GC 2020
59 results found
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Better Designed Street Lighting
NOTE: This idea merges several ideas submitted calling for energy efficient street light design.
0 votes -
All universities to use alternative energy to become self-sufficient
See the German/USA film The 4th Revolution - Energy Autonomy - it's entirely possible to use only alternatives to power our institutions and cities. The fact that it's more expensive right now is not an excuse - there's too much at stake - universities should be supported to take this step and become our 'labs' for alternative energy.
I1 vote -
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 votesThe South East False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility is one of 4 systems in the world where heat is recovered from sewage and distributed to the South East False Creek Neighbourhood. for a district energy system.
www.vancouver.ca/sustainability/building_neu.htm -
Switch all municipal buildings off fossil fuels
Half of all greenhouse gases dumped in the city of Vancouver come from burning natural gas in buildings. The amount is unchanged in 20 years. City government should lead the way by fuel switching all buildings it controls to use much cleaner BC electricity. Almost 60% of energy used in buildings is climate damaging fossil fuels. We need leadership from the top to highlight the need to change this.
9 votes -
Switch building from natural gas to electricity
Burning fossil fuels to heat our homes and buildings is the single biggest source of climate damage coming from Vancouver. It is 50% of city GHGs and much more damaging than all vehicle emissions. Vancouver should levy a carbon tax on natural gas and use it to subsidize people who choose to switch to electric heating, especially heat pumps. Vancouver will never be able to meet its climate goals and responsibility until nearly all natural gas burning is stopped. No new technology is needed as many buildings already are fully electric and have been for decades. Today 41% of energy…
8 votes -
Implement tiered energy billing system
Consumers pay attention to cost. Implementing a tiered energy billing system where individuals with high energy usage are billed more compared to individuals with low energy usage will act as an incentive to save money and energy. Very low energy usage should be rewarded by a lower rate, and a higher rate should be applied to high energy usage. The tiered energy billing systems should be adjusted on a regular basis to reflect changes due to consumers purchasing energy-saving appliances over time.
5 votesBC Hydro has taken this approach with their rate setting schedules.
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Introduce individual carbon credit/debit system
Each resident has an equal amount of carbon credits available per month. The credits are used up when buying gas, purchasing non-local products or engaging in other types of high footprint activities. Individuals who exceed their monthly limit need to purchase carbon credits from the credit/debit system, while individuals who do not use all of their credits will get reimbursed for the unused portion. Control of carbon emissions is achieved by setting the monthly limit and the cost of a unit of carbon. This system provides a financial incentive for individuals to reduce carbon emissions. Though difficult to implement in…
4 votes -
Use power generating tiles for pavement in high density walking areas
Power generating tiles: the more people walk on these tile, the more power is generated, and the less use of traditional power generation options that depend mainly on fossil burning. These tiles could be used downtown, in malls, sky train stations, and any other area with high density of pedestrians.
14 votesInteresting idea. The City is always interested in new renewable energy technologies.
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3 votes
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2 votes
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Energy Descent Plan
Chair a city-wide committee to create a Vancouver Energy Descent Plan in order to develop a coordinated plan to reduce city-wide energy use by 2020.
10 votes -
2000W society
To be the best, look around at the competition (friendly competition -- the other green cities of the world), and make sure you're at least matching the best policies out there.
For instance a number of cities in Switzerland have put 2000 W mandates in their charter. A "2000 W society" is a nice framing of the common objective of averaging less than 2kW per person. A 1 t (ie per year, per person, of CO2e GHGs in this case) society might be more climate relevant.8 votes -
a street car named DESire (DES = District Energy System)
What if the transit line you road on also carried the energy used to heat your home?
Just as density begets transit, density begets District Energy Systems (DES).
A DES is a utility like BC Hydro’s electricity grid, or Terasen’s Natural Gas network - only it uses hot water to carry energy. The hot water can be used to heat your home, office or favorite karaoke bar. The heat can be generated from clean energy sources like solar thermal panels, ground source heat pumps, or sewage waste heat recovery - like at the Olympic village. These clean energy technologies are…
171 votes -
Plug the C02 holes.
Most would agree that the biggest monster is climate change. If Vancouver is to be a leader in greening tech. and practices it would do well to show in a practical way what can be done now.
On a massive scale, start installing solar hot water systems. Use economy scale to bring down the cost. Make it simple and share the knowledge with the rest of the world. Do a similar thing with car conversions. Pick a 100 different model autos, convert them, and post the process on a web page. Translate the findings to a dozen different languages and…10 votes -
Reduce peak electricity demand
Vancouver can be a model of a community that works together to reduce its peak electricity demand and thus the generation capacity needed to sustain it. It can do this through proper monitoring of usage in both residential and commercial buildings and financial incentives to reduce beyond savings on the bill. Make Vancouver a model, and once shown successful, this model can be expanded to other BC cities and beyond.
10 votes -
power monitoring
Power Monitoring - Commercial Buildings
1 vote -
Encourage smaller, denser housing
Many people around the world live in smaller housing units in denser neighbourhoods. In Toronto, many freehold lots are between 15-20 feet wide. The typical Vancouver lot is 33 feet wide. We could double the density in the City by encouraging the development of smaller, attached homes on freehold lots that are 15-16 feet wide. Density alone is not enough to create a livable city, but density will help to reduce emissions as well as helping to improve the affordability of housing in Vancouver.
39 votesThe Ecodensity planning process kicked off efforts in this area. Laneway housing is a good example smaller, denser housing we are starting to see across the city.
http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/watersewers/sewers/permits/laneway.htm -
Micro-Hydro Power
Implement water collection systems on all new buildings and retrofit old buildings to generate power from rain water. "Inline stream engines" can also be connected to the city reservoir. Can support all grey water uses and generate compressed air and electricity to work towards creating closed-loop energy systems throughout the city.
10 votesGood ideas! The City is currently doing a feasibility assessment of connecting a micro-turbine to the City’s water system. If the feasibility is positive, it will be considered in the City’s capital budget for implementation.
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Create a new area in Playland for human powered amusement rides
The City of Vancouver owns Hastings Park and is creating a master plan for the Park, the PNE, and Playland. The current version of the plan calls for an expansion of Playland, which goes against the Greenest City Goal, unless... a new section of rides was created that were completely human powered. It Vancouver approved it, it would be the first truly green amusement park in the world.
There are many examples of individual human powered amusement park rides but nowhere in the world have they been assembled together to create a green amusement park.
16 votesVery interesting idea. The planners for Hastings Park have looked at these type of amusement parks. Thanks for your interesting idea. We will share it with our project team. In our research we have run across something similar to your suggestion: check out Cyclecide http://www.cyclecide.com based out of San Francisco, operates the countries one and only pedal-powered carnival midway. Check out http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/maker_profile_bicycle_rodeo.html
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Comprehensive Carbon Emission Reduction Program Using Carbon Calculator to Track Our Efforts
In order to reach dramatic CO2 emission reduction targets, we need a comprehensive program that provides a framework and incentive for us to work together to implement the great ideas described on this site.
The city has set broad reduction targets and in order to meet our current and future targets (I and I think many others are willing to take even bigger steps), we need to be able to see, at a concrete level, the impact of our actions (ie - the amount of CO2 in the air going up or down) - as individuals and families, as businesses…
1 vote
