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3 Green Cities in Canada. By: Rosedeep Matharu. Vancouver. Dealing with methane gas emissions in landfills Used to generate heat and electricity Biodiesel Used to fuel its fleets Strict energy-efficiency guidelines Apply to new buildings
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3 Green Cities in Canada By: RosedeepMatharu
Vancouver Dealing with methane gas emissions in landfills • Used to generate heat and electricity Biodiesel • Used to fuel its fleets Strict energy-efficiency guidelines • Apply to new buildings However Vancouver still has room for improvement, since multiple-unit dwellings only use 11 percent of Vancouver’s land area.
Vancouver: The EcoDensity Charter In order to accommodate solar panels and shading the EcoDensity Charter encourages rezoning and relaxed building codes as well as green laneway housing. EcoDensity Charter’s Commitment: • By 2012 to make all city operations carbon neutral • By 2050 to reduce community GHG emissions from 1990 levels by 80 percent • This will help improve air quality, create a even more livable city and lower energy bills.
Calgary Clean Voltage • Draws at least 75 percent of its electricity from renewable sources as the only municipality in Canada that does so. • Plans to draw 90 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2012. Waste Diversion from Landfills • By 2020 Calgary intends to divert a percentage of its waste from landfills. Water-use Levels • Despite its growing population, Calgary intends to stay at or below its 2003 water-use levels.
Calgary: The imagineCALGARY Program The imagineCALGARY program assists a 100-year plan with striving goals by allowing citizens to contribute to it. Striving Goals of the 100-year Plan: • To decrease the distance travelled by private vehicles yearly • by 20 percent. (Calgarians will be using the wind-energy powered CTrain as an alternative.) • To remediate Calgary’s contaminated areas by at least 30 percent.
Toronto: What Environmental Programs Does This City Run That Makes it Green? The Tower Renewal Project • Will revitalize, relandscape and reclad the concrete apartment complexes of Toronto. • Concrete apartment complexes will be geothermically heated, more insulated and will be reconnected to surrounding green ravines and spaces. • This project alone may possibly cut GHG emissions by one million tonnes.
Toronto: What Environmental Programs Does This City Run That Makes it Green? Toronto Green Standard Will encourage the expansion of more sustainable landscapes and buildings in Toronto . It’s Goals: • By 201o, to redirect 70 percent of its waste. • By 2020, toreduce its GHG emissions by 30 percent. • To have a transit plan as well that foresees light, clean rail transit moving citizens across Toronto.
Toronto: What Environmental Programs Does This City Run That Makes it Green? The Environmental Reporting, Disclosure and Innovation Program Its Purpose: • To make it a requirement that each municipal and business operation publicly report the use and release of 25 hazardous chemicals.
Toronto: What are the Advantages to Being a Green City? The Tower Renewal Project Advantages to Being a Green City Include: • Green retrofits- reduce operating costs as well as making significant carbon reductions. • Green infrastructure- renewable-energy installation can take place for apartment neighborhoods. • Better transportation options- reducing the need for vehicle ownership by improving neighborhoods to be more self-sufficient and allow people to move more easily throughout neighborhoods and the city.
Toronto: What are the Advantages to Being a Green City? The Tower Renewal Project(continued) • Community improvements-developstronger communities by enhancing public meeting places, improving access in communities as well as having a variety of services in communities to reduce the need for car use. • New housing- would help reduce sprawl by providing more options for residents to stay in their own communities. • External cladding- reduces energy consumption by providing rain screening, exterior cladding and a new shell of insulation for existing buildings.
Toronto: What are the Advantages to Being a Green City? Toronto Green Standard Advantages to Being a Green City Include: • Diversion of waste-reducing landfill sizes by reusing, reducing and recycling. • Reduction of GHG emissions- reduces Toronto’s contribution to ozone layer depletion. • Clean, light transit- will reduce electricity costs for the city, as well as provide a cleaner way to transport people throughout the city without harming the environment.
Toronto: What are the Advantages to Being a Green City? The Environmental Reporting, Disclosure and Innovation Program Advantages to Being a Green City Include: • Reduction of toxins in the environment- reduce the amount of hazardous materials businesses and municipal operations use and release into the environment. • Promoting the reduction of toxins in the environment to other cities- will encourage other cities to do the same, which could lead to cities worldwide using and releasing less toxins into the environment.
Toronto: What Challenges Might a City Face in trying to be Green? Challenges a City Might Face in trying to be Green Include: • Nopolitical involvement may make it much harder for a city to be green since political leaders would not help rally for the change. • Overpopulation may make it much more difficult for a city to switch to a renewable energy source, since they would need more resources than usual to harness the source. • Money may be a problem in terms of whether a city can afford the resources to be green.
Toronto: What Challenges Might a City Face in trying to be Green? Challenges a City Might Face in trying to be Green Include (continued): • The amount of resources a city has access to may also effect the amount or variety of changes they can make in order to be green. • Community involvement is important in order for a city to move towards being green. If a city does not have any community involvement that may mean that no one really cares about whether or not the city is green. Without any support, the city would have a challenge getting people to try to be green.
Bibliography • Murphy, Lisa. Canada's Greenest Cities of Tomorrow. http://www.greenlivingonline.com/slideshow/canadas-greenest-cities-tomorrow?page=2 (accessed October 03, 2013). • —. Canada's Greenest Cities of Tomorrow. http://www.greenlivingonline.com/slideshow/canadas-greenest-cities-tomorrow?page=4 (accessed October 03, 2013). • —. Canada's Greenest Cities of Tomorrow. http://www.greenlivingonline.com/slideshow/canadas-greenest-cities-tomorrow?page=8 (accessed October 03, 2013). • Toronto, City of. About Tower Renewal. 1998-2013. http://www.toronto.ca/tower_renewal/about.htm (accessed October 03, 2013).