How can building concrete highrises all over Vancouver be considered Green even if they LEED. More people in a small space will use more enegy, water, sewage, garbage than a small number of people in a large space.

ECO density is a marketing scam for the small minded. There is nothing green about concrete, look at all the concrete sidewalks.

It is not about re-inventing the wheel. It is about getting people talking, thinking, debating, and being more aware of their daily options and choices.
It will also help discover what people of this city are MOST passionate about, and which changes they will be most likely to stick to.

We (Vancouver) should also be leveraging the expertise at the International Centre for Sustainable Cities http://sustainablecities.net/ here in Vancouver.

Here is what is really going on: We do need to find some new kind of wheels folks and end business as usual! http://bit.ly/NewWheels
http://vsrbc.web.officelive.com/RIW.aspx

@ G.Johnson, we couldn’t agree more.

Seeking out advice and ideas from local experts, including academia, advocacy groups and service providers is a step that has been embedded within the Greenest City 2020 process. In fact, it shaped the process.

The Greenest City Action Team was established in February 2009 and challenged to come up with a visionary plan that would see Vancouver become the greenest city in the world by 2020. Consisting of some of the best and brightest local minds – including Dr. David Suzuki – the Greenest City Action team put together the Vancouver 2020: A Bright Green Future Report. The ten long term goals outlined in this report have been adopted by council, and now the City is developing an implementation plan to achieve the 2020 Targets associated with each goal. The Talk Green to Us dialogue is part of that process. (http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity/PDF/Vancouver2020-ABrightGreenFuture.pdf)

To create the plan, each long term goal has an associated interdepartmental working group who are tasked with creating an implementation plan to reach the 2020 targets. To provide guidance, each working group has an external advisory committee, made up of local experts and major players for that category. The advisory committee will be offering advice and ideas to the working group to consider.

Was there a particular group you think should be contacted?

Even 'ungreen' cities like Paris provide free bicycles for the use of their citizens and honour their personal freedom. Whereas we live in fear that a VPD officer might jump out from behind a tree and slap us with a $167 ticket. Ticketing people that are making a difference that have made a personal choice not to wear a helmet does nothing to encourage GREEN in our city, nor make Vancouver any safer for bicycling.