca. We look forward to building with you.Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment. -Buckminster Fuller