Green buildings

Goal: Lead the world in green building design and construction

The electricity and natural gas that our buildings use generate 55% of Vancouver's greenhouse gas emissions.

We are already leading the way on sustainable building design, with our passive design toolkits and a building code that is the greenest of any city in North America.

Our next challenge is to improve the environmental performance of our existing buildings, by focusing on retrofits and upgrades, and looking at how people operate buildings.

Targets

Require all buildings constructed from 2020 onward to be carbon neutral in operations
Reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in existing buildings by 20% over 2007 levels

Priority actions and progress

Priorty Action	% Complete Oct 2012
Update the Vancouver Building Bylaw to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in new and existing buildings	75%
Develop and promote financing tools that enable energy efficiency retrofits	75%
Use price signals in permit fees to reward energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions in new and existing buildings	35%

Current programs that are helping the City reach this target

Replacing Fire Hall No. 5

Fire Hall No.5, located at East 54th Avenue and Kerr Street, will be reconstructed at its current site and a temporary fire hall will operate during the construction period.

Green demolition practices

Green demolition (deconstruction) helps reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste going to our landfill, while increasing the amount of recyclable and reusable building materials.