News

For the most recent City related sustainabilty news, visit our homepage. (Below you'll find stories that were previously listed there).

Greenest City Action Plans

Jan 2011- Council approved the Greenest City 2020 Targets. To reach those targets, the Greenest City staff working groups developed a draft Greenest City 2020 Action Plan incorporating input from external advisory committees and public input. These plans will be going to Council summer 2011.

Green Rezonings

Jul 2010- Green rezonings update: Jul. 22 - Vancouver raises the bar with ‘green’ building requirements for all rezoning applications received as of Jan 31, 2011. Construction will have to meet LEED Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building standards.

Feb. 2010 - Vancouver raises the bar with ‘green’ building requirements for all rezoning applications received as of July 30. Construction will have to meet green building standards defined by LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Sustainable City

Jan. 2010 - Vancouver has been named Canada's most sustainable city by the Corporate Knights survey. Vancouver was not only the top of the medium city category but highest in overall rankings.

 

 

Greenest City

Council has set the goal to be the greenest city in the world by 2020 and the City is now developing plans on how to achieve this. The public consultation was kicked off on June 23 at a special "Pecha Kucha" event with over 2,000 Vancouverites in attendance.

 

Energy Tracking of Olympic Venues

Jan.22 - Real-time energy savings of the Southeast False Creek Olympic Village and NEU are now being monitored, along with other Olympic venues as part of the Venue Energy Tracker project. View press release.

 

Green Energy

Jan. 14 - The switch was officially flipped on the City's first renewable district heating system. The $30 million system will create energy from wastewater, and provide heat and hot water to all buildings in Southeast False Creek, including the Olympic Village.

 

Solar Homes Incentive

Dec. 15 - $3,500 is available for new solar homes built in Vancouver. This new incentive program, offered by City of Vancouver, SolarBC, Terasen Gas and Offsetters, covers roughly 50 per cent of the cost of a solar hot water system.

Climate Leadership

Dec. 10 - Vancouver announces that greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced back to 1990 levels. We are on track to meet Kyoto Targets. View brochure or read the full inventory summary.

Greenest City Action Team (GCAT)

In Feb. 2009, Mayor Robertson launched the Greenest City initiative. Since then, two key reports have been released:

• Greenest City Quick Start Recommendations
• Vancouver 2020: A Bright Green Future Find out how we plan on earning the title of greenest city on earth by 2020.

Visit the Greenest City web site for more information on this initiative.

Green Fleet

Sep. 30, 2009 - Fraser Basin Council awarded the City of Vancouver Canada's first-ever gold rating as a E3 Fleet, a national program that recognizes excellence in fleet managemement and environmental performance.The E3 fleet program (Energy, Environment and Excellence), initiated by the Fraser Basin Council, is a points-based rating system that grades whole fleets of vehicles on their overall energy, emissions and financial performance. The program is expected to help at least 600,000 fleet vehicles across Canada go green. Vancouver is among 14 other cities, and companies to adopt the E3 system so far. Read more about how the City is greening our fleet.

Electric Vehicles

The City of Vancouver is moving closer to being an electric vehicle friendly city. The City now owns the first Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) in Vancouver. It is a stock Toyota Prius Hybrid with a Plug-In Conversion Module that increases the car’s electrical capacity by more than ten times. The public will be able to see and learn more about the City's PHEV at community events throughout 2009.

Car Sharing at City Hall

As of June 2009, the City of Vancouver has a contract with the The Car Co-op's subsidiary, The Company Car, to locate additional low-emission Car Co-op vehicles at City Hall to serve the work-related travel needs of employees, replacing a number of City-owned fleet vehicles. By increasing the number of vehicles in Car Co-op's network, the City is helping to facilitate the more rapid growth of car sharing in Vancouver.

Green Homes Program

June 26, 2008 - City Council unanimously approved changes to the Vancouver Building Bylaw for one and two family dwellings. View the Council Report. The Green Homes Program is now up and running to have your questions answered and to find out more about this program visit their new and improved website. Find out more about the City of Vancouver's green building strategy (GBS). The GBS is one of many green building initiatives currently underway to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings and related infrastructure, others include EcoDensity, EcoStructure, SEFC, and major rezonings.

Want more news?

Find out what's new with the City of Vancouver by visiting the News Releases webpage.

Find out what's in the media about climate protection and other environmental topics on the One Day website.