GC 2020
657 results found
-
Develop a restoration economy
Promote preservation and redevelopment rather than new development whenever possible in order to minimize destruction of natural and cultural heritage. Capitalize on underutilized and abandoned infrastructure. Revitalize places that have already been developed. Create incentives for the preservation and restoration of buildings rather than tearing them down. This could include incentives for improvements in energy efficiency; community access to services; and improvement or creation of habitat around buildings, for instance.
27 votesDeveloping financing tools, training, and regulations that encourage and support the growth of a retrofit workforce
-
Create an "energy playground" for kids
The City of Vancouver could create an energy playground where playground equipment such as swings, see-saws and merry-go-rounds could be modified to generate energy. The more the kids play, the more energy they create. The energy produced could be used to light the playground at night, making it a fully Carbon Neutral playground. All of this equipment exists and is being used in poor villages in Asia and Africa to generating lighting for schools.
27 votesIdea shared with Parks Board
-
Promote hotels that offer biodegradable guest amenities
Plastic is a problem in landfill because it takes over 450 years for plastic to break down (if it ever does break down). Hotels dispose of billions of hotel size shampoo bottles in landfill each year. Technology exists to produce plastic shampoo bottles that will biodegrade in landfill in less than 9 years. Vancouver can offer special recognition to the hotels that offer guests this new environmentally responsible product as the more hotels that contribute to this cause, landfill waste will be saved one inch at a time. Starting small can offer big rewards.
27 votes -
Ban garburetors - they waste water and put waste in water
Change the building code to ban garburetors. Organic material shouldn't use drinking water to be conveyed to the sewage plant for treatment, it should go in a composter
26 votesThis is part of the proposed Liquid Waste Management Plan.
http://www.metrovancouver.org/services/wastewater/planning/Pages/default.aspx -
compressed work week
A global trend to compress the 5 day commute to 4 days will make Vancouver a leader not a follower! The traditional work week consists of 5 days with each day being 7-8 hours. Many work situations can be changed to allow for non-traditional work weeks. As an example, if you have a 40-hour work week, instead of having everyone work 5, 8-hour days, some of your employees could work 4, 10-hour days. This would produce a 20% reduction in auto emissions pumped into our air and help our environment. A compressed work week is a commute option because it…
26 votes -
Encourage the use of existing greenways by discouraging commuter cars using them
Simple changes to targetted parts of the greenways could reduce car traffic and therefore encourage more cycling. The existing greenway I use (midway bikeway, along 37th from Balaclava to West Boulevard) is also used quite heavily by cars as a way of avoiding 41st. The road is narrow especially towards W.Blvd and despite having speed bumps and mini roundabouts it has not deterred cars from using this route. I would like to see the use of diverters and one way access (like the do in the west end) so that only cyclists and local residents end up using this.
26 votesTraffic calming is an integral part of bikeway and greenway design, but there is room for improvement. The draft Greenest City Action Plan will include directions to go further with traffic calming and through-traffic restrictions on neighbourhood bikeways and greenways. This will be elaborated upon further in future detailed planning efforts (e.g. forthcoming transportation plan update, cycling master plan, specific greenway designs).
-
Conserve our Urban Biodiversity: Save Vancouver’s Last Wild Salmon Stream
At one time there were an estimated 100,000 salmon and sea-run trout spawning in the more than 50 creeks and streams that spread across Vancouver. As the city grew they were buried beneath pavement and landfill, or were crowded out by development so that salmon could no longer spawn within them. One by one our streams were lost.
Amazingly Musqueam Creek survived and today is Vancouver's only remaining wild salmon stream. What does that mean? It means the Musqueam Creek Coho salmon are wild having spent their entire lifecycle in the wild, originating from parents and grandparents and great grand…
26 votes -
Educate young: Add agriculture, renewable energy, sustainable development to highschool ciriculum
Inspire the youth to take action and educate on the importance of sustainable living practices.
26 votesIdea shared with Vancouver School Board; will be considered in City of Vancouver’s ongoing engagement activities as well. Very important to engage all of our community’s diversity.
-
26 votes
-
BAN JUNK MAIL!
Almost all of the mail received in my actual mail box is "Junk Mail"
Unrequested and unnecessary flyers and advertisements that just get tossed straight into the recycling bin.
A waste of trees and additional pollution added by the ink and coloring printed on them.
26 votes -
Provide more park and public open space in under-served areas
There should be more parks and open spaces available to the public in under-served areas of the city.
25 votes -
A complete, interconnected network of completely car-free, safe bicycle routes.
We've made a start, but more people would feel safe enough to cycle in Vancouver if all routes separated bicycles from motorised traffic and connected safely with one another. Imagine if you could ride anywhere in the city as safely as on Dunsmuir Street.
25 votesThanks for sharing this idea!
The city’s new 10-year cycling program master plan will soon be in development, and hopefully completed within the next year.
A big part of the work ahead is to identify the complete cycling network, and the type of facility that is most appropriate and/or feasible for different routes. In some cases (e.g. busy arterial routes), separated lanes might be the best approach; in other cases (e.g. lower car volume neighbourhood streets), enhanced traffic calming and/or further reducing car access might be more appropriate. Travis cited some great examples in the Netherlands where cars are ‘guests’ that are allowed in, but do not dominate.
In all cases, the goal should be to make routes that feel safe to all potential cyclists, including beginners, children, and seniors.
For more information, visit http://vancouver.ca/cycling
-
Mandatory Lighting Controls for Commercial buildings
Why are there so many office lights on in commercial office buildings, when nobody is occupying those areas. Mandate the use of green lighting controls (Daylight Harvesting, Absence/Presence detection etc.)
25 votesThis is addressed in a retrofit pilot program
-
Adopt a fruit/nut tree program
Stop wasting growing space! Municipalities should encourage the planting of food producing trees on city property. The maintenance of these trees and harvesting of food could be managed through an Adopt-a-Tree program that individuals or community groups such as the Scouts or Food Sharing initiatives could participate in.
25 votes -
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 -
Tree Removal Permit Fee Tied to Age of Tree
The fee that the City charges for a permit to cut down a tree should be tied to the age of the tree. More mature trees should have a larger penalty for removal. i.e. $5/year in tree's age. The current removal fee ($59) is too small to be a deterrent. (Idea submitted by public via twitter)
24 votes -
Create local food distribution system
We have a back/front yard garden that grows primarily produce. Some years, like this one, the yield is pretty meager. But other years, like last summer, we have WAY more produce than we can possibly use, even with constant canning.
I typically start giving away the extra to unsuspecting friends and neighbours, but I would love to have a way to sell it.
Most back-yard gardeners don't produce enough produce to go to the trouble of selling it, but if there was an easy way to sell the excess into a system that could then combine it with the produce…
24 votesSome elements of a local distribution network are in place with the Farmer’s Markets. The New City Market will increase the scale of this. This idea is included in the draft Greenest City Action Plan.
-
five services in five minutes
Every home should be within five minutes walk of five service--a litre of milk, a library kiosk, a post office, drugstore.... We need a micro-commercial zone to allow these small businesses into every neighbourhood.
24 votes -
Cultural Sustainability Ambassadors
Vancouver has one of the fastest growing immigrant populations in Canada. Each cultural population responds to municipally-led sustainability challenges or requirements differently. In some ways, different immigrant populations have more sustainable living knowledge and experience than the mainstream Vancouver culture, in some ways they have less.
The City needs to engage different cultural communities uniquely, determining which approaches work best for which cultures to ensure the uptake of sustainability initiatives -which approaches will be meaningful to which communities.
Examples of this include identify existing social leaders in cultural communities (ethnic, income, age, ability, gender, etc.) and support them in order…
24 votesThis idea is included in draft Greenest City Action Plan, as well as more generally as a Greenest City Ambassadors program.
-
Create a "Greenest Block in the City" award - winner gets a kickass prize!
Modelled after Greenest Block in Brooklyn, where every block in Brooklyn competes to have the best gardens and grow the most food - friends in Brooklyn go nuts for this - lots of fun - winning block gets a great prize like street improvements from city - see"http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/08/presenting_the.php
24 votesGreenest City awards are included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan.
