Use part of Stanley Park to start a small composting program for apartments west of denman St. Low transport costs with high density...reduces garbage in dumpster and offers free compost for park and or residents. if it works duplicate using other parks in vancouver with nearby apartment complexes.

To be the best, look around at the competition (friendly competition -- the other green cities of the world), and make sure you're at least matching the best policies out there.
For instance a number of cities in Switzerland have put 2000 W mandates in their *charter*. A "2000 W society" is a nice framing of the common objective of averaging less than 2kW per person. A 1 t (ie per year, per person, of CO2e GHGs in this case) society might be more climate relevant.

Some ideas for celebrating water might include...

- Making beautiful rain-powered water sculptures as public art
- "Daylighting" our lost creeks
- Creating new "creeks" (swales) and ponds to manage our stormwater
- Making sure our rivers and ponds and coastlines stay/get clean enough to swim in and fish in and play in again

What are your ideas?

Currently, the treatment plants of Iona and Lions Gate are only primary and yet to be upgraded. Secondary treatment is the Canadian standard for cities, and when Vancouver reaches that we'll just be average. A Greenest City would have tertiary treatment of its sewage, and should be a primary goal. Innovative technologies should be explored and developed in Vancouver on a larger scale to set an example, and to market to other cities globally. One example is a Solar Aquatics system (http://www.ecological-engineering.com/solaraquatics.html), as demonstrated in Bear River, Nova Scotia.

It is difficult for local farmers to actively and regularly connect with consumers (i.e., eaters) around specific food items.

Let's say a local farmer has a few dozen extra eggs or a few pounds of extra tomatoes. What does the farmer do? He usual composts the extra.

Across town a restaurant or person at home would like to get some fresh eggs or tomatoes for tonight. But, the farmers market isn't for several days.

How do they connect up? farmBay - eBay for farmers and eaters. Farmers post food for sale and eaters buy it in an eBay like format.

Every night thousands of lights, computers, printers and other office equipment are left on needlessly in empty office buildings across the city.

By imposing a tariff on this sort of waste, business might be forced to evaluate their policies and work to reduce energy waste.

Of course, some equipment must be left on – servers, refrigerators etc. – so the tariff would need to scale and offer exemptions for critical equipment.

BC Hydro estimate that 40% of employees in B.C. leave their computers on after working hours and this wastes 500 gigawatt-hours of electricity (http://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/technology_tips/managing_energy_costs/computer_power_management.html?WT.mc_id=b-10-08_computers)

Half of all greenhouse gases dumped in the city of Vancouver come from burning natural gas in buildings. The amount is unchanged in 20 years. City government should lead the way by fuel switching all buildings it controls to use much cleaner BC electricity. Almost 60% of energy used in buildings is climate damaging fossil fuels. We need leadership from the top to highlight the need to change this.

Whereas Climate change requires individual behaviour change and
Wherease individual behaviour change is significantly enhanced by cultivating the ability for critical thought and the abilility to step back and question and
Wherease these abilities are proven to be enhanced by practicing mindfulness (aka meditation, centering prayer, and many other labels), and
Whereas some success has already been achieved by introducing mindfulness programs in Vancouver schools,
Collaborate with the vancouver school board to introduce mindfuflness training in all grade levels across the city. This may include providing a financial incentive for the VSB to fully roll out the program.

Facilitate meetings at all community centres in the city that give neighbours an opportunity to meet and discuss topics relevant to their communities. This will support community involvement and decision making.

Laneway houses are a great trend, but being able to subdivide lots from typical 122 x 33 to, for example, 90 x 33 and 32 x 33 would create much more affordable housing stock to purchase by enabling actual sale of laneway houses, and spur more compact, dense residential dev't.

In many of my former workplaces, there has been little to no recycling of plastics, metals, glass and other recyclable materials for there was no collection program in place. Businesses should be required to pay to sign up for a blue box program that is connected to the residential one, and they could receive greater fee rebates the more recyclable materials they divert from the landfills.

Instead, use flowering or green plants... it is beautiful and can contribute to cleaner air that we breathe

Get more solar or electric powered buses to lower vehicle exhaust and decrease Greenhouse gases

There are a number of car pooling and/or ride sharing programs in Vancouver but they are not being used by very many people. If the City of Vancouver promoted them, they could reduce a very significant number of car trips.

Some examples include: carpool.ca; ride-share.com; ride-club.ca; car-pool.ca; erideshare.com; carpoolingnetwork.com; and shareyourride.net.

Ban any EPR material from being commingled in single stream totes. Specificaly packaging materials!

The concept is that if a building goes off grid, they will be given a property tax holiday for 5 years to fund it. They must use BC based technology whenever possible. This will green our existing buildings, create jobs and reduce out carbon footprint. An investment in our future that reflect all three legs of sustainability.

Hardly a new Idea, this would enhance the experience of the island. It is treacherous walking around there on a weekend....that is if the cars are moving at all, as often they are just sitting in a giant line idleing.

There may need to be a nearby structure with limited parking, but increased shuttle and transit service (olympic line) would go a long way to make it feasible.

Think about all that extra real estate available without parking lots and wide roads down there! Even the Growth mongers must smile at that prospect