GC 2020
62 results found
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City of Vancouver Eco bonds to help home and business owners with green upgrades.
ECO bonds are helping cities throughout the US with renewable energy and efficiency upgrades to their homes and businesses. By leveraging the lower borrowing rates of the city, Vancouver can help citizens get over the high up-front costs of green retrofits by deducting an additional amount from property taxes over a long term - say 20 years - period.
14 votesFinancing tools (currently under development) may encourage building owners to improve the performance of their buildings rather than rebuild
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3 votes
VEDC attracts conferences as part of business attraction program
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Futureproof Green Buildings by adapting to projected climate conditions
Green buildings that do not consider future climate conditions are not as energy efficient or as sustainable as they could be
3 votesThis idea is captured in all our green building policy work, particularly our emphasis on passive design.
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Develop a city-supported urban farming program
Community gardens and farmers markets are on the rise in Vancouver, but there remains a need for more productive farms (market gardens) to produce significant amounts of local food.
There are more and more people interested in getting into farming as a livelihood, but barriers such as high land values and low profit margins in traditional farming make entry difficult.
The City could develop a municipally-supported urban farming program where city-owned land would be affodably leased to prospective farmers for a season to gain experience, earn an income, and produce food for local residents. This could be coupled with a…
240 votesCity has supported SOLE food project (in the DTES) and is investigating other urban farming opportunities as part of the draft Greenest City Action Plan.
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Biodiversity and Permeability Standards through the Zoning By-law
Create a biodiversity and permeability performance standards for new development through the Zoning By-Law. A variation on this could be create market incentives for more biodiversity.
8 votesPermeability is already included in the Zoning Bylaw. Biodiversity is not covered by the Zoning Bylaw.
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Ease the bureaucracy for laneway homes in Van. Dense living where we work, play, shop! Less sprawl!
Laneway homes are beautiful, sustainably designed, detached family or single life dwellings. They fit into areas with houses and neighbourhoods that already exist. They take the place of old poorly used garages or unused back gardens. Less freeway traffic to get to the city; less pressure on our agricultural land reserve; less urban sprawl out into the valley.
51 votesExploring ways to facilitate and remove barriers to achieving our green & density goals
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Don't re-invent the wheel
Get advice and ideas from cities that are already the greenest (European cities) and from local experts (Suzuki Foundation).
21 votes -
62 votes
The City has an existing pilot incentive program for solar hot water. Incentives and financial tools to support the proliferation of renewable energy is included in the draft Greenest City Action Plan. Details here: http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/SolarHomes.htm
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Encourage renovation of existing housing stock rather than demo and rebuild.
require new construction to be NET zero and help reduce single family house demolition. The greenest building is one that is already standing.
22 votesFinancing tools (currently under development) may encourage building owners to improve the performance of their buildings rather than rebuild.
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Prioritize cycling infrastructure and policy
Vancouver will not convince anyone of being the 'greenest' city without a huge modal shift towards cycling, walking, and public transit.
Cycling infrastructure is already improving (e.g., new Dunsmuir two-way bike lane), but policy needs to improve (e.g., a transportation hierarchy, with pedestrians followed by cyclists at the top).
Also, we will NEVER get the general population cycling daily without repealing mandatory helmet legislation. It just won't happen -- it's too inconvenient.
73 votes -
Drinking water fountains + bottled water ban
Ban bottled water. Install public fountains instead! Make sure they're designed so you can fit a tall Sigg steel water bottle underneath to fill it.
Many restaurants and cafes are nice enough to provide water taps/pitchers and glasses - encourage the rest to do so.
426 votes -
Encourage urban food production
Urban vegetable gardens and container planting can go a long way towards reducing our food miles and our dependence on imports.
Successful projects in Mexico and Cuba show us that we can produce a lot of food in the city proper, so why don't we?
669 votesThe draft Greenest City Action Plan will discuss this in a variety of ways.
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Provide online tools to help people educate their friends, family, and networks about green actions
The Sierra Club develop presentation tools for Ottawa's curbside organics collection program. People can use these to give 10-minute presentations in their community to educate others to "do the right thing". Similar tools could be developed for backyard composting, waste reduction, commuter cycling, energy conservation, , etc. Think Toastmasters with a mission.
2 votesVancouver has a One Day campaign and other on-line tools, as do many other organisations in the community. That said new tools will also be developed to support the Greenest City process: http://vancouver.ca/oneday/
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Develop a directory and/or application that helps consumers choose sustainable products and services
Imagine just selecting the 'green directory' app and being able to find sustainable businesses in the local area? Or finding a product in store and being able to look it up immediately to find out what it's sustainable qualifications are? There are a lot of people out there actively seeking out sustainable products and services, but there are a lot more who are engaged and interested - but just not sure where to start. People are creatures of habit, to motivate them to make changes you need to make it EASY for them to do so! I'm not saying it's…
11 votesThere are multiple green building product and services directories that already exist in Vancouver. www.sustainablebuildingcentre.com and www.metrovancouver.com/buildsmart
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Materials Reuse/ Exchange Program
Similar to the Industrial Materials Exchange Program, small businesses and the public will be able to log into a database to list materials (such as packing paper, bubble wrap, shelving units, etc.) that they would like to give away for free before they are forced to throw it away. Using this principle of community-resource-exchange, our company was able to reduce their waste dramatically. The success of such a program will dependent on the promotion of it to the public and small businesses. Maybe a database and already popular site such as craigslist would be interested in a collaborative effort in…
57 votes -
Develop incentives to restore the bee populations
[Submitted via email by Patrice Allen]
Develop incentives to restore the bee populations, not only for their products but for cross-pollination in ALL green spaces.
18 votesHobby bee keeping guidelines under review and there are beehives on top of City Hall. For details on the City of Vancouver bee keeping initiatives, please visit: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/projects/beekeeping.htm
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Encourage grass lawn alternatives
[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.
11 votesThe City does encourage alternatives to lawns http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/guidelines/W005.pdf
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Install outlets for electric vehicles in parking lots
[Submitted via email]
Consider a downtown parking lot with outlets so plugin electric hybrids can recharge. Could have some type of metre.
13 votesFollowing a 2009 Council adopted report, scaleable public charging infrastructure is being deployed to support the adoption of electric vehicles in Vancouver.
Read more here:
http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/electric_vehicles.htm
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/documents/penv3.pdfhttp://www.easypark.ca/about-easypark/parking-programs/go-green.aspx
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More street food more places
The City's recent allocation of 17 new street-food licenses is a good start. Let's take it to the next level with street food hubs on city-owned parking lots or under-utilized alleyways. These centres could be modelled after those in Portland and feature a wide variety of local, healthy options. A bonus idea: a plate refund system like at the Folk Fest -- so that packaging and wrap can be minimized or done away with!
16 votesThe City has increased the number of street food vendors and types in 2010 and are looking to expand the program in 2011. For details, please visit: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/projects/streetfood.htm
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Build complete, walkable neighbourhoods interconnected by great transit and cycling routes.
Transportation and land use go hand in hand. Good land use can reduce the distance people travel and support more sustainable choices like walking and cycling by bringing people closer to their daily destinations.
The city should provide an appropriate mix of land uses and a high quality pedestrian-oriented public realm. Most services and amenities--such as grocery stores, schools, daycare, parks, community centres, and transit--should be within a safe, enjoyable 5 or 10 minute walk from where people live. Longer trips should be easily served by high quality transit and cycling options.
Links: http://www.vtpi.org/landtravel.pdf, http://vancouver.ca/planning/
599 votesThis is an evolutionary process. The City of Vancouver is already considered a North American leader in this regard. Current and future plans and projects (e.g. Cambie Corridor Planning Program) will continue to embrace this ideal.
