What can the city do?

There are essentially five areas where the City can affect the environment: land use policy, transportation, waste management, economic development and the City's own operations. In Vancouver, land use, economic development and operations are the only ones that are completely under the City's control - authority over transportation is shared with Translink and waste management, including sewers, with Metro Vancouver.

The City has put forward the Green Action Plan which identifies 10 long-term goals the current administration is planning to pursue, to achieve environmental sustainability by the year 2020.

The Greenest City Action Team is planning to deliver their 10 Year Plan in Fall 2009.

The City also list current initiatives on the City's Greenest City Initiatives

There are many historical policies that affect the environment. Below we explore some of the City of Vancouver's activities and plans in each of the five areas.

Land Use

Land use is arguably the single greatest tool a city has to affect environmental change. Many of the goals laid out in the Green Action Plan, such as "Green Mobility: Make walking, cycling, and public transit preferred transportation options," and "Lighter Footprint: achieve a one planet ecological footprint." would need to be primarily addressed through land use policy.

Vancouver's Land use policies are defined by a number of guiding documents including:
Metro Vancouver's Livable Region Strategic Plan
City wide plans such as Vancouver's City Plan
the Ecodensity Charter passed by the last council
and economic and Industrial Lands strategies. The City's new Green Action Plan will presumably mesh into these city wide plans.

Below these plans are Community Visions, which can be found here. http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/cityplan/Visions/index.htm
There are several areas of the city which do NOT have Community Visions. http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/neighcentres/pdf/localarea.pdf

Individual properties must follow guidelines laid out in zoning bylaws, and can seek rezoning if they want a different use.

Transportation

A major goal of the Green action plan is the 2020 target: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 33 per cent from 2007 levels partly by "Making the majority of trips (over 50%) on foot, bicycle and public transit."

So far, action on this is symbolic with the electric car initiative And the Burrard bridge trial.

The Quick start recommendations (http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity/PDF/greenestcity-quickstart.pdf ) list the following items under Mobility:

• Make Streets Safer for Pedestrians and Cyclists
• Create a Public Bike Sharing Program
• Enable Zero-Emission Mobility: The Future of Clean Transportation
• Build on Olympic Transportation Initiatives
• Conduct Car-Free Vancouver Trials
• Advocate for Immediate Investments and Improvements in Public Transit

Some specific recommendations include:

• Reduce the speed limit to 40 kilometres per hour (km/h) on non-arterial streets, and 30 km/h on bike routes.
• Establish corridors dedicated exclusively to pedestrians and cyclists in the city core. Some of the new street arrangements put in place for the 2010 Winter Games should continue as extended trials after the Games have ended.

All of this will happen within the existing frame work of plans and studies, many of which can be found on the City's transportation page.

Waste Management

The goal of the action plan is: Reduce solid waste per capita going to landfill or incinerator by 40%. The City's current programs are outlined on the following pages.

Recycling | Composting | Yard trimmings | Liquid waste | Sewers

City Operations

The City has the Sustainability page that outlines what the City is doing to make its own operations greener.