Studies show that commercial streets (full of shops, cafes and restaurants) that have been converted into foot or bicycle traffic only, have dramatic increases in public activity and economic growth.

Do you know any other streets that would benefit from this? Leave your comment below!

Encourage all those stores that vent their unwanted heat from A/C units as well as from coolers/fridges and freezers *grocer types* and pump that heat into hot water tanks! The technology is available "off the rack". Known as Fre-Heaters..we should be capturing all that vented heat and convert it into hot water. NEW stores should not have such old equipment and instead be encourage to convert at the time of building!

Vancouver can be a model of a community that works together to reduce its peak electricity demand and thus the generation capacity needed to sustain it. It can do this through proper monitoring of usage in both residential and commercial buildings and financial incentives to reduce beyond savings on the bill. Make Vancouver a model, and once shown successful, this model can be expanded to other BC cities and beyond.

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.

Dryers are huge energy sucks, and outdoor clothes lines can do a fine job drying laundry (at least for the 50 days a year it doesn't rain!). Perhaps a summer student could be hired to come install clothes lines at residences around the city.

Cloud computing servers that run on renewable wind energy also minimize the need for computer upgrades, high-power servers that stay on all night, and costly software licences. Google has invested hundreds of millions in green power and offers government grade office services at a fraction of current costs. They also recycle computer parts to create their data centres. By using these services, we become greener.

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/google-buys-wind-power-first-deal-for-google-energy/

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/government/index.html

http://www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/server-retirement.html

We could use the potential heat from our shower, dishwasher and other source of hot water that we utilize everyday and utilize the energy to heat the hot water again ( Re-use it for a thermal recovery )

Vanier Park's ideal location for wind and reducing the GHG's for Vancouver's 3 major museums would not only be beneficial environmentally but would be a major attraction to the public.

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.

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.

Replace power washers by employing the green techology of the self cleaning coating "nano Titanium Dioxide (nTiO2).
It's a better way to keep buildings clean while protecting the environment and it's available here in the lower mainland.

Aside from being the worst invention of all-time*, auto-flush toilets are also incredibly wasteful.

I estimate that an auto-flush goes off at least twice as often as it needs to. In the offices and malls where these devices are installed, that could mean a vast amount of wasted water.

Install a small sink on top of the toilet. When the patron flushes the toilet the water first comes through the tap. see the sinkpositive site http://sinkpositive.com/site/home/ or this you tubevideo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kulnVSG0FY&feature=related
for an example. Installed in restaurants and coffee shops this would save space and save hundreds of litres of water a year.

While waiting for building codes to come into effect requiring rainwater collection and water efficient irrigation systems, this can be a simple way to assist condo dwellers in using less water when it comes to their own balcony gardens.

[Submitted via email by Patrice Allen]

Grass lawns use excessive water and toxic fertilizers, just to get that lush look. Why not more veggie & flower beds? Or Japanese style pebbles, bricks, tiles, and water-recycling ponds (also to help prevent noise pollution and give the birds a place to drink from) and, most low maintenance of all, a herb lawn of thyme or any of the other fragrant, soft, herbaceous carpets that grow themselves. Encourage planting of succulents (less watering) and native plants and grasses.

Wreck Beach is one of the most popular destinations in our city - it is served by FAR too few porta-potties, and they are often too few as well as rather nasty. Take the idea even bigger and make it a city wide/beach wide initiative to replace aging or non-existant toilet facilities in parks/beaches from Stanley Park to Lighthouse Park....