GC 2020
657 results found
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Discourage single-occupancy vehicles by restructuring roads and parking.
Driving single-occupancy vehicles contributes the largest to CO2 emission, fossil fuel dependency, fatal accidents, and overall air pollution. The first way to discourage it is to designate more dedicated bus lanes, HOV lanes, and bike lanes. Secondly, narrowing our roads would make people realise that they need to get out of congestion and start walking/cycling/taking transit. Thirdly, increase parking fees and reducing parking spaces would also greatly decrease people's willingness to drive.
16 votes -
Cool roofs to combat the "heat island" impact, and save energy and reduce emissions
From July 22 "Science News" (everything old SHOULD be new again...)
Global model confirms: Cool roofs can offset carbon dioxide emissions and mitigate global warming
Light-colored roofs and pavements would help in 2 ways. First, the "urban heat island" effect would be mitigated. Second, by reflecting incoming solar radiation back into space, the whole globe would, on average, become a bit cooler. In terms of CO2 emissions, an offset of two years worth of emissions could be attained. Provided of course, such a huge amount of light-colored stuff can be produced and installed in a carbon-neutral manner.
Can light-colored rooftops…
16 votesCurrently exploring an approach to addressing cool roofs, green roofs & walls.
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More street food more places
The City's recent allocation of 17 new street-food licenses is a good start. Let's take it to the next level with street food hubs on city-owned parking lots or under-utilized alleyways. These centres could be modelled after those in Portland and feature a wide variety of local, healthy options. A bonus idea: a plate refund system like at the Folk Fest -- so that packaging and wrap can be minimized or done away with!
16 votesThe City has increased the number of street food vendors and types in 2010 and are looking to expand the program in 2011. For details, please visit: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/projects/streetfood.htm
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Protect wildlife habitats
An important part of living in a "Green" city goes beyond clean air, water, & waste management. It also includes protection of our local wildlife. I am always shocked each year with the number of black bears that are put down by wildlife management staff. Is this the best "management" policy of our wildlife that Vancouver can come up with? It's time for Vancouver & its surrounding communities to get to the root of the problem, which is urban development infringing on wildlife habitats and depletion of their food sources. I always say, that if you want to live in…
16 votes -
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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Utilize responsive upzoning
De-regulate neighbourhood zoning to allow an intelligent mix of services, work and residential opportunities. Permit networking and sharing of services to balance heat with cooling, production with consumption and waste with resource.
16 votesZoning and other bylaws, codes, and guidelines that determine the scale and form of new development, are often re-examined through community, central area, and city-wide planning initiatives (e.g. Cambie Corridor, Neighbourhood Centres) and typically with the intent to ‘upzone’ and be more responsive to changing community needs and preferences.
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Celebrate water! Rain water, river water, ocean water -- let's treat it like we love it!
Some ideas for celebrating water might include...
- Making beautiful rain-powered water sculptures as public art
- "Daylighting" our lost creeks
- Creating new "creeks" (swales) and ponds to manage our stormwater
- Making sure our rivers and ponds and coastlines stay/get clean enough to swim in and fish in and play in again
What are your ideas?
16 votesWhere possible, streams are being daylighted http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/cityplans/stillcreek/index.htm, swales and infiltration bulges are being installed http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/streets/design/green.htm, rainwater is incorporated into public art at the Marine Drive Skytrain Station
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B.C. Place's exterior should be green!!!
B.C. Place's cement area (exterior) I think should be covered in plants and flowers. I think that would look nice and gives a fresh scent, plus it is good for Vancouver!
16 votes -
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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16 votes
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Profile & demonstrate clean technologies in wastewater treatment & nutrient recovery
The City can help to showcase local green businesses and improve their profile in the market place through demonstration projects. One idea is to support the development of a community wastewater treatment facility that captures nutrients from the wastewater stream to process into an environmentally friendly fertilizer. Metro Vancouver wastewater treatment plants currently produce biosolids which are rich in nutrients and can be used to fertilize lands to improve vegetative production, but this program needs further partnerships to reinforce and expand the model.
Links
MetroVancouver Nutrifor program: http://www.metrovancouver.org/services/wastewater/nutrifor/Pages/default.aspx
Vancouver firm Ostara: http://www.ostara.com/
15 votes -
Stop automated sprinklers
I've seen automated sprinklers spraying while it's raining! Encourage people to choose plants that will thrive knowing that summers are dry periods. Or at least accept less-than-perfect lawns for a couple months of the year. I notice this mostly around condos that just have small strips of grass. They should replace the lawn completely with alternate groundcover - nobody uses it as a lawn anyway.
15 votesSprinkling regulation enforcement is
part of Draft Greenest City Action Plan. -
15 votes
Included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan.
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Work with large employers to encourage sustainable commuting choices
Trip reduction programs have been effective in various North American jurisdictions by giving employers the tools to encourage sustainable commuting. Through either voluntary or regulatory measures, large employers are supported to survey their staff on commute habits and develop a plan to reduce single occupancy vehicle trips. This may include cutting back on free parking, providing transit subsidies, installing lockers and showers for cyclists, or joining a carpool matching program. In Portland, the Employee Commute Options program has reduced over three million vehicle trips in the region.
http://www.deq.state.or.us/nwr/eco/eco.htm15 votes -
Covered bike racks like these from San Francisco (South Park) #bikearc http://ow.ly/i/2AC9
Covered bike racks to keep people's seats dry during the rainy season would increase accessibility and make it more attractive to ride through the winter. This design isn't perfect but it gives you an idea of what we could do.
15 votesThe City supports this idea, and is starting to look at opportunities to implement it.
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15 votes
The draft Greenest City Action Plan includes strategies to make energy efficient new buildings more affordable through fee-bates, code relaxations and financial tools.
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Expand the Yellow Fish Markers on Storm Drain Sewers Program
Historically, industrial man has been accustomed to using our waterways as a dumping ground for unwanted waste. Sadly this has led to our ocean becoming a toxic soup for animals and plants. Agricultural fertilizer runoff cause algal blooms. Inefficient or excessive garbage has caused many massive garbage (mostly plastic) islands to appear in the oceans and has had an adverse impact on seabirds and sea mammals. Chemicals are dumped down sewers and fish are killed immediately. In Burnaby Byrne Creek has had too many such incidents in the past few years; so many in fact that an initiative called “Stream…
15 votesNot part of the draft Greenest City Action Plan but new storm drains are embossed with an image of a fish.
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Remove more Grass in Public Parks and Plant More Shrubs and Trees
Our community parks are covered with grass fields. Some are used as playing fields for playing soccer, baseball, cricket etc. Others just exist for picnics, impromptu ball games and for their own sake.
These grassy fields take too much work! Large machines mow the grass every few weeks, spread earth, sand, seed and lime and aerate the soil. Around the fields there is another large machine that gathers up and mashes leaves in the fall. Then there are countless smaller machines working the perimeter of the fields and on the boulevard. They are manned by Parks Board employees who are…
15 votes -
Greatly expand skytrain network to reach every part of the city and phase out the buses.
The skytrains are great but the way we inter-link them with buses so that you can't get from A to B without several zones and buses is really inefficient. Ideally, a subway system should hit every core area of a City so that 'driving' is rendered more trouble than it's worth.
15 votes -
Support graduated auto insurance
[Submitted via email by Ann Foster]
Support graduated auto insurance, with the fees based on mileage. For example: paydpilot.ca.
15 votesThe City is supportive of this idea, but implementation requires action outside municipal jurisdiction. The City has and will continue to advocate to the Province and ICBC for PAYD and/or other distance-based forms of auto insurance.
