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How can we reach our 2020
Greenest City Targets?

GC 2020

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248 results found

  1. Celebrate water! Rain water, river water, ocean water -- let's treat it like we love it!

    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?

    16 votes
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  2. Enable home and building owners to retrofit existing buildings for energy efficiency

    Instead of building it all from scratch, let's fix what we already have... Low hanging fruit here. Maybe we need to tie retrofits to property tax bills to create the right incentives.

    18 votes
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  3. Create program for low-income individuals to weatherize existing buildings

    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.

    22 votes
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  4. 4 votes
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    This idea is addressed in Community, Central Area, and City-Wide planning initiatives, with the understanding that fostering neighbourhood businesses requires collaboration of many different groups, public agencies, and neighbourhood residents

  5. 40 votes
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    City of Vancouver is considering the possibility of a ban for all new residential construction. This idea is considered in the draft Greenest City Action Plan. Chemical products of concern to possibly be addressed through a VoC strategy under consideration.

  6. mindfullness in schools

    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.

    15 votes
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  7. Provide a 5 year property break for buildings that go off grid.

    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.

    8 votes
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    The plan addresses incentives for low- or no- emission buildings. Off-grid is not emphasized as one way of achieving our energy reduction and carbon neutral goals is through sharing excess renewable energy between buildings – which requires grid connection.

  8. create an urban farm network

    Create an urban farm network, a hub that links farms, farmers, local food distribution and storage in the city and provides resources to everyone (including organized farms, non-profits, individuals, schools, community groups, city, etc) and provide business advice, links to funding, assistance in creating and sustaining local jobs, training farmers, and develop partnerships and connection to other urban farm resources throughout the city

    121 votes
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  9. printing

    Green up the Citys Print Communications - we know the city needs to communicate, let's do it smarter. Ensure that any communication vendors have been pre-qualified with a number of Environmental and Social minimum standards. Ensure that any print is done with leading sustainable practices, Carbon Neutral, Recycled paper, Zero VOC inks, with companies that actively support the communities social and green needs. Print Less, Print smarter.

    3 votes
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  10. Encourage smaller, denser housing

    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.

    39 votes
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  11. Require all coffee shops to install Japanese style toilets ( grey water) and save 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.

    2 votes
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  12. Utilize responsive upzoning

    De-regulate neighbourhood zoning to allow an intelligent mix of services, work and residential opportunities. Permit networking and sharing of services to balance heat with cooling, production with consumption and waste with resource.

    16 votes
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    Zoning and other bylaws, codes, and guidelines that determine the scale and form of new development, are often re-examined through community, central area, and city-wide planning initiatives (e.g. Cambie Corridor, Neighbourhood Centres) and typically with the intent to ‘upzone’ and be more responsive to changing community needs and preferences.

  13. Promote a micro-economy

    Promote a micro-economy:
    Not everyone fits into the monoculture of work and life options available in Vancouver. A healthy city is a diverse city that allows individuals access to the economy on a range on increments. De-regulate work in homes. Integrate services and restaurants into neighbourhood streets and lanes. Turn on-street parking stalls into rent-by-the-hour food and retail vendors.

    8 votes
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  14. Put a boom box on every corner

    Cuba - one of a handful of countries living within its ecological means - is also one of the world's top producers of arts, music and culture. Is there a relationship between creative production, sustainability and happiness? We think so. Imagine a Vancouver where one's daily experience was one of engagement, creation and production rather than consumption.

    2 votes
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  15. Attractive Sidewalks *

    Beautify pedestrian ways to attract more walking, with:
    - rainbow / sparkly sidewalks in high traffic areas
    - sidewalk canopies: tree overhangs, resident-owned PV
    - incentives for merchants to beautify their sidewalk area
    - neighbourhood identity expressed by residents' design for sidewalks
    - textured pavement to define pedestrian areas, or neighbourhoods
    - "pedestrianscape" that allows the pedestrian to explore a delightful journey as the travel past varied points of interest along their walk
    - sidewalk cafes, laneways pubs / cafes / restaurants
    - separate lanes for pedestrian, wheeled traffic: rollerblading & skateboarding, bikes, cars
    - buffers between separate lanes of…

    23 votes
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    The quality and attractiveness of the pedestrian experience is a primary consideration in public realm planning and design. However, there is an opportunity to be more creative in the design of specific elements, such as sidewalk materials, and incentives/requirements for pedestrian-oriented building design and facade improvements.

  16. City university

    Degree granting inter-institutional relationship between the regions post secondary education institutions and municipal governments to study, research and solve our pressing city and regional challenges.

    732 votes
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    There is a Campus City Collaborative project in the early stages of planning, where all of the post-secondary institutions are working with the City and the VEDC to talk about movement toward the greenest city, with a focus on creation of green jobs.

  17. One city block: integrated waste pickup, resource sharing, back-alley commons, community building.

    Turn the back alley into a place for community building and sharing.
    -Consolidated garbage collection at each alley's intersection with main street, in order to reinhabit the space for different uses and minimize footprint of garbage pickup.
    -Share a lawnmower, garden implements, internet, cup of sugar, spare bikes, dishes, pots, BBQs, spare cot or car with your neighbours!
    -Provide a space for free exchange of goods.
    -Comunity garden, common building (arts, cooking, celebrations, gatherings, etc.), energy resources (ie. geothermal or solar power), strom water collection, grey water filtration (ie. "ecocells" on the property)

    90 votes
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  18. Community sharing

    Provide infrastructure for equipment sharing amongst neighbours, such as tools, lawnmowers, and other device where we don't need one more per block.

    55 votes
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  19. Neighbourhood "de-car-missioning"

    Neighbourhood collaboration to completely reclaim streets from cars to maximize existing space in support of community initiatives and collective resources; composting, gardens, water storage, outdoor ovens, etc. Encourages depaving and city beautification. Supports and encourages active modes of transportation.

    28 votes
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  20. 178 votes
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