Make Vancouver a Mecca for Green Technologies, Innovation and Jobs
Make Vancouver a global destination for companies to develop and demonstrate emerging clean energy technologies, green transportation systems, energy efficiency solutions, water technologies, green building technology etc. by encouraging, facilitating, procuring and enabling projects to happen in Vancouver rather than other cities.
Solving the world's energy problems, curing our addiction to fossil fuels, reducing waste and ensuring access to fresh drinking water are all contributing to the creation of a new green economy is now valued at more than $5.2 Trillion. This is one of the fastest growing markets in the world and cities around the world are scrambling to attract green business to attract capital and jobs for their local economies. With one of the largest cleantech businesses communities in North America, Vancouver is positioned as a leading centre of green economic development, investment and job creation.
Jonathan
shared this idea
A strategy in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan is to give economic development priority to green sectors, and develop a green technology centre and network, along with other specific infrastructure and demonstration projects.
-
Steven Forth
commented
Two quick points - artists and writers are a critical part of a resilient society - they make ideas real to people through stories, images and experiences that disrupt our assumptions and bring us together.
What does a city that attracts the young entrepeneurial and creative class look like? Certainly it needs a green infustruture and support for green lifestyles. But it also needs galleries and museums, street life, plenty of opportunities for people to meet and ideas to fly, and it needs affordable housing. An integrated strategy needs to address all of these.
-
Alex
commented
I think effort should also be made on attracting new green thinkers from across Canada. There are many new graduates coming out of Canadian universities today that have some amazing green entrepreneurship ideas. Fostering a place for these ideas to be supported and developed could not only be an ecologically sound idea, but be beneficial to the city's economy.
-
Steven Forth
commented
Easier said than done but necessary if we are to truly be a green and sutainable city. Many things will need to happen:
- New programs in core sutainable technologies at the universities and colleges (I'll check and see if ECUAD is offering cradle-to-cradle productdesign courses)
- Investment equity, the VC system in Vancouver is already totering and will need to be energized
- A pool of commited entrepreneurs
- Some early-adopter buyers - is the city ready to step up for this?
- Some core infrastructure for smart-grid, up cycling, green building systems ...
This thread needs to get a lot more concrete as a green economy should be a foundation for the rest of the green Vancouver effort. -
Manda
commented
There are already some amazing companies here doing this work! Probably one of the most dynamic clean tech clusters in North America is taking off here in Vancouver, but who knows about it? Somehow we need to find ways to get the word out about it. Perhaps we need a clean tech summit that highlights how many jobs are being created here because of this growing sector.