City of Vancouver has 2,400 public space litter bins on streets, transit stops and parks. By introducing a wireless capable solar trash compactor system to replace this system significant financial and environmental benefits can be realized. Operating costs will be reduced by 70% as well as Green House Gas emissions from the Diesel powered waste collection vehicle that go out at least once per day to pick up each of these 2,400 bins. Imagine having the collection take place once per week instead of seven times per week and have the reduced trip frequency pay for all this equipment in less than four years ? This is possible today - www.bigbellysolar.com

Hornby Island does it, so can we! The idea is simple - create a designated place for people to drop off useful items for other people to take home, for free. Yes, it requires a little bit of management to make sure our community spaces don't get over run with old computers, but this can be a great way for people to get stuff they need, and to reduce waste going to landfill.

Fernwood, in Victoria, has a little gazebo in their neighbourhood square to drop stuff off. Montreal has the legendary ongoing, city wide, garage sale. And Hornby Island has the free store - a thrift store, run by community volunteers, where everything is free!

Similar to the Industrial Materials Exchange Program, small businesses and the public will be able to log into a database to list materials (such as packing paper, bubble wrap, shelving units, etc.) that they would like to give away for free before they are forced to throw it away. Using this principle of community-resource-exchange, our company was able to reduce their waste dramatically. The success of such a program will dependent on the promotion of it to the public and small businesses. Maybe a database and already popular site such as craigslist would be interested in a collaborative effort in the cause to reduce waste and share resources.

An expensive city, living in vancity is particularly prohibitive for young people trying to get off to a good start. But we want them, and we need them. Finding ways and places to help them stay will also make a more compact, dense and green city.

So offer them an early pension loan for up to 12 years, provided that they’ve graduated from high school. Tax-free and the equivalent of current monthly cpp payouts, accessing the option means assigning post-age 65 cpp earnings for equivalent period of time. If they really want to, they can work too, but no pressure. They’re going to have to work until they’re 80 anyhow, so why not get them off on the right foot, and enjoy retirement while they can? To do so, the city issues a municipal bond, guaranteed by future cpp earnings that have been assigned by youth pensioner.

Will require hiring a few actuaries (green jobs, mind you), but will help ensure that a lot more youth can afford to live in Vancouver. Working less also means emitting less.

Several jurisdictions have developed formal pre- and post-procurement engagement strategies in order to create a dialogue between public procurers and local firms. A pre-procurement consultation process at which procurers broadly outline expected future growth areas gives local firms a focus for research as well as a time horizon for development. The procurer in turn benefits from the most up-to-date information on emerging technologies and best practices. This type of engagement and information exchange can also help with early identification and resolution of issues around permitting or licensing, and can actively engage technology developers and suppliers in meeting the City’s climate leadership targets.

Vancouver like London attracts people from around the world Where London has produced zoning that helps preserve its historic "buzz" we need to produce zoning that preserves our "rain forest" appeal . An eco zone is a modified existing zone (eg. RS1eco, RM1eco ,etc) that is given preferential treatment because of exceptional green practices, these could entail, urban farms, passive solar or passive certified homes. Eco zoning is incentive based, -additional sq footage, or minimum lot size reduction, green house gardens for commercial or personal), green innovation relaxation (eg, allowing wind turbines or large scale water collection (+500gallon) under ground tanks for grey water use.

The eco zone would promote and encourage but not impose or require residence to subscribe to the zone.

(Eco zones would help promotes media coverage of Vancouver's sutainable greening)

I've had the opportunity this week to interview several businesses in the Strathcona area who are already taking moderate to extreme action toward decreasing their own footprints. They buy and manufacture their products locally, they build green roofs, they go to Climate Smart to learn how to track and reduce their footprint, they participate in by-product synergy exchanges, they provide incentives to their employees to ride bikes to work, etc. These businesses are making these changes because it is the "right thing to do", and because they are preparing for what they anticipate the realities of business to be in the near future. Many of these actions do not save money for the business owners, and in some cases, can actually increase their costs.

However, for each of these forward-thinking businesses, there are dozens more who will not or cannot afford to make these types of changes because it's the right thing to do. These are the businesses that we must motivate to make changes through the provision of multiple incentives.

For example, many businesses would like to put in green roofs, but they don't have the capital required to upgrade the infrastructure of their roofs to make this possible. If the City can provide grants for these upgrades, we will see a lot more green roofs in the Strathcona area.

If we can make it easier and more rewarding for businesses to take actions toward sustainability, they would be able to sell their goods and services at prices comparable to those of unsustainable products, creating a huge spike in demand for sustainable goods and services.

Imagine just selecting the 'green directory' app and being able to find sustainable businesses in the local area? Or finding a product in store and being able to look it up immediately to find out what it's sustainable qualifications are? There are a lot of people out there actively seeking out sustainable products and services, but there are a lot more who are engaged and interested - but just not sure where to start. People are creatures of habit, to motivate them to make changes you need to make it EASY for them to do so! I'm not saying it's an easy job to create a product/service directory or application - but with 'user creates' content and collaboration it may just be easier than we think.