GC 2020
657 results found
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Cash and tax incentives for the sale of excess power generated from the installation of solar power.
If you want people to follow more than dancing with the stars....wave the green in their face and the city will change. Tie into the grid and allow people the choice of where their excess power goes. If you are paid for the power but it's capped at a monthly amount the rest can be credited to shelters for the homeless and lower income housing. All as a taxable write off of course. The ideas are endless and so is the power!
15 votesPlan addresses incentives to increase accessibility and affordability of renewable energy
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Find a way to reduce bike theft. Not just more secure parking but real consequeces for theft
I read an article somewhere that 1/3 of people who have a bike stolen don't buy a new one. We need more people on bikes and that's only going to happen if we have more secure bike parking and a real city strategy to deal with theft. Micro chipping, real punishment, sting operations. There are a million ways to accomplish this goal. We've reduced our theft of automobiles through the bait car program, now its time for bikes.
15 votes -
Disposable Deposit
Each and every disposable container should have a 50 cent deposit on it; a coffee cup with a lid = $1.00, a plate, fork and knife $1.50 etc.
15 votes -
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 -
Bylaw to ban auto-flush toilets
Aside from being the worst invention of all-time*, auto-flush toilets are also incredibly wasteful.
I estimate that an auto-flush goes off at least twice as often as it needs to. In the offices and malls where these devices are installed, that could mean a vast amount of wasted water.
15 votesAn outright ban on these fixtures is not part of the Draft Greenest City Action Plan, however the efficient fixtures program and water auditing programs are areas in which this issue can be addressed.
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Expand current blue box recycling
Expand what can be recycled in the blue-box containers (eg: tetra-paks, plastic bags / wrappers / film, and other plastic types)
Personally, I would prefer to see a reduction in the use of plastic shopping bags. But in the mean time...it would be great to be able to recycle them effortlessly & easily.
15 votes -
Allow an abundance of transportation alternatives
Where are all the taxis? Cab licences are artificially capped by the City and transit is a monopoly. In many cities around the globe, commuters are offered a range of options including share-taxis, jitneys, pedicabs, shuttles, and executive buses. Like telephone and airline services have shown, de-regulation improves service, increases use and reduces cost.
15 votes -
Treat our land and resources as sacred
Include First Nations and/or elders on ways to respect our land and resources that make them sacred. Defining a culture that connects our past to the present.
15 votes -
mindfullness in schools
Whereas Climate change requires individual behaviour change and
Wherease individual behaviour change is significantly enhanced by cultivating the ability for critical thought and the abilility to step back and question and
Wherease these abilities are proven to be enhanced by practicing mindfulness (aka meditation, centering prayer, and many other labels), and
Whereas some success has already been achieved by introducing mindfulness programs in Vancouver schools,
Collaborate with the vancouver school board to introduce mindfuflness training in all grade levels across the city. This may include providing a financial incentive for the VSB to fully roll out the program.15 votesInteresting idea, have shared this with the Vancouver School Board.
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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 -
Green school/Demonstration Centre
The two biggest barriers I see for people choosing to ignore green principles and continue in a throw away mentality is 1) Education 2) Ease of change. People need to understand and it has to be cheep and easy to do---guess what, It is!!!!!! Lectures, pamphlets, workshops--these are all good things--but seriously lets stop yapping and just start doing and showing. There is no better way of understanding what and how things can be done then by actually doing it. By sight, by touch and by participating.
Lets build a demonstration centre on a vacant lot which aims to discover…15 votesA key strategy to meet the 2020 targets is education. The Draft Greenest City Action Plan indicates the City’s intention to support and encourage educational and training opportunities.
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More car diverters on busy bike routes
Add more car diverters to busy bike routes: they work!
15 votesThe City implemented several new trial diverters on various bike routes in the summer of 2010. This is part of a program to reduce non-local traffic volumes on those bikeways and to make the bikeways more comfortable for cyclists for all ages and abilities. The pending active transportation plan will explore opportunities for further traffic calming on our bikeways.
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Improve air quality monitoring and make it educational
Metro Vancouver is responsible for monitoring air quality across the region. There are only two permanent air quality monitoring stations within the City and their readings aren't representative of the rest of Vancouver because of point sources nearby. Building another air quality monitoring station in a better location could help assess trends in ambient air quality across the City. Mobile monitoring studies could also be conducted along major traffic corridors or near suspected point sources to inform policy decisions.
Educational features such as signage and real-time displays could be incorporated into existing or new monitoring stations. This would help inform…
14 votesCity of Vancouver will support Metro Vancouver’s initiatives for improved monitoring
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14 votes
The City does not have jursidiction in this area, though the best way to send price signals to discourage the use of air conditioners may be through sales tax administered by the provincial government.
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14 votes
The City supports the idea of road / congestion pricing, and bridge tolls are one possible implementation. A regional (as opposed to a city) approach might work best, given travel behaviour, patterns of movement, and jurisdictional issues. This lies outside City jurisdiction, so our role is limited to advocacy; changes to Provincial legislation are required.
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fine drivers of noisy motorcycles
there are existing noise pollution laws - why do police not enforce them?
14 votes -
Minimize allowable garbage pickup to 1 can / 2 weeks, and allow all amounts of recycling / compost
Capping the amount of recycling allowable for pick-up does not encourage recycling adequately, as it results in the homeowner needing to truck their (i.e.) large cardboard boxes to a transfer station. Often this is seen as too arduous, and instead a person will just call a junk-hauler. Accepting all amounts of recycling encourages people to separate their waste to take full advantage of the recycling pick-up system.
Limiting the volume of garbage can allowable per person will push people to compress and carefully select which items go to waste.
To deter putting garbage in recycling containers, perhaps collectors could give…
14 votes -
City of Vancouver Eco bonds to help home and business owners with green upgrades.
ECO bonds are helping cities throughout the US with renewable energy and efficiency upgrades to their homes and businesses. By leveraging the lower borrowing rates of the city, Vancouver can help citizens get over the high up-front costs of green retrofits by deducting an additional amount from property taxes over a long term - say 20 years - period.
14 votesFinancing tools (currently under development) may encourage building owners to improve the performance of their buildings rather than rebuild
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Non-toxic laundry
To improve air and water quality, don't use toxic fabric softeners, dryer sheets, or detergents containing dangerous chemicals! Instead, try the safe, simple alternatives listed on this website:
http://www.lplpublishers.ca/toxiclaundry.html
In Canada, laundry products do not as yet require labelling as to contents. Some detergents contain hidden, harmful chemicals. So do fabric softeners and dryer sheets. Contact your government representatives: civic, provincial and federal, to support and encourage "right-to-know" labelling, which would list toxic ingredients in laundry products.
We are entitled to know what is contained in the products which we buy and use.
Vancouver can work towards becoming the Greenest…14 votesApplication to air quality is tangential.
Water quality as affected by residential discharge is governed under Bylaw #8093, and administered by City of Vancouver’s dedicated Environmental Department: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/licandinsp/inspections/environment/ -
Bring back the #1 Fairview Beltline route
Until the 1950s, the #1 Fairview Beltline streetcar ran along Main St, W Broadway, Granville, and Hastings in a big loop, connecting downtown with Vancouver's second biggest employment centre, the Broadway corridor. Crowding on many bus routes out of downtown would be alleviated if a frequent Beltline streetcar were brought back. It would also help businesses along Hastings, Main, and W Broadway.
14 votes
