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How can we reach our 2020
Greenest City Targets?

GC 2020

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36 results found

  1. Retrofit apartments to have individual control over radiator heating

    Many low-rise apartment buildings are heated by radiators connected to a central boiler. In lots of these buildings, individual apartments do not have a thermostat or radiator control. Often the building is overheated in winter, with windows open and the boiler working even harder. Lobbies and hallways are also sweltering.

    A City program could install valves on each radiator to give occupants individual control and reduce energy wastage. There would be a hugely beneficial return on investment in terms of reduced energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the city.

    10 votes
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  2. planted buildings

    Use hedges or vines that cover buildings completely, roof top gardens, to help regulate thermal radiation. AC unit areas should be covered by plants or shaded so the energy wasted to cool the air is less.

    10 votes
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  3. Super Insulate All Buildings

    Super Insulate All Buildings rather than spend on finding ways to heat inefficient existing building

    10 votes
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  4. 9 votes
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  5. Solidify Laneway Housing Through Ownership Incentives

    Developing a process that will facilitate homes with lanes to be able to subdivide back to front would solidify and incentivize the production of laneway houses, effectively doubling the density in parts of the city without breaking the small scale character of neighbourhoods. The current program allows for lane way houses to be produced with an incentive from rental income, but with current development costs and real estate market the process is not readily viable at a city-wide scale and many home owners do not see enough benefit to warrant financing such a project. However, with the incentive of being…

    9 votes
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  6. 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.

  7. 8 votes
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  8. Backyard Oil Tankers

    Prior to late 1950's, thousands of Vancouver homes were heated with furnace oil, which was stored underground in 300 to 1000 gallon tanks.

    Tanks today are in various corroded states, and present risk of oil leaching into soil and groundwater. Expense of removal and threat of neighbourly litigation create disincentive for dealing with the problem.

    A time-limited window of opportunity should be provided by city for homeownerrs to access 0-interest loans and matching funds to mitigate all kinds of nasty contamination threats.

    Added bonus of creating a few 'green' jobs, and ensuring those backyard gardens won't be growing petrotatoes and…

    7 votes
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  9. Include energy costs in city & province-funded construction projects.

    Construction projects get graded based on how cheap they are. But that costing model doesn't include the total environmental impact of a project, such as the carbon released by removing old buildings, the ongoing energy cost of the structures, etc.

    The best way to get an environmentally conscious city is to put in economic incentives. Construction is a very high-impact area where the city can exert influence simply by changing the guidelines. A cheap, high-impact proposal.

    Other cities are already doing it, and from what I hear UBC is already doing it for their own projects.

    7 votes
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  10. 5 votes
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    This is addressed by the planned green renovation strategy which will require upgrades to all buildings during the time of renovation, and also by the building labeling program which will require mandatory disclosure of energy performance and eventually mandatory performance standards.

  11. Increase indoor temperature range, to connect people to outside and reduce energy. Sweaters! Shorts!

    Change commercial (including offices) buildings operating temperature range, to decrease air conditioning in the summer, and decrease heating energy in the winter. My estimates show that a changing the range from 2°C to 8°C could decrease overall building energy by 10%.

    4 votes
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  12. Energy efficiency training

    Grassroots training in home energy efficiency assessments so community members can learn and support each other in improving home energy efficiency. A few workshops around the city, and you could train a number of neighbourhood efficiency "experts" to do assessments and workshops in their area.

    3 votes
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  13. Home Energy Labeling in BC

    Home Energy Labelling at the Time of Sale can have significant economic, social and environmental benefits for the Province of BC.

    To date:
    The Climate Action Team recommended that BC implement mandatory labelling at time of sale by 2012.
    Utilities and the BC government are supporting labelling pilots in several BC communities.

    When the homeowner decides to sell their home, they request a home energy assessment to be conducted by a Natural Resources Canada Certified Energy Advisor. The energy assessment takes into account the heating and hot-water systems, insulation levels, windows, doors and includes a test to determine overall air…

    3 votes
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  14. Implement Vancouver Zoom Your Roof Project

    Since building heating is one of the biggest uses of natural gas in BC it should be a priority to reduce this footprint. In Belgium communities are implementing a project where residents can easily see how effective their insulation is. This lets people actually see for themselves whether investing in insulation would be worth it for them.

    More info on Belgian project:
    http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011446.html
    http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/07/zoom_into_your_roof.html

    1 vote
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    Building labeling and energy audits will help building owners and occupants understand how their buildings are performing and where they are losing heat. While we may not implement the “zoom in” program per se, these other tools included in the draft Greenest City Action Plan address same issue.

  15. change building code to allow ventilated service areas

    Apartments and condos would have ventilated service areas, where people would be able to hang clothes on clotheslines, instead of using electrical driers all year long for drying any amount of clothing. Also, a tank with tap for manual washing of small loads of clothing will save water and will add up to hygiene.

    1 vote
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  16. Design healing communities

    Build communities to address the functional services required, but that also consider the well being of humans and nature, and the connectivity to the community.

    1 vote
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