AdminGreenest City Planning Team
(Admin, CG2020)
My feedback
113 results found
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15 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Note: BitaVorell's idea "Reward those who walk or bike to work" has been merged with this one.
People who walk or bike to work have a much smaller environmental footprint and are healthier. So, why not reward people who use an active mode of transportation for commuting to work? Let's find ways to encourage this behavior. Carrots can be much more effectively than sticks!
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1 vote
Have a look at the City’s One Day calendar.
An error occurred while saving the comment @Spring The City of Vancouver does have a calendar of green events through the One Day Vancouver website. Have a look:
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770 votes
The City supports Metro Vancouver’s plans to ban food scraps from the incinerator and landfills by 2015. The City will collaborate with Metro Vancouver to develop and implement a plan to ensure apartments, condos, businesses and institutions have access to food scraps collection programs before the ban comes into effect.
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Elizabeth Quinn's idea "Composting facilities for apartment dwellers." has been merged with this one.
I've been using a worm bin on my balcony for two years and it just doesn't work. The two of us eat too many fruits and vegetables for our two large worm bins to keep up with.
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234 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Note: ndrodrigues's idea "recycle waste" has been merged with this one.
make every business (eg: restaurant, mall etc) sort their garbage right away... so much goes to the dump which can be recycled...
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229 votes
Transit (and transit fares!) are controlled by TransLink, not the city. Having said that, reducing or eliminating transit fares is an interesting idea.
Unfortunately it’s not very feasible, at least as TransLink is currently funded. Unlike most North American cities, Vancouver’s transit problems aren’t due to a lack of demand but rather a lack of capacity. Anyone who’s ever tried to squeeze onto one of our busy buses or trains knows this all too well — there isn’t enough space even when people have to pay, let alone accommodate the additional demand that would be created if transit were free. Compare this to cities with fare-free zones, which are typically struggling for increase demand, and which typically have (a) less frequent service and/or (b) plenty of extra capacity to accommodate more riders.
In Vancouver, we need to provide more transit capacity to meet existing demand — and a LOT more…
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Lisa Giroday's idea "Make public transportation FREE in the core" has been merged with this one.
If we want to realistically look at reduction in emissions, look at methods that truly encourage change. Make public transit free in the core.
An error occurred while saving the comment Note: Lauren G's idea "Free Central Area Transit (CAT) Buses" was merged with this one:
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Central_Area_Transit
Perth, Australia has a free bus service that operates around the central business districts of Perth and Fremantle. These buses are called CATS (central area transport service) and service the free transit zone (FTZ).
The buses have a low ground clearance which make it easy for people of all ages to hop on an off the buses.
The buses have a set route and arrive approximately every 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the route, time of day and day of the week. They operate on compressed natural gas. There is a Red, Blue and Yellow CAT bus for Perth, with a set route that operates in one direction. There is one Orange CAT bus for Fremantle."
These buses are always packed, with locals and tourists alike!
An error occurred while saving the comment Note: Barbara Hartman's idea "Create "C-pass" to allow Vancouverites to travel for transit for free (after adding capacity)" has been merged with this one.
"Collect annual small contribution from all property tax to pay for it. It is fair, social action, good for tourism, eliminates fare collection costs, improves safety of drivers."
An error occurred while saving the comment Note, Melanie Knight 's idea "Free transit" was merged with this one.
"Portland has it. Rail systems that are dependable and free for all - tourists and locals. Make visitors change their actions when they are here - so they take their new behaviours with them."
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22 votes
Financing tools (currently under development) may encourage building owners to improve the performance of their buildings rather than rebuild.
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Brenda M.'s idea "offer developers incentives to retrofit existing buildings rather than building new" has been merged with this one.
Every new building we add, unless it's actually regenerative, adds to our carbon and energy footprint. Rather than building new, why don't we offer incentives to developers to invest in upgrading existing buildings?
An error occurred while saving the comment @Janine Brossard, do you have any photos of your house with all the salvaged materials? I'd love to see how that turned out.
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148 votes
Currently exploring an approach to addressing cool roofs, green roofs & walls.
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Laara Cerman's idea "Gardens on roofs of apartments and in apartment common areas. There's lots of space."
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: pr's idea "greenhouse on flat roofed industrial" has been merged with this one.
"Encourage the building of hydroponic greenhouses on the acres and acres and acres of unproductive rooftop surrounding vancouver. Currently we build hydroponic greenhouses away from the city on highly productive farmland. The land is wasted and the food travels greater distances. Industrial rooftops would bring food production closer to town and utelize vast areas of blank urban space. There would be a cost benefit to the food producers as the "land" is readily available and could be zoned similarly to rural land. We would be saving farmland for farming.Hydroponic greenhouses are not excessively heavy therefore existing industrial buildings could be easily retrofittted or new ones build for nominal additional costs. The food we eat would be produces where we live."
An error occurred while saving the comment Note: Clelie's idea "Encourage green roofs" has been merged with this one.
"Mandate green roofs ( usable for food production and use by people) for new contruction. Create a program to retrofit existing buildings. Support landlords in making this space available to tenants to grow food and to decompress."
An error occurred while saving the comment Note: Benjamin's idea "Sky Gardens" has been merged with this one.
"Most buildings in Downtown Vancouver are for housing, and well people in those houses would love to have a garden, BUT they can't since they don't have a lot of room to do so. But what if we can use that huge empty space on buliding tops to create gardns ... more
Most buildings in Downtown Vancouver are for housing, and well people in those houses would love to have a garden, BUT they can't since they don't have a lot of room to do so. But what if we can use that huge empty space on buliding tops to create gardens in the sky, it uses all that empty space to create a beautiful areial view. It will encourage people to grow their own food, maybe it could bring back animals (birds) to the city, it may reduce flooding, heat, and greenhouse gas emmisions, and IT SURE DOES LOOK GOOD"
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14 votes
Interesting idea. The City is always interested in new renewable energy technologies.
An error occurred while saving the comment @Salwa, do you have an example of this?
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32 votes
Draft Greenest City Action Plan includes a strategy to increase community garden plots of a variety of scope and scale.
An error occurred while saving the comment @Andrew, sounds like an interesting design competition idea for someone to take on.
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52 votes
The draft Greenest City plan will include directions to explore pedestrian-only and pedestrian-priority streets in the downtown core. Potential locations will be identified at a later date (e.g. as part of the transportation plan update).
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Darren Clifford's idea "Make robson a pedestrian only street" has been merged with this one.
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543 votes
Requires support from TransLink. The City will continue to support this idea, through measures including secured rights-of-way (e.g. the centre median on 1st Avenue near the Olympic Village). The recent Olympic Line streetcar demonstration was very successful and helps make the business case for this project.
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Eva Hunter's idea "streetcar service" has been merged with this one.
"Bring in silent streetcar service all over Vancouver to help curtail greenhouse gases and pollution."
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13 votes
We have looked at the ""green lanes" pilots and reported to Council in 2008 (summary — they’re 3-4 times more expensive than our now-standard strip pavement, there is a definite "price point’ of how much residents would be willing to pay for the treatment, and they will likely have higher maintenance costs and a shorter service life). We’re currently finalizing our test site for the lower-cost lane treatment option — a permeable lane pavement design.
Here is the full Council report, including the resident survey.
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20081030/documents/pe4.pdf
Definitely an option for Council to increase the funding (reduce the property owner’s share) for these projects to promote more green lanes. More broadly speaking, the Greenest City team is supportive of the idea to make make laneways and alleys more pedestrian friendly environments, while maintaining essential functions (e.g. access for loading, parking and waste collection).
An error occurred while saving the comment Here's a good video explaining green lanes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3Wo7KS_dX0An error occurred while saving the comment Here is the hyperlink for the program: http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/streets/localimprovements/index.htm
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5 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: thetransitfan's idea "Don't allow construction companies to block sidewalks" has been merged with this one.
"Sidewalks can be blocked for months at a time by construction, particularly in the downtown core. This discourages walking. If construction must take over the sidewalk, create a pedestrian walkway alongside the sidewalk. Don't make pedestrians cross the street."
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41 votes
This idea is included in the draft Greenest City Action Plan. Action to date on this issue include community gardens and green streets on City-owned property. The City has also developed an edible landscaping policy http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/foodpolicy/tools/links.htm#Edible
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Madeleine's idea "replace annual bedding plants with edible plants" has been merged with this one.
"The amount of money and manhours that the city spends every few months to dig up and replace the flowering annuals that are in many public parks, roadsides and city buildings is a huge waste, considering that there is no tangible benefit from these plants.
I would suggest including attractive, edible plants in these gardens instead, and making the produce available to people in the community. Not only would this encourage creative landscaping/green jobs, local food, but it would also decrease the green waste created by the city."
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28 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: the Vancouver Design Nerds's idea "Paperless bus tickets" has been merged with this one.
"Instead of receiving a paper bus ticket stub, create a digital system with card readers on busses. These cards, refillable online, could also work in retailers that reside near bus stops."
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Jacob's idea "Oyster Card" has been merged with this one.
A principal barrier (and a source of paper waste) to accessing any transit network is the transaction cost associated with accessing the network.
Exact change, paper tickets available at select locations, single use bus passes, point of purchase on the bus itself, all create significant "non-tarriff" barriers to transit use. Let's get an Oyster Card (or how about a T-Card) system in place ASAP.
Bonus idea: Create an ECO-VIP Card. Team up with BC Hydro's smart meters and give the most frequent transit users and efficient energy users 'Eco-Star' discounts at green retailers.
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240 votes
City has supported SOLE food project (in the DTES) and is investigating other urban farming opportunities as part of the draft Greenest City Action Plan.
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Big Dave's idea "Allow vacant city owned land to be used for commercial food production" has been merged into this one.
"In some cities like Baltimore, the City Council has allowed vacant land in the heart of the city to be used for commercial food production, giving local food outlets "super local" fruits and vegetables. Using low-cost, passive greenhouses it would be possible to do two or three plantings per year, thereby greatly boosting local food availability. It would be even better if the City mandated or at least encouraged private landholders to make their vacant city land available for food production as well."
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Paul Kilpatrick's idea "Create a network of city farmers" has been merged with this one.
Rather than just wasting land growing grass, property owners can provide land to have city farmers come and create, maintain and harvest food gardens on their property in exchange for a percentage of food grown. That way home owners don’t have to do the farming themselves if they don’t want to, but they can provide land to feed themselves and their neighbours and provide work for city farmers.
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73 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Note: Michael Kraus' idea "Create Organic Fruit & Vegetable Gardens in every school" has been merged with this one.
An error occurred while saving the comment [Submitted via mail by Penny Perry]
"Many elementary schools have kid friendly gardens. Community groups could be encouraged to use these spaces for growing food during the summer. They could also help students with planting and tending crops during the school year."
AdminGreenest City Planning Team
(Admin, CG2020)
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227 votes
City has already moved beyond the 2,010 (garden plots) by 2010 challenge. Three new gardens were created in the summer of 2010 and others are currently in the planning stage. This is an idea included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan.
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Geordie Milne's idea "More land for community gardens" has been merged with this one.
"There are countless amounts of unused lots and spaces (unutilised parks/fields, abandoned lots, rooftops, parking strip, etc.) Absorbing the suns energy and something radiating into the surroundings. Why not designate and community gardens where they will not only produce food and help cultivate community but most importantly; make good use of the sun's energy."
AdminGreenest City Planning Team
(Admin, CG2020)
shared this idea
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231 votes
This is a great community led effort.
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: lizanne fisher's "Ecoart - art restoring the Earth" idea has been merged with this one.
"Art projects that restore and heal damaged land and waterways while creating aesthetic community spaces. Look to other projects like Betsy Damon's Living Water Garden in China, Jackie Brooner's Laughing Brook in the US found in Amy Lipton's ecoartsspace.org, and Mel Chin's Revival Fields."
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48 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment NOTE: Elle Zed's idea "Plant shade trees to reduce the urban heat island" has been merged with this one.
"Unshaded pavement increases the temperature in the city, creating a "heat island". When you travel by foot or bike, it's immediately apparent. Planting shade trees on every street will reduce the need for air conditioning and make walking and cycling more pleasant, not to mention create a literally green city."
An error occurred while saving the comment [Submitted via mail by Penny Perry]
"The planted areas around and on Cambie Street bretween Broadway and 2nd Ave are lovely. More plantings please."
