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Anna Lisa Yoder
Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/
Wayne Stadle
Many people don't realize that household hazardous products that they wash or dump into these drains may discharge directly into a local waterbody. Find a list of common hazardous products.
Every Drop Counts
Help prevent summer water shortages by using less water outdoors and save on your water heating bill indoors. Water saver kits are available at City Hall, Client Service Centre.
How to grow natural
Taking care of your yard doesn't have to be so complicated. You can simplify your yard care routine and save time, money and the environment by using natural yard care techniques.
Running a Sustainable City
The City of Vancouver has a mandate to incorporate sustainability into all City operations as a "way of doing business". This means buying smart, upgrading to cleaner fleets, building social capacity, enacting bylaws that support sustainable best practices, implementing a sustainable economic strategy and protecting the environment.
Lowering the amount of energy used in buildings and on the road is currently a major part of protecting our environment.
Leadership
If Vancouver expects its citizens to lower their energy consumption, it must "walk-the-talk" in its own operations. Thus, we have set emission reduction targets for our city operations as well as for our citizens. The City reduced greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations to 33% below 1990 levels by changing how it runs its facilities, fleets and operations, and by implementing new bylaws. Looking forward, the City has comitted to make municipal operations carbon neutral by 2012.
Climate Change Adaptation
We are taking steps to adapt to climate change. To make sure that Vancouver is prepared for the changes that may be coming; the City is currently focused on making changes to our core infrastructure – sewers, parks, water utilities and roadways. Later, the City will assess areas like land-use planning, housing, energy supply, and more to determine future priorities. The regional projections of the impacts of climate change are not perfect – they are best estimates that will continue to be revised as more research is done. The City is working collaboratively with other levels of government and scientific organizations to make sure that City planning reflects current and changing understanding of the science.
History of leadership
The City of Vancouver has shown leadership in saving energy saving for the past 15 years. Our efforts include:
- Commissioning the Clouds of Change report (1990)
- Serving as a founding member for Partners for Climate Protection (PCP), the foremost municipality-driven initiative to address climate change
- Supporting the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI)
- Approving a definition and principles of sustainability for the City
- Establishing a sustainability steering committee and support group
- Providing funding for sustainability staff team
- Establishing the Cool Vancouver Task Force and its GHG Reduction Action Planning process
- Working with all Metro Vancouver municipalities and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) through their Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) process. 25, 2003 Council Report
Click on the links to the left to find out more.
