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Lighter Footprint

Our goal: Achieve a "one-planet" ecological footprint

We all have a role to play in reducing our ecological footprint: the amount of resources we use to meet our community’s needs.

Read about the:

Progress we've made towards our 2020 target
Actions we will take between now and 2020
Recent successes that have moved us closer to our goals

Our target: Reduce Vancouver’s ecological footprint by 33% over 2006 levels

What's happening

Vancouver Food Consumption Survey - Our Food Footprint

A recent assessment of Vancouver’s ecological footprint shows that nearly half of Vancouver’s footprint is due to the energy and land required to grow and transport food and manage food waste. We’d like to understand more about what and how you’re eating.

Share what you eat and you can win a prize!

As a thank you for your time, we are offering a chance to win one of three prizes for completing the survey

A $50 gift certificate for Nada Grocery Inc.
A $50 gift certificate for the Naam Restaurant
A $50 gift certificate for Meet on Main

Read the contest details (12 KB)

Take the survey

Progress we've made so far

Ecological footprint

People empowered

Ecological Footprint Chart

Hover on data points for more information on that year's performance.
To learn more about this metric, see the 'How We Measure Success' section below.

2015-2020 priority actions

Short-term actions for achieving our goals for 2020.
Achieving the Lighter Footprint goal requires everyone to take action.

The focus of the Lighter Footprint goal for the next four years is to:
- Empower residents to take action
- Address gaps
- Support culture change
Our 2015-2020 priority actions for the Lighter Footprint goal are:
- 10.1 - Continue or expand Greenest City Grants and CityStudio Programs.
- 10.2 - Develop a municipal sharing economy strategy.
- 10.3 - Support a community of action on Lighter Footprint by sharing information and facilitating and encouraging community leaders.
- 10.4 - Explore how partnerships and connections to programs and infrastructure can reduce the ecological footprint of food consumption.

Our successes

Read about our successes in the 2018-2019 Implementation Guide (2.6 MB)

How we measure success

The metrics for Lighter Footprint rely on annual counts of total number of people empowered within Vancouver.
Measuring Vancouver’s ecological footprint is very complex and made more difficult because much of the required data is only available on a national or regional level. Measuring the number of “people empowered to take action” is a way to measure success in the ultimate objective of the Lighter Footprint goal: to enable residents to help collectively reduce our community’s environmental impact.

This metric is maintained by the Sustainability Group within the City Manager’s Office at the City.

Definition of “People empowered to take action”

“People empowered to take action” is defined as those who are:
- Enabled by the programs we support to change their lifestyle
- Or, are implementing a community project that helps us achieve our Greenest City goals as a result of the support provided by the programs we lead or support
Examples include:
- Learning to preserve food or ride a bike in a community centre class
- People involved in projects supported by the Greenest City Fund
The definition excludes people:
- Participating in a dialogue or consultation
- Attending an event
- Using infrastructure (e.g., bike lanes, food scraps collection)
- Receiving a personal incentive (e.g., home energy retrofits)

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