gO-Canada! Vancouver's Greenest City Initiative

Vancouver has announced it wants to be the world's greenest city - and released its QuickStart Recommendations in April 2009 (note: link goes to a 6MB file).

The Greenest City Team includes scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster David Suzuki, who is also on the Advisory Council of the Global Footprint Network.

'This new initiative will be an opportunity for you to share your ideas with leading thinkers in conservation, environmental management, sustainable development, and green economic growth.

The objective of the Greenest City Team is to provide a comprehensive 10-year action plan for addressing Vancouver’s environmental challenges that recommends targets, timelines, and actions that should be taken in the next three-year period. The action plan will identify best practices from leading cities around the world, highlight benchmarks that can be used to evaluate Vancouver’s performance, identify creative ways to finance environmental actions, and offer a suite of innovative recommendations for accelerating progress toward a prosperous and sustainable future.

An important component of the plan will be a set of ‘Quick Starts.’ These are environmental initiatives where expedited decisions and actions will have a significant immediate impact.

Additionally, the Action Team will:

• specify policy changes required at the regional, provincial, and federal levels to facilitate Vancouver’s efforts to become a greener city; and


• identify potential joint projects with businesses, non-government organizations, and other levels of government including Metro Vancouver, First Nations, the Province of B.C., and the Government of Canada.'