Local governments to rethink how they deliver services reliably and cost-effectively. For a growing number of Canadian municipalities this means looking around them at existing natural assets such as forests, riparian areas and coastal ecosystems for answers. Their experience in municipal natural asset management suggest that healthy and well-managed natural assets can provide some of the same services as engineered assets but with lower capital and operating costs and greater resilience to a changing climate. This presentation will describe: the rationale for and evolution of municipal natural asset management, including the development of the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative; the lessons from Gibsons and the first national Cohort; and the growing business case and practical advice for including natural assets as a key element of any asset management strategy.