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How can we reach our 2020
Greenest City Targets?

GC 2020

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16 results found

  1. 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 votes
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  2. 12 votes
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  3. 9 votes
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  4. Require Timer Light Swtiches & Motion Sensors for Lights in Building Code / Existing Bldg Retrofits

    It boggles the mind why in North America we light up our interior corridors, parkades and other common areas in buildings 24/7. Motion sensored lights in large parkades and common areas, and light switches on times in corridors and stairwells would keep people just as safe and give them light when it was needed, stopping the energy waste of having lights on all the time. It would also reinforce the conservation mentality that people might then bring into their homes as well.

    39 votes
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  5. 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 votes
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  6. Create program for low-income individuals to weatherize existing buildings

    Create incentives as well as training program for low income / marginalized individuals to weatherize existing buildings.

    Weatherizing (caulking and weather stripping gaps in walls, win­dows, doors, roof, and floors) is a simple and affordable energy conservation solution that makes a HUGE difference, often with a payback of less than year. There are many existing buildings in Vancouver that are poorly performing due to a lack of weather-proofing.

    Think of all the green jobs we could create if people were trained in how to do this, and there were incentives make it easier to implement.

    22 votes
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  7. 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 votes
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  8. Super Insulate All Buildings

    Super Insulate All Buildings rather than spend on finding ways to heat inefficient existing building

    10 votes
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  9. Reduce light pollution

    Relatively easy to correct and largely the result of bad design, light pollution is a common problem throughout the city. Make sure that lights are designed to focus light downwards and not allowed up into the night sky where it disrupts the diurnal patterns of many species (including people).

    14 votes
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  10. 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 votes
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  11. rain water toilets

    rainwater can be collected from eco-roofs or rain gutters use in toilets.

    19 votes
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  12. 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 votes
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  13. Energy Retrofit Financing

    Provide low-cost financing for building and home owners to retrofit our built environment with energy efficient measures and technologies. Look towards PACE & On-bill structures and incorporate energy management software to database and report the savings to all invovled parties.

    44 votes
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  14. 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 votes
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  15. Ease the bureaucracy for laneway homes in Van. Dense living where we work, play, shop! Less sprawl!

    Laneway homes are beautiful, sustainably designed, detached family or single life dwellings. They fit into areas with houses and neighbourhoods that already exist. They take the place of old poorly used garages or unused back gardens. Less freeway traffic to get to the city; less pressure on our agricultural land reserve; less urban sprawl out into the valley.

    51 votes
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  16. Encourage renovation of existing housing stock rather than demo and rebuild.

    require new construction to be NET zero and help reduce single family house demolition. The greenest building is one that is already standing.

    22 votes
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