Sometimes people need to be pushed in the right direction, and by making cars less convenient people will be forced to find other transportation methods! If cars became increasingly annoying to use, because of cycling road blocks, tolls for driving downtown, less road space, etc. then who would want to use cars? People will have to look elsewhere for easy, fast transportation.

Implement annual monitoring, reporting, and targets for injury reduction of pedestrians and cyclists, align capital spending towards injury reduction and away from increasing SOV capacity.

Sustainability is a complex and difficult topic. Many people get a sense about what it is, some don't get it at all and many others think green consumerism (e.g. cloth bags, CFL lightbulbs) is all that's required to build a friendly and safe global future. A multimedia ideas series, perhaps at community centres, would be a great tool to inform people about what is actually required (e.g. reducing overall consumption) for us to build a sustainable global civilization.

Offices that leave lights and computers on all night, and appliances that have transformers and use phantom power, waste electricity. The city should use and promote smart appliances that monitor their use and switch to a low-power state when not in use.

An Action Plan would provide an overall strategy to guide the City’s response to urban agriculture and food system issues.

One third of Vancouver’s greenhouse gas emissions come from vehicle use. Vancouver’s electricity is powered by relatively clean hydro-electric sources. Expanding the use of electric trolley buses and electric vehicles can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions related to vehicle use.

The City could work directly with large industrial users of natural gas to identify cost effective energy efficiency improvements.

When food scraps and organic matter decompose in landfills, methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is created. If captured properly, methane can be used as a fuel source (known as biogas). Biogas is considered carbon neutral since, unlike natural gas, it does not add any new carbon to the atmosphere. Separating organic matter out of the waste stream and converting it to biogas lowers the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our waste, creates a new fuel source, and makes recycling easier.

While the curbside food waste program is terrific, detached homeowners already have the option of composting in their yards. Extending the program to include apartments dramatically reduce municipal waste and will finally make composting available to the growing number of Vancouverites living in high-density buildings (which is also great for the environment).

Construction waste accounts for a huge proportion of waste in our landfills. The majority of materials can be reused, recycled or repurposed. Deconstruction offers job creation opportunities and supports a new market for used building materials

Half of Vancouver’s greenhouse gas emissions come from burning natural gas to heat our buildings. The large district steam heating systems found at the hospitals and downtown are significant users of natural gas. Converting these existing systems to renewable energy sources would reduce reliance on natural gas and help to lower our greenhouse gas emissions.

The City can help to showcase local green businesses and improve their profile in the market place through demonstration projects. One idea is to support the development of a community wastewater treatment facility that captures nutrients from the wastewater stream to process into an environmentally friendly fertilizer. Metro Vancouver wastewater treatment plants currently produce biosolids which are rich in nutrients and can be used to fertilize lands to improve vegetative production, but this program needs further partnerships to reinforce and expand the model.

Links

MetroVancouver Nutrifor program: http://www.metrovancouver.org/services/wastewater/nutrifor/Pages/default.aspx

Vancouver firm Ostara: http://www.ostara.com/

The building code specifies the kinds of efficiencies required by water fixtures in all buildings. Currently a home owner has to be undertaking a significant renovation ($95 000 value) before permits are required. The code could be changed to lower that threshold (to $50,000), thereby increasing the number of homes that would be required by law to install fixtures with a high degree of water efficiency.

Outdoor water consumption represents a significant portion of residential water use. In particular, the watering of lawns and gardens is one of the more water intensive of outdoor water activities. Requiring installation of rainwater harvesting devices for irrigation purposes would decrease the dependence on treated water for irrigation purposes. In addition, specifying the installation of water efficient irrigation systems would further reduce water demand.