GC 2020
657 results found
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Flower / Garden Bombs
Set up coin operated vending machines with flower bombs as the product. A flower bomb is made from clay, soil, fertilizer, and seeds.
The idea is to setup these vending machines allowing people to purchase a flower bomb and use to beautify our city.
How to make flower bombs.
http://www.flowerbomb.org/?p=115 votes -
Utilities prices & consumption
I know, I know. It is not new and also it can be the most impopular idea but the reality is simple. People spent because it doesn't have to pay much more. There are many histories in the world probing this theory. Create some scale having a basic levels consumption and scales and increase prices for higher volumes and for sure it will impact the "behavior" of people and all the industries.
But this idea has a special component, with the extra money received create a fund for the other green projects for the city.2 votes -
Provide rainwater catchments to those living in condos with balconies to help with urban gardens
While waiting for building codes to come into effect requiring rainwater collection and water efficient irrigation systems, this can be a simple way to assist condo dwellers in using less water when it comes to their own balcony gardens.
13 votesThe City sells smaller rainbarrels for this use http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/solidwaste/grownatural/rainbarrels.htm
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Encourage the use of existing greenways by discouraging commuter cars using them
Simple changes to targetted parts of the greenways could reduce car traffic and therefore encourage more cycling. The existing greenway I use (midway bikeway, along 37th from Balaclava to West Boulevard) is also used quite heavily by cars as a way of avoiding 41st. The road is narrow especially towards W.Blvd and despite having speed bumps and mini roundabouts it has not deterred cars from using this route. I would like to see the use of diverters and one way access (like the do in the west end) so that only cyclists and local residents end up using this.
26 votesTraffic calming is an integral part of bikeway and greenway design, but there is room for improvement. The draft Greenest City Action Plan will include directions to go further with traffic calming and through-traffic restrictions on neighbourhood bikeways and greenways. This will be elaborated upon further in future detailed planning efforts (e.g. forthcoming transportation plan update, cycling master plan, specific greenway designs).
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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 -
Repeal mandatory bike helmet legislation
Vancouver will never convince anyone of being the 'greenest' city without a huge modal shift towards cycling (walking, and transit).
Such a shift will not happen until the average Vancouverite cycles on a daily basis. This will not happen without better infrastructure, progressive policy, AND repealing mandatory helmet legislation.
Yes, this is a provincial law. However, I am sure that Vancouver has the ability to make this change happen.
p.s., the safety and health benefits of more people cycling far outweigh the potential safety benefits of bicycle helmets.
408 votesProvincial jurisdiction.
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No tax on bikes and biking equipment.
Saving of 12% brings the cost of bikes and safety equipment down.
11 votesThis is under provincial jurisdiction.
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543 votes
Requires support from TransLink. The City will continue to support this idea, through measures including secured rights-of-way (e.g. the centre median on 1st Avenue near the Olympic Village). The recent Olympic Line streetcar demonstration was very successful and helps make the business case for this project.
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Youth Pensions/Green Unjobs
An expensive city, living in vancity is particularly prohibitive for young people trying to get off to a good start. But we want them, and we need them. Finding ways and places to help them stay will also make a more compact, dense and green city.
So offer them an early pension loan for up to 12 years, provided that they’ve graduated from high school. Tax-free and the equivalent of current monthly cpp payouts, accessing the option means assigning post-age 65 cpp earnings for equivalent period of time. If they really want to, they can work too, but no pressure.…
1 voteThis is not just about green but in general about youth and job creation in Vancouver.
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Local Food Guide or Cookbook
The City should publish a guide to local foods. To be truly sustainable it must only include foods grown in sufficient quantity to feed everyone in the region (otherwise it's just elitism) and should exclude anything grown in greenhouses.
5 votesThe draft Greenest City Action Plan includes an action to create a local food information hub. This will not necessarily be a cookbook.
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Build an underground UBC Line SkyTrain along the Broadway corridor that connects with the existing V
The 99 B-Line bus is a key cog in many students coming from the suburbs and a source of their many frustrations. For too long students in Burnaby, New Westminster, Surrey, Langley, etc have sacrificed two hours of their day just to learn at one of the most beautiful and prestigious universities in the world. Being able to connect them via SkyTrain will greatly affect the quality of transportation to campus. The Broadway corridor itself has been waiting for something like this for sometime, and connecting it with the Millennium line at VCC-Clark would do wonders to curb the time…
29 votesTransLink is currently leading a study to determine the best approach to deliver high-capacity, fast, frequent, and reliable rapid transit for the Broadway Corridor from Commercial Drive to UBC. A number of technologies and alignment options are being considered, including rail rapid transit (e.g. SkyTrain), surface light rail transit, and bus rapid transit.
The City of Vancouver is directly involved as a partner agency in the study. In April 2010, City Council endorsed ten principles to guide City input into this process (http://vancouver/ubcline/principles).
Visit http://vancouver.ca/ubcline to learn more about this work, including upcoming public engagement events.
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11 votes
The draft Greenest City Action Plan will include directions to advance parking policies that encourage a reduction in vehicle ownership and driving, support sustainable transportation choices, and increase housing affordability near transit. Better management of curbside parking will help to reduce cruising and congestion caused by drivers searching for an available space. Redesigning the residential parking permit program will address parking spillover concerns associated with off-street reductions and better reflect actual street space value.
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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 -
Encourage more transit use by putting in large free parking lots close to each Skytrain Station
Make Vancouver more Transit Friendly!
10 votes -
Create more affordable family housing within easy walking/biking/transit radius of downtown.
We need more family housing (i.e. 3-bedroom units that real people with under-$100K incomes can afford) within easy walking/biking/transit radius of downtown. Studies have shown that 20 minutes is the maximum work commute that people can withstand before they start to accrue major daily stress. And coincidentally, letting people live ... See Moreclose to their jobs leads to massive reduction in auto emissions.
How to create affordable housing?
- Force developers to offer a mandatory number of units beyond the tiny 1-bedroom and 1+den units that currently dominate the market.
- Take over apartment buildings and convert them to co-ops.
- Create a…
404 votesA critical challenge for Vancouver. Laneway housing, STIR, the 20% Inclusionary Zoning Policy, and other programs and policies are intended to help increase housing affordability— see http://vancouver.ca/housing. The draft Greenest City plan recognizes the importance of affordability and will review additional strategies, e.g. unbundled parking.
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Empower apartment residents to hang their laundry to dry
Many strata and co-op buildings prohibit drying laundry on balconies or outside. Hanging to dry uses far less energy than using a dryer. Pass a by-law: prohibit the prohibition!
43 votesFalls under occupant engagement in energy conservation
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Redistribute food that is still edible
A large amount of fine produce is thrown out or composted, especially from "gourmet" grocers who only sell produce of highest quality.
Restaurants often throw out food, because they are unable to sell it the following day.
There are many people in this city who cannot afford, or who do not have the skills to prepare good food.
Divert this waste from the food industry towards feeding people who could use the food.
32 votesThe City supports various community food recovery initiatives currently being planed or already in place. Food recovery is included within the draft Greenest City Action Plan
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Stop the use of toilet paper made from virgin trees.
TP made from post-consumer waste paper is already available, and even the likes of Costco are starting to stock it. Enact a bylaw that ensures all TP sold in Vancouver is at least 30% from recycled paper.
6 votesThe City can look to this in our own operations. Purchasing choices, and their effect on ecological footprint, will form part of the engagement campaign
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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 votesWhile this fixture is not specified in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan, ensuring people use the most efficient fixtures possible is. This type of fixture could be one of many options.
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Simplify, Synchronize, and Rationalize the Collection of Recyclable Materials.
Simplify: Have one large blue bin - the same capacity as the City’s largest Green Bin currently used for single family dwelling yard waste collection. The current residential recycling program is too little and too complex. Most residents do not understand what can go into one of three distinct containers and they don’t understand that they can request additional containers. Miss-mixed containers and stacks of cardboard not broken down to the requisite 12”x12” sheets are routinely left curbside to rot and eventually be discarded in the larger waste containers. The current fact that the blue box is tiny and waste…
7 votes
