GC 2020
59 results found
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Reduce peak electricity demand
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.
10 votes -
Micro-Hydro Power
Implement water collection systems on all new buildings and retrofit old buildings to generate power from rain water. "Inline stream engines" can also be connected to the city reservoir. Can support all grey water uses and generate compressed air and electricity to work towards creating closed-loop energy systems throughout the city.
10 votesGood ideas! The City is currently doing a feasibility assessment of connecting a micro-turbine to the City’s water system. If the feasibility is positive, it will be considered in the City’s capital budget for implementation.
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Plug the C02 holes.
Most would agree that the biggest monster is climate change. If Vancouver is to be a leader in greening tech. and practices it would do well to show in a practical way what can be done now.
On a massive scale, start installing solar hot water systems. Use economy scale to bring down the cost. Make it simple and share the knowledge with the rest of the world. Do a similar thing with car conversions. Pick a 100 different model autos, convert them, and post the process on a web page. Translate the findings to a dozen different languages and…10 votes -
Switch all municipal buildings off fossil fuels
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.
9 votes -
push lawnmowers
replace nuisance noisy ride lawnmowers and 'whipper snippers' with quiet clean green lightweight push lawnmowers for health of user and mother earth. did you know ubc research shows direct link with heart attack and noise? thank you
9 votes -
City Energy Grid
Let local solar, wind and other green energy producers (businesses and/or residents) sell energy into a city grid that supplies community infrastructure.
8 votes -
Switch building from natural gas to electricity
Burning fossil fuels to heat our homes and buildings is the single biggest source of climate damage coming from Vancouver. It is 50% of city GHGs and much more damaging than all vehicle emissions. Vancouver should levy a carbon tax on natural gas and use it to subsidize people who choose to switch to electric heating, especially heat pumps. Vancouver will never be able to meet its climate goals and responsibility until nearly all natural gas burning is stopped. No new technology is needed as many buildings already are fully electric and have been for decades. Today 41% of energy…
8 votes -
2000W society
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.8 votes -
Lower temperature asphalt and more asphalt recycling
Many techs. exist that allow paving to occur at lower mixing plant temperatures, saving energy and reducing GHG and air polluting emissions. Vancouver (and Metro Vancouver) should mandate their use.
A mandatory % of recycled pavement should also be instituted.
Other "higher" tech asphalts also allow roads to be able to open to traffic sooner, reducing congestion and related emissions (as well as reducing traveller frustration)
8 votes -
All parks off the grid
Support alternative energy resources by installing solar and wind power for all parks in Vancouver. The hardest would be Stanley Park, of course, but most of the others should be easy to convert to alternative energy
8 votes -
Adopt targets for reducing oil consumption and officially acknowledge oil depletion (peak oil).
Global oil depletion will be one of the key issues impacting community and economic resiliency, and our journey to true sustainability. Our priority plans need to reduce BOTH emissions AND oil dependence.
6 votes -
Solar Powered Lights
Use solar powered street lights, they look cool and very futuristic, and they can help us use less energy
6 votes -
Sodium Carbonate CO2 Scrubbers
See http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/big-idea/13/carbon-capture. If Vancouver could allocate land and funding for prototype scrubbers, it would not just be the Greenest City, but its local action would have a global impact - as removing CO2 from the air benefits the entire planet.
6 votes -
convert heat to FREE hot water
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!
5 votesGreat idea. We’re looking for all kinds of ideas to encourage the reuse of waste heat. We will to understand opportunities to include these ideas in amendments to the building code.
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Implement tiered energy billing system
Consumers pay attention to cost. Implementing a tiered energy billing system where individuals with high energy usage are billed more compared to individuals with low energy usage will act as an incentive to save money and energy. Very low energy usage should be rewarded by a lower rate, and a higher rate should be applied to high energy usage. The tiered energy billing systems should be adjusted on a regular basis to reflect changes due to consumers purchasing energy-saving appliances over time.
5 votesBC Hydro has taken this approach with their rate setting schedules.
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Introduce individual carbon credit/debit system
Each resident has an equal amount of carbon credits available per month. The credits are used up when buying gas, purchasing non-local products or engaging in other types of high footprint activities. Individuals who exceed their monthly limit need to purchase carbon credits from the credit/debit system, while individuals who do not use all of their credits will get reimbursed for the unused portion. Control of carbon emissions is achieved by setting the monthly limit and the cost of a unit of carbon. This system provides a financial incentive for individuals to reduce carbon emissions. Though difficult to implement in…
4 votes -
Relax building heights of single family homes to 3-storeys when a secondary suite is provided
Predominantly single family neighbourhoods in most older Canadian cities are chock a block with beautiful, well-proportioned 3-storey homes. Toronto & Montreal have many noteworthy examples. Many of these homes contain 2-4 separate suites but maintain the look and feel of a single detached home. An effective method for increasing density in a sensitive way, much like laneway housing, would be to relax building heights to allow for 3-storey homes. To ensure density is actually increased, require secondary suites on their own floor. 3 Storey duplexes could also be developed that include 2 main dwelling units and 2 secondary suites for…
4 votes -
Sustainable Policing
Cut VPD fleet size in half. Boost their bike and footwear budget. (If necessary, create neighbourhood microjails by reusing phone booths - wherever they are - to hold perps until biopaddywagon takes them to the central composting centre),
4 votes -
Collect logging driftwood and recycle it into wood pellets for biomass generation fuel.
I'm not sure what happens with the logging driftwod that is washed up on the BC shorelines but this could be collected and turned into useful biomass fuel.
4 votes -
Tax large businesses, corporations and industries that pollute the environment
They are the heaviest polluters of our environment, their contribution to green/eco development should be direct and based on their level of polluting. The more they pollute, the more they pay.
3 votes
