GC 2020
657 results found
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Outlaw Freebies and Handouts
Here's a top-down, Draconian notion that still has merit: a bylaw that prohibits the distribution and posting of leaflets and placards and other miscellaney. Fine those who insist on papering our doors, bikes, benches, cars, and streets with unrequested promotional materials. It's one thing to offer somebody an item and another to scatter them pell mell.
5 votes -
compost street bins
To reduce smell and garbage, and can be picked up daily by volunteers or city works to be put in round about gardens or used in local parks
5 votes -
wooden sidewalks
Concrete production is one of the greatest greenhouse gas emitters The great expanses of solid surfaces in roads, parking lots, and sidewalks greatly increase rates of water run-off, impacting groundwater, streams, and near-shore ecosystems. Paving over nature also removed it, of course. A greener city includes more green, less grey concrete or black pavement. In BC, we already have several places where wooden walkways are in use in artistically pleasing and practical ways, placed with the intention of creating a lighter footprint. Is it absolutely essential that every sidewalk in Vancouver be made of concrete? As a start, I advocate…
5 votes -
Considerate Contractor Scheme for Vancouver
If Vancouver really means to give priority to walker and cyclists, then it's time we instigated a Considerate Contractor scheme like the ones that have been in place in the UK for decades, for example: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Business/Business_support_and_advice/considerate_contractor_scheme.htm
I'm tired of having to retrace my steps to cross the road because contractors have closed the sidewalk mid-block randomly. I'm also tired of contrators treating bike lanes as their own personal business parking space for cars, trucks, dumpsters and other equipment. When I complain, I'm told that the City allows them to use bike lanes during contstruction, and that they are free to…5 votes -
Happy planet index
Measure the city of Vancouver's green progess by the well being of its citizens and ecological footprint. www.happyplanetindex.com
5 votesThis plan is focused on the greenest city, but there is great local expertise in assessing happiness – Dr. John Helliwell at UBC.
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Recycle Hotel Soaps and Bottled Amenities
Every year in British Columbia the hotel industry deposits over 250 metric tones of soap and bottled amenities directly into our landfills. What if that soap could be cleaned, sanitized, and re-purposed for humanitarian emergencies and communities around the world where hand washing with soap can reduce by up to 60% the deaths of children under the age of 5. www.cleantheworld.org
Mission Possible, a agency in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is employing women at risk by recycling hotel soaps and bottled amenities. www.mission-possible.ca
5 votes -
eco zoning
Vancouver like London attracts people from around the world Where London has produced zoning that helps preserve its historic "buzz" we need to produce zoning that preserves our "rain forest" appeal . An eco zone is a modified existing zone (eg. RS1eco, RM1eco ,etc) that is given preferential treatment because of exceptional green practices, these could entail, urban farms, passive solar or passive certified homes. Eco zoning is incentive based, -additional sq footage, or minimum lot size reduction, green house gardens for commercial or personal), green innovation relaxation (eg, allowing wind turbines or large scale water collection (+500gallon) under ground…
5 votesGreen Enterprize Zone team is establishing area and some initial projects including two business incubators
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Urban Farm Coop
Mandate urban farm coops in backyards. City Hall would then collect taxes in the form of fruits and vegetables. This could be as successful as it was under Stalin. It resulted in an unexpected benefit -- the reduction of the population by 15 million people. Vive La Revolution Vert!
5 votes -
Green Urban Cook book
Develop tasty recipes for urban nuisances such as crow a l'orange, pigeons au vin, raccoons en sauce, and coyote a la brouche.
5 votes -
planting
What is with the crazy lead photo on the Talk Green to Us page?
Is that a cement mixer spewing ready to eat crops (I see tomatoes ripe) into a box over pavement while a crew...does what?Realism about growing local food will get us there, having deep respectful collaboration with regional farmers, and a reciprocal relationship with the resources (nutrients as well as food) in the surrounding, protected, and arable lands.
5 votes -
Ban any EPR material from being commingled in single stream totes. Specificaly packaging materials!
Ban any EPR material from being commingled in single stream totes. Specificaly packaging materials!
5 votes -
Granville Mall
Having transit alternate between Granville St. and Howe/Seymour is causing immense confusion for transit users unfamiliar with this scheme as well as with those familiar with it (at around the time of the switch-over). If you miss the last bus on the Granville route then you have to scramble to Howe or Seymour. I have also (on a few occasions) told people standing at bus stops on Granville, or else on Howe or Seymour, that they need to go to another street to catch the bus at that time (then met with looks of confusion, anger and/or despair…).
Also, since…
5 votes -
Regulate Marine Traffic Emissions
Emissions from marine vessel traffic are not regulated as strictly as emissions from land-based emitters. These emissions have been growing steadily in the Vancouver region. The city should push for stricter guidelines to ensure that measures implemented to reduce air pollution caused by cars and heating, for example, are not offset by emissions from marine traffic.
5 votesMarine traffic is under Federal jurisdiction. The City of Vancouver is supporting Metro Vancouver/Port Metro Vancouver to encourage shore-power.
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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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pick up garbage every 2 weeks instead of weekly
the bins are always picked up 1/2 filled.
4 votes -
Collect logging driftwood and recycle it into wood pellets for biomass generation fuel.
I'm not sure what happens with the logging driftwod that is washed up on the BC shorelines but this could be collected and turned into useful biomass fuel.
4 votes -
Develop sustainable education tax incentives
Provide a venue where Vancouver residents could go online and watch educational videos about sustainable and green ideas. In order to promote and encourage residents to watch the videos provide a tax incentive on say property tax. This will make more people watch these videos with the hope that a light will turn on in their heads as to making lifestyle changes that make sense as demonstrated by the videos.
4 votesThe City only has property taxation authority which isn’t an easy link to encouraging this kind of behaviour, although some form of incentive can be explored in the review of City policies and regulations.
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Reduce number of truck routes - ban trucks on SW Marine Dr & Cambie St (bike routes)
Heavy trucks (G.V.W. greater than 5500 kg) are not compatible with cycling especially on a road like SW Marine Dr. Heavy trucks also cause disproportionate wear and tear on roads and are major air polluters.
4 votes -
Have You Considered This
That maybe the 800,000 plus Citizens of Vancouver do not want a Green City that you think of!
Did you put this to a electronic vote off the voters list?
4 votes -
Increase indoor temperature range, to connect people to outside and reduce energy. Sweaters! Shorts!
Change commercial (including offices) buildings operating temperature range, to decrease air conditioning in the summer, and decrease heating energy in the winter. My estimates show that a changing the range from 2°C to 8°C could decrease overall building energy by 10%.
4 votesWhile the City cannot mandate the temperature that people set their thermostats to, this issue is addressed through occupant engagement as well as education and capacity building for building operators.
