London has a solar water taxi, why can't we? All those little boats beetling around--not to mention the seabuses--could be solar. Each station would give them a quick charge or battery change.

Many people around the world live in smaller housing units in denser neighbourhoods. In Toronto, many freehold lots are between 15-20 feet wide. The typical Vancouver lot is 33 feet wide. We could double the density in the City by encouraging the development of smaller, attached homes on freehold lots that are 15-16 feet wide. Density alone is not enough to create a livable city, but density will help to reduce emissions as well as helping to improve the affordability of housing in Vancouver.

Metro Vancouver is on the right track by increasing the cost of garbage disposal. Businesses listen when they are affected in areas that they understand, rising costs and decreasing profits. If recycling is cheaper than waste disposal there will be real incentive to recycle.

Almost all of the mail received in my actual mail box is "Junk Mail"

Unrequested and unnecessary flyers and advertisements that just get tossed straight into the recycling bin.

A waste of trees and additional pollution added by the ink and coloring printed on them.

The term Passive house (Passivhaus in German) refers to the rigorous, voluntary, Passivhaus standard for energy efficiency in a building, reducing its ecological footprint.[1] It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling.[2][3] A similar standard, MINERGIE-P, is used in Switzerland.[4] The standard is not confined only to residential properties; several office buildings, schools, kindergartens and a supermarket have also been constructed to the standard.

Refillable milk, butter, juice, etc. stations at supermarkets would eliminate such an enormous amount of wasted packaging. Think about bringing your refillable bottles every week to get what you need. This goes beyond the local level though - we'd need to get producers onboard. Taking it a step further would be to fill all the stations with locally produced food/drinks.

You can't bike through Massey Tunnel. At ALL. That means you have to take a bus to the ferry, or the free shuttle service which works only in summertime and at very particular times. If you miss it, you have to wait for hours. There should be a bike bridge instead -- more flexibility for the bikers and eliminate the shuttle too.

Like most cities, there are different sorts of routes for biking - from trails, to physically separate lanes, to painted lanes, or signed shared bike routes. In order to take full advantage of these the City should work with School Districts to help support cycling as a Phys-Ed requirement - working up to kids going on field trips on bikes. There could also be hardscape bike-training space with miniature lanes in neighbourhood parks for families to take their kids to practice riding.

Neighbourhood business improvement associations are behind this idea. So is Zero Waste Vancouver. The era of Dinosaur Dumpsters is coming to a close. By taking back our public right-of-ways from the garbage industry, we will motivate the industry to evolve into a recycling industry. Let's get together, Vancouver, and show the world how it can be done right. Small is beautiful.

Encourage the buying of local foods so products can be bought and sold without harmful chemicals, and are sold and grown with natural products

Driving along the #1, it seems ridiculous to me that we're widening the highway and adding more bridges, which will just INCREASE commuter traffic.

What we should really be doing is providing an alternative to jumping into single occupancy vehicles to commute into the city, in order to DECREASE commuter traffic.

It's inconceivable to me that there is no rail line out to Abbotsford, Chilliwack, etc.

Create incentives as well as training program for low income / marginalized individuals to weatherize existing buildings.

Weatherizing (caulking and weather stripping gaps in walls, win­dows, doors, roof, and floors) is a simple and affordable energy conservation solution that makes a HUGE difference, often with a payback of less than year. There are many existing buildings in Vancouver that are poorly performing due to a lack of weather-proofing.

Think of all the green jobs we could create if people were trained in how to do this, and there were incentives make it easier to implement.

The use of smaller size buses during off peak hours will help reducing carbon emissions. Having a smaller full bus is more efficient than having large half empty buses during off peak times.

Growing food is just part of the local food solution. We also need affordable, inspected kitchen spaces for canning workshops, hands-on cooking classes, community kitchens and small scale food processing.

As part of the move towards food precincts or neighbourhood food centres Vancouver needs kitchens.

The Kits and Mount Pleasant Community Centres do have kitchens, but they are not available for the public to rent. Trout Lake's new facility will have a rent-able kitchen but it is a rare case.

Every home should be within five minutes walk of five service--a litre of milk, a library kiosk, a post office, drugstore.... We need a micro-commercial zone to allow these small businesses into every neighbourhood.