GC 2020
47 results found
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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 votesThere 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.
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Educate young: Add agriculture, renewable energy, sustainable development to highschool ciriculum
Inspire the youth to take action and educate on the importance of sustainable living practices.
26 votesIdea shared with Vancouver School Board; will be considered in City of Vancouver’s ongoing engagement activities as well. Very important to engage all of our community’s diversity.
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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 votesThis idea has been included in the Draft Greenest Ctiy Action Plan; we encourage neighbours to get together and develop project ideas.
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Subsidies for Veggie Dining
How about offering economic incentives for new vegetarian or vegan restaurants? Such as giving tax breaks, or subsidizing start up costs to encourage investment.
86 votesConsideration of ways to incentivise and encourage lower footprint dining are included in the plan.
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Create a "Greenest Block in the City" award - winner gets a kickass prize!
Modelled after Greenest Block in Brooklyn, where every block in Brooklyn competes to have the best gardens and grow the most food - friends in Brooklyn go nuts for this - lots of fun - winning block gets a great prize like street improvements from city - see"http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/08/presenting_the.php
24 votesGreenest City awards are included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan.
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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 votesThis idea has been included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan. We encourage neighbours to get together and develop project ideas.
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Cultural Sustainability Ambassadors
Vancouver has one of the fastest growing immigrant populations in Canada. Each cultural population responds to municipally-led sustainability challenges or requirements differently. In some ways, different immigrant populations have more sustainable living knowledge and experience than the mainstream Vancouver culture, in some ways they have less.
The City needs to engage different cultural communities uniquely, determining which approaches work best for which cultures to ensure the uptake of sustainability initiatives -which approaches will be meaningful to which communities.
Examples of this include identify existing social leaders in cultural communities (ethnic, income, age, ability, gender, etc.) and support them in order…
24 votesThis idea is included in draft Greenest City Action Plan, as well as more generally as a Greenest City Ambassadors program.
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Support Green Art Organizations
Art is used to inspire all matter of people. To shift our thoughts to a greener future, we need to focus on creating in the present.
Organizations such as eatART ( www.eatart.org ) has a mandate of spreading Energy Awareness Through ART, building audacious and improbable large-scale kinetic, robotic, and
mechanized sculptures that investigate our human relationship to energy use.These pieces are taken to local events and educational institutions to provoke conversation on how we use energy.
231 votesThis is a great community led effort.
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Support education funding so teachers have the resources to teach being green across the curriculum.
24 votesMembers of Vancouver City Council are supporting education funding.
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Create an "energy playground" for kids
The City of Vancouver could create an energy playground where playground equipment such as swings, see-saws and merry-go-rounds could be modified to generate energy. The more the kids play, the more energy they create. The energy produced could be used to light the playground at night, making it a fully Carbon Neutral playground. All of this equipment exists and is being used in poor villages in Asia and Africa to generating lighting for schools.
27 votesIdea shared with Parks Board
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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 votesThis idea has been included in the draft Greenest City Action Plan; we encourage neighbours to get together and develop project ideas.
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Create a Senior Citizen's Sustainability Advisory Panel to mobile seniors knowledge on sustainabilty
Not sure that more degrees/planners is gonna make much difference...need solutions now...I say learn from the Cuban urban food production experience - they turned to the knowledge of all the seniors in Havana who knew how to grow food as most grew up in rural areas prior to revolution and then migrated to cities. WIthin 6 months, local seniors were teaching ourses at universities while the food geneticists and experts were in teh classroom learning how to do things without oil/fertilizer. There are many seniors in Vancouver who know how to grow food, fix machinery and make the most of…
16 votesThe draft action plans have been informed by over 100 different organizations in the community, and this is a great idea to build on that engagement work by outreaching to a specific demographic in our community.
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Slow Down Vancouver: Working Less Equals Lower Footprint - Think about it
Slow it all down folks. Shorter work days, less stress, less racing about in cars, more time to walk to work, more time to think about your impact, more time to cook food, if you have time to cook you'll have time to eat whole foods - look for local products. Rushing about in our current culture is a recipe for unsustainability. Slow down Vancouver and Live Again. The facts are here...
"Shortening working time by 1% reduces the environmental impact by 0.8%, according to research carried out by Jörgen Larsson at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden - this…40 votesGreat idea that comes down to personal choices, and discussion with those that set work schedules (labour unions, other employers).
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Celebrate Sufficiency
Over-consumption is at the heart of many of our environmental problems. One way to induce a reduction in consumption is to celebrate our sufficiency. Sufficiency, in this case, refers to a sense of completeness or wholeness. If we feel complete, there is less of an inclination to fill our faces with stuff we don't really need.
7 votesThis idea will be considered in the framing of the ongoing engagement work on the greenest city.
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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 votesInteresting idea, have shared this with the Vancouver School Board.
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Encourage Community Groups
Facilitate meetings at all community centres in the city that give neighbours an opportunity to meet and discuss topics relevant to their communities. This will support community involvement and decision making.
8 votesThis kind of work is already underway all over the City, much of which is led by community organisations. Find one in your neighbourhood, or one that works on issues that you care about, and join in. This action plan includes building supports (e.g. tools, resources) to support community groups in talking about, and working toward, the greenest city.
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Encourage vegan options for all!
A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the ***** impacts of climate change, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management.
1,073 votesLow footprint food choices are not the same as vegan food choices in all cases, the analysis is more complex than this. Generally a low footprint diet is local, seasonal food, and limits consumption of red meat, dairy, and some grains. Low footprint food choices are included in the draft Greenest City Action Plan and will be discussed through community engagement activities.
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Organic, Fair Trade and Low carbon agricultural products
Promotion of Fair Trade, organic and low carbon imports. Why not take social and environmental responsibility for your consumption? People will always want an avocado, mango, a cup of coffee or tea on their tables. There are agricultural products that can not been grown locally, so why not import them but making sure they are low carbon, and that they are not harming our planet and its producers?
100 votesThe City has a procurement policy covering our own procurement choices that includes many of these issues; it is now being implemented throughout City operations. http://vancouver.ca/policy_pdf/AF01401.pdf
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Green Events Guide for all city and community events
Many cities have green guides for all events that take place within their boundaries. Some have embedded it into policy and groups running events must abide by the city requirements. Let's follow suit and get to zero waste.
1 voteHave a look at the City’s One Day calendar.
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Happy planet index
Measure the city of Vancouver's green progess by the well being of its citizens and ecological footprint. www.happyplanetindex.com
5 votesThis plan is focused on the greenest city, but there is great local expertise in assessing happiness – Dr. John Helliwell at UBC.
