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How can we reach our 2020
Greenest City Targets?

GC 2020

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657 results found

  1. Permit zoning for walkable, livable, amenity rich single family and human-scale neighbourhoods

    Six 2000 square feet single family houses can fit on two existing 33 x 120 foot lots. The alleys are narrow streets and the streets become narrow streets to maintain green space. The density supports local amenities that you can walk or cycle to. The increased amenities provide more local jobs. It means you can get what you need locally without a car. Connect these neighbourhoods with effective public transit which is started by permitting these neighbourhoods around sky train stations and bus loops. Laneway housing is part of this solution. Design the neighbourhood as if you had not cars.…

    13 votes
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  2. Green Hastings Park

    This public asset is being used by a Casino, a dying horse racing industry, a year round comercial rental industry, a noisy amusement park, and two coorporate ball clubs.

    Daylight the salmon stream, return the community soccer fields. etc...

    145 votes
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  3. Re-industrialize Vancouver

    Bringing manufacturing and farming back to the city may be the only way to create an environmentally and socially sustainable world. Like most western cities, Vancouver has become almost completely de-industrialized. The goods (and increasingly also the services) that form our daily existence are produced far away under conditions we don't tolerate here. As a result much of our ecological and social footprint is exported and hidden from view, resulting in increasing environmental devastation and social inequality. Bringing these activities back home—into the city core—will give us the opportunity to address the social and ecological consequences of our production and…

    15 votes
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  4. Re-Utilizing the heat from potable water ( Dishwasher, Shower, ... )

    We could use the potential heat from our shower, dishwasher and other source of hot water that we utilize everyday and utilize the energy to heat the hot water again ( Re-use it for a thermal recovery )

    13 votes
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  5. 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 votes
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  6. 12 votes
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  7. Ban grass lawns

    Green lawns look nice but they consume a vast amount of water, we could reduce the amount of water used if we a) had maximum sized lawns allowable in private residence. b) Banned the planting of grass for lawn areas, there are a number of plants that you could use to create a green walkable space that consume little water to sustain, why then do we waist so much water on grass lawns, alternate style of ground cover could be looked at.

    7 votes
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    The City does not limit the amount of lawn, but does limit the amount of impermeable surface allowed. We encourage alternatives to lawns through the water wise landscape guidelines. Strengthening education programs in supprt of alternatives to lawns is part of the plan.

  8. 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 votes
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  9. Plasma Arc Waste Disposal

    Plasma Arc Waste Disposal (or Gasification) is a method of waste disposal used for its capability of recycling nearly every material that is put into it.

    Using clean electrical arcs, the GVRD could decompose any waste into its component elements. Carbon Dioxide would decompose into Carbon and Oxygen; plastics would decompose into Hydrogen, Carbon, and other base elements contained within; and organic wastes like food would decompose into Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, among numerous other elements.

    Metals and alloys can be separated into each component metal, allowing quicker and easier reuse and refabrication.

    "Plasma gasification is also used for specialized…

    20 votes
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  10. Make the free stuff Xchange on 4th and McDonald official.

    It's a great corner run by 'Santa Claus', a white earded man who patrols the street for useful 'junk' and leaves it on the corner for anyone to take and 'reuse'. I've found some amazing things there and he keeps the stuff outta the landfill.

    Reusing is better than recycling anyday!!

    10 votes
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    1 comment  ·  Reduce waste  ·  Admin →
  11. Improve traffic lights

    Improving how traffic lights work to create green waves on as many streets as possible not just the 1 ways. This will reduce traffic, accidents and CO2 emmisions and increase transit performance with fewer vehicles grid lock idling.

    Anyone who's sat at a red light for minutes on end in the middle of the night when there's no cross traffic can cheer on science for proving what we already knew: lights that adapt to the flow of traffic, instead of dictating the flow of traffic, can improve the flow of traffic. A team of researchers discovered that if you let…

    14 votes
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  12. Solar Water Heaters on roofs

    Change the building code to allow solar water heaters on residential roofs,

    23 votes
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  13. Metered bike lockers

    Metered bike lockers that can be rented by the hour.

    9 votes
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  14. Enable home and building owners to retrofit existing buildings for energy efficiency

    Instead of building it all from scratch, let's fix what we already have... Low hanging fruit here. Maybe we need to tie retrofits to property tax bills to create the right incentives.

    18 votes
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  15. 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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  16. Improve Neighbourhood Roundabouts to provide for safe pedestrian crossing

    Neighbourhood roundabouts are being developed across the city. These roundabouts serve to maintain a comfortable traffic flow for cars and cyclists on residential streets. Unfortunately, due to their design, these roundabouts fail to provide security for pedestrians since there are no visual cues to suggest that pedestrians even have a right to cross the street. In a local classroom survey, grade 4’s exclaimed that they feel unsafe crossing at these roundabouts and I regularly see uncertainty in the eyes and actions of pedestrians crossing at roundabouts.

    There are a number of ways to improve this situation. Here are two examples:

    6 votes
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  17. Green transportation hubs throughout the

    EVs are coming and we're not ready. Putting infrastructure in place with high-speed charging that also hosts bike sharing, car sharing and green commuters will have a central place to plug in and recharge.

    7 votes
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  18. Composting Program for Buildinga west of Denman

    Use part of Stanley Park to start a small composting program for apartments west of denman St. Low transport costs with high density...reduces garbage in dumpster and offers free compost for park and or residents. if it works duplicate using other parks in vancouver with nearby apartment complexes.

    8 votes
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    1 comment  ·  Reduce waste  ·  Admin →
  19. BYOC (Bring Your Own Container/Cup)

    Consumers have a responsibility to their own carbon footprint and not just the businesses. Bring your own container to the restaurant when you order food to go just like we bring reusuable mugs for drinks! Businesses can offer a discount as an encouragement.

    23 votes
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  20. install many many more public washrooms

    Install Many Many More Public Washrooms ... no this idea is not off topic! There are so few public washrooms in Vancouver that it’s a barrier to walking, biking and taking transit even for people with mature, healthy bladders, let alone when one considers the needs of Seniors and parents with young children. With the the paltry offering of public washrooms, who can reasonably view this City as transit and alt. car friendly? The ready access to washrooms is one reason people plan car trips to Shopping Malls and Big Box retailers rather than walk, bike or take transit to…

    49 votes
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    Good idea! In the past few years, the City has installed 8 of 16 self-cleaning toilets as part of its street furniture contract with CBS-Decaux, and is looking for additional locations. (As an aside, locating them can be challenging due to limited public sidewalk space, a lack of utility connections, and concerns from adjacent businesses.) New public restrooms have also been installed as part of recent park upgrades. There is also a huge opportunity and need at transit interchanges, but this is outside the City’s jurisdiction — Vancouver has repeatedly requested (and will continue to ask) that TransLink install restrooms in its rapid transit stations.

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