GC 2020
62 results found
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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 -
Install outlets for electric vehicles in parking lots
[Submitted via email]
Consider a downtown parking lot with outlets so plugin electric hybrids can recharge. Could have some type of metre.
13 votesFollowing a 2009 Council adopted report, scaleable public charging infrastructure is being deployed to support the adoption of electric vehicles in Vancouver.
Read more here:
http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/electric_vehicles.htm
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/documents/penv3.pdfhttp://www.easypark.ca/about-easypark/parking-programs/go-green.aspx
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12 votes
Not free, but we are creating financing tools and incentives to increase affordability of these upgrades
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Develop a directory and/or application that helps consumers choose sustainable products and services
Imagine just selecting the 'green directory' app and being able to find sustainable businesses in the local area? Or finding a product in store and being able to look it up immediately to find out what it's sustainable qualifications are? There are a lot of people out there actively seeking out sustainable products and services, but there are a lot more who are engaged and interested - but just not sure where to start. People are creatures of habit, to motivate them to make changes you need to make it EASY for them to do so! I'm not saying it's…
11 votesThere are multiple green building product and services directories that already exist in Vancouver. www.sustainablebuildingcentre.com and www.metrovancouver.com/buildsmart
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Encourage grass lawn alternatives
[Submitted via email by Patrice Allen]
Grass lawns use excessive water and toxic fertilizers, just to get that lush look. Why not more veggie & flower beds? Or Japanese style pebbles, bricks, tiles, and water-recycling ponds (also to help prevent noise pollution and give the birds a place to drink from) and, most low maintenance of all, a herb lawn of thyme or any of the other fragrant, soft, herbaceous carpets that grow themselves. Encourage planting of succulents (less watering) and native plants and grasses.
11 votesThe City does encourage alternatives to lawns http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/guidelines/W005.pdf
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Free Door to Door Efficiency Upgrades!
Let's have teams of semi-skilled energy and water efficiency technicians provide at-your-door, free upgrade services. It's easy to be lazy when it comes to making our homes more energy and water efficient. Sometime we just need a kick in the pants!
The City could partner with BC Hydro, Terasen Gas, the water utility, and other utilities and energy providers to establish teams of people that take energy/water efficiency information and products door-to-door. The neighbourhood visit schedules would be advertized and specific visits could be requested by citizens.
Citizens would have a choice between products or could choose not to upgrade.…
11 votesNot free, but we are creating financing tools and incentives to increase affordability of these upgrades
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Super Insulate All Buildings
Super Insulate All Buildings rather than spend on finding ways to heat inefficient existing building
10 votesInsulation is addressed in the building code for new and existing buildings as well as by the Passive design toolkits
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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 -
Solidify Laneway Housing Through Ownership Incentives
Developing a process that will facilitate homes with lanes to be able to subdivide back to front would solidify and incentivize the production of laneway houses, effectively doubling the density in parts of the city without breaking the small scale character of neighbourhoods. The current program allows for lane way houses to be produced with an incentive from rental income, but with current development costs and real estate market the process is not readily viable at a city-wide scale and many home owners do not see enough benefit to warrant financing such a project. However, with the incentive of being…
9 votesNew options to facilitate the development of laneway homes are being considered for phase two of the laneway homes program.
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9 votes
The majority of existing brown and greyfields in Vancouver fall under existing redevelopment plans.
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Biodiversity and Permeability Standards through the Zoning By-law
Create a biodiversity and permeability performance standards for new development through the Zoning By-Law. A variation on this could be create market incentives for more biodiversity.
8 votesPermeability is already included in the Zoning Bylaw. Biodiversity is not covered by the Zoning Bylaw.
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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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Improve Neighbourhood Roundabouts to provide for safe pedestrian crossing
Neighbourhood roundabouts are being developed across the city. These roundabouts serve to maintain a comfortable traffic flow for cars and cyclists on residential streets. Unfortunately, due to their design, these roundabouts fail to provide security for pedestrians since there are no visual cues to suggest that pedestrians even have a right to cross the street. In a local classroom survey, grade 4’s exclaimed that they feel unsafe crossing at these roundabouts and I regularly see uncertainty in the eyes and actions of pedestrians crossing at roundabouts.
There are a number of ways to improve this situation. Here are two examples:
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6 votesAll new traffic circles are designed to keep cars and bicycles out of the pedestrian crossing areas.
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Avoid 50-100 year mistakes.
Ensure that long-term infrastructure, especially buildings, are sustainable from the very start.
4 votesOngoing green building programs address sustainability.
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Pedestrian countdown signals
Burnaby has introduced many of these on city streets, while Vancouver still has very few. Especially at pedestrian controlled intersections it is important to know how long the wait will be (and whether the button is working or not).
3 votesCity crews installed its first pedestrian countdown signal at Main and Hastings earlier this year, and could install more if this trial is successful.
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Encourage each community to establish a community sustainability plan.
A community can create and build on its vision and formal plans by adopting specific objectives, guidelines, action items, regulations, and policies. Adopt continuous learning mentality (and policy) so that feedback can be used to assess effectiveness of decisions and actions and changes can be made accordingly. Want to create resilient, adaptable, and engaged communities.
3 votesNeighbourhoods in Vancouver have been undergoing community visions and plans for many years, and most communities now have these in place. They aren’t focused specifically on sustainability, but many have a strong sustainability focus: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/cityplan/visions/
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3 votes
VEDC attracts conferences as part of business attraction program
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Futureproof Green Buildings by adapting to projected climate conditions
Green buildings that do not consider future climate conditions are not as energy efficient or as sustainable as they could be
3 votesThis idea is captured in all our green building policy work, particularly our emphasis on passive design.
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Provide online tools to help people educate their friends, family, and networks about green actions
The Sierra Club develop presentation tools for Ottawa's curbside organics collection program. People can use these to give 10-minute presentations in their community to educate others to "do the right thing". Similar tools could be developed for backyard composting, waste reduction, commuter cycling, energy conservation, , etc. Think Toastmasters with a mission.
2 votesVancouver has a One Day campaign and other on-line tools, as do many other organisations in the community. That said new tools will also be developed to support the Greenest City process: http://vancouver.ca/oneday/
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solar trash compactor
City of Vancouver has 2,400 public space litter bins on streets, transit stops and parks. By introducing a wireless capable solar trash compactor system to replace this system significant financial and environmental benefits can be realized. Operating costs will be reduced by 70% as well as Green House Gas emissions from the Diesel powered waste collection vehicle that go out at least once per day to pick up each of these 2,400 bins. Imagine having the collection take place once per week instead of seven times per week and have the reduced trip frequency pay for all this equipment in…
1 voteThe City is piloting over 20 solar-powered trash compacting bins in South East False Creek and Cambie Street.
However, this idea isn’t included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan. Compacting waste reduces volume and makes collection more efficient, but it doesn’t reduce the tonnes of waste sent to landfill or incinerator. The proposed Zero Waste target is to reduce 50% (by weight) of garbage sent to landfill or incinerator by 2020.
