GC 2020
657 results found
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A bike rack programme for small commercial buildings (like subsidized composters for homes)
A bike rack programme for small commercial buildings (like subsidized composters for homes)
4 votes -
Partner with non-profits for manufacturing using waste materials
As the landfills are all filling up, create manufacturing opportunities in partnership with non-profits using waste. Examples: waxed produce boxes make enviro-friendly fire logs; so do recycled newspapers; plastics can be mixed and molded into playground equipment and park benches
10 votes -
Municipal tax break for property owners that allow urban farmers to farm their yards
There already exist entrepreneurs producing significant amounts of food in yards in Vancouver, often through a CSA distribution model (Inner City Farms, Fresh Roots, City Farm Boy, My Urban Farm, and others). The landowners that partner with these farmers should receive tax breaks based on the amount of food being produced on their property. With such inflated property taxes in Vancouver, this would provide a delicious incentive for landowners to allow urban farmers to access their land.
256 votes -
Redesigning crosswalks to have a U-shaped design
The City could redesign crosswalks at busy intersections where there is a high amount of J-walking. By redesigning crosswalks to have more of a U-shape, crosswalks could better for the way pedestrians interact with the street, making walking safer, and promoting walking further. There would be limited impacts to traffic congestions while promoting safer streets for pedestrians. Davie and Thurlow would be a perfect place to start!
Visit http://bit.ly/bVMwbp for design examples
4 votes -
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 -
Solar Water Heaters on roofs
Change the building code to allow solar water heaters on residential roofs,
23 votesVancouver’s Solar Homes Pilot is offering $4300 towards the cost of solar hot water systems in Vancouver – this is roughly 50 per cent of the cost of a system. The funding is available to 30 homes on a first come, first served basis. In order to qualify for the rebate, your system must be installed by December 31, 2010.
Details here: http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/SolarHomes.htm
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Poonergy
Have city staff invent a machine to capture/burn the heat from your poo and transfer to hot water tank, or sell it into the city grid I mentioned earlier, exploiting a very domestic source of energy.
1 voteThe Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU) in Southeast False Creek provides space heating and domestic hot water to new buildings in the area. The system uses sewage heat recovery to supply most of the annual energy demand (70%). This approach is being considered in other areas. Read more here: http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/building_neu.htm
Metro Vancouver is also exploring opportunities to generate energy from liquid waste. See also: http://www.metrovancouver.org/about/publications/Publications/ILWRMP.pdf
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Laneway Mini-Lots
Laneway houses are a great trend, but being able to subdivide lots from typical 122 x 33 to, for example, 90 x 33 and 32 x 33 would create much more affordable housing stock to purchase by enabling actual sale of laneway houses, and spur more compact, dense residential dev't.
25 votes -
City Energy Grid
Let local solar, wind and other green energy producers (businesses and/or residents) sell energy into a city grid that supplies community infrastructure.
8 votes -
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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Cool Points: Resident Carbon Cap-and-Trade Scheme
Pilot the first municipal carbon trading scheme for residents.
Create citywide, scaleable carbon market where residents (and businesses, tourists) are assigned a personal/household ghg cap based on current avg ghg consumption. These cool points would need to be spent initially on ghg main offenders like gas, home heat, electricity. Over the cap? You'll have to buy cool points from wee emitters on our local carbon market. Buy, sell and save your cool points with a cool points visa-like card/number. The annual cap would gradually be reduced, and the price of carbon would increase.
Perhaps politically and logistically unfeasible, at least…
1 vote -
Backyard Oil Tankers
Prior to late 1950's, thousands of Vancouver homes were heated with furnace oil, which was stored underground in 300 to 1000 gallon tanks.
Tanks today are in various corroded states, and present risk of oil leaching into soil and groundwater. Expense of removal and threat of neighbourly litigation create disincentive for dealing with the problem.
A time-limited window of opportunity should be provided by city for homeownerrs to access 0-interest loans and matching funds to mitigate all kinds of nasty contamination threats.
Added bonus of creating a few 'green' jobs, and ensuring those backyard gardens won't be growing petrotatoes and…
7 votesThe City has a mechanism for dealing with existing oil tanks when found on properties
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Sustainable Policing
Cut VPD fleet size in half. Boost their bike and footwear budget. (If necessary, create neighbourhood microjails by reusing phone booths - wherever they are - to hold perps until biopaddywagon takes them to the central composting centre),
4 votes -
Mandatory composting of horse manure at barns within city limits
As a U. of Guelph Equine Sciences student last fall, I used Stanley Park as a research area and was surprised to learn the manure at the police barns was not composted on site and used for the city's gardens. It's trucked away and nobody seemed to know where to. Then I recently learned that Southlands Heritage Farm has a proposal for a biodigester on their property, but the city will not approve it due to a "lack of understanding of the unit". I don't believe Hastings Park has a composter either. Raw horse manure is toxic to the environment…
6 votes -
Require all fast food take-out containers to be reusable, compostable, or recyclable
There are plenty of reusable, compostable and recyclable food take-out container options these days (see UBC's compostable take-out containers for an example).
All facilities should also have compost and recycling collection for these containers, with clever designs that prevent cross-contamination.
Thought should be given to whether used food containers need to be washed before being deposited into the store's compost collection bin, or whether a process can be implemented that would take care of this after collection.
272 votes -
Carbon Tax
Impose a carbon tax on parking and building permits to fund new green infrastructure investments or pilot projects. Taxes are never popular but they are one way of curbing consumption and providing ongoing funding. Property taxes are already high and the City has very limited scope to tax consumption. Parking and building permits are one avenue they can tax.
10 votes -
Celebrate 50 inspiring green people in Vancouver in the news!
The Guardian just posted an inspiring article describing, briefly, 50 people in the UK who are creating positive environmental change via their own unique initiatives.
There are some fantastic inspiring stories!
I think it would be great to have an article written about 50 people in Vancouver that are doing similar projects. For example, one woman was given a concrete lot, and she transformed it into a garden using giant bags of soil. Another man noticed wildflower diversity in parks decreasing and started his own seed bank, and now his seeds are being used to increase diversity of wildflowers in…
4 votesCool idea, encourage your local media outlets that this is newsworthy! Greenest City awards are included in the draft plan.
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make food not lawns
Stop planting grass and instead plant food that people can eat. The big living roof on the convention centre has grass right now but it, and other roofs and lawns could have edible plants living on them.
74 votesThis idea is included within the draft Greenest City Action Plan. It has been started, with City-owned property being converted to community gardens and green streets. See: http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/streets/greenstreets/index.htm
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All parks off the grid
Support alternative energy resources by installing solar and wind power for all parks in Vancouver. The hardest would be Stanley Park, of course, but most of the others should be easy to convert to alternative energy
8 votes -
childcare
Re-fund the before and after school child care center which serviced the Champlain Heights Main School.
This center served 50 children (and had a waitlist of 50). It cost the city approximately $60,000 per year to run (most of the costs were paid by the parents).
A safe, affordable, accessible before and after center will allow children to attend school in their own neighbourhood. It will give parents time to bus, car pool or take transit to their workplace instead of driving out of area to drop their children off to childcare or have their children attend school out of…
3 votes
