Green City Awards

Green City Awards > Examples/Best Practices

Sustainable Community Development

City Green Solutions: This Canadian based non-profit organization works to empower people and organizations to make lifestyle changes that will enhance their health and save money by reducing their environmental impact.

Evergreen: This innovative charity explores the relationship between nature, culture and community in urban spaces.

Federation of Canadian Municipalities - Centre for Sustainable Community Development: The mission of the Centre is to demonstrate municipal leadership in sustainable community development by working with partners to implement holistic decision-making, planning processes and innovative projects.

Greater Vancouver Regional District – Livable Region Strategic Plan: The primary goal of the plan is to help maintain regional livability and protect the environment in the face of anticipated growth.

International Centre for Sustainable Cities: This mission of the Centre is to catalyze action on urban sustainability in cities around the world, through practical demonstration projects, peer learning networks and high profile events.

International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives – Local Government for Sustainability: The Council is an international association of local governments and national and regional local government organizations that have made a commitment to sustainable development.

James Taylor Chair in Landscape & Livable Communities: This research and outreach organization demonstrates how to design and build affordable, equitable, and ecologically healthy communities.

Smart Growth BC: This provincial non-governmental organization is devoted to fiscally, socially and environmentally responsible land use and development.

Simon Fraser University - Centre of Sustainable Community Development: The Centre works to support and enable the sustainable development of communities through research, education, and community mobilization in B.C., Canada, and internationally.

University of British Columbia - Design Centre for Sustainability (DCS): Through interdisciplinary approaches, the DCS is capable of demonstrating to the development community, to municipalities, and to citizens how to shift community-based planning and design toward on-going consideration of sustainability as a matter of course rather than exception.

West Coast Environmental Law – Smart Bylaws Guide: This guide has been developed to assist local governments to implement smart growth strategies through policy and bylaw changes.

Whistler 2020: This plan sets out Whistler’s vision, strategies and process for achieving a successful and sustainable future.

Buildings

City of Vancouver – Green Building Strategy: The strategy will allow the City of Vancouver to ensure that all buildings constructed in the future will offer better environmental and health performance for both occupants and citizens.

Greater Vancouver Regional District - BuildSmart Program: This program has been created to be a resource for the design and construction industry, helping designers make smart, sustainable choices when crafting the future of our constructed environment.

Green Buildings BC: A provincial initiative enabling BC's publicly funded agencies to dramatically increase the performance of their new and existing buildings.

Canada Green Building Council: The Council is a broad-based inclusive coalition of representatives from different segments of the design and building industry that work to accelerate the design and construction of Green Buildings across Canada.

Building Owners and Managers Association - Go-Green: The Go Green designation is awarded to buildings demonstrating compliance with 10 key measures of good practice.

West Coast Environmental Law – Green Buildings Guide: Provides tools for local government to promote site sustainability.

Drinking Water

Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation Healthy Housing - Water Conservation: This website provides highlights of recent Canadian and international research and efforts in the field of water conservation.

Greater Vancouver Regional District Water Conservation Initiatives: Provides information on a range of water conservation initiatives such as conducting water use audits for businesses.

POLIS - Water Sustainability Project: This initiative seeks to understand the structure and dynamics of urban water use, and to provide mechanisms to help reorient Canadian water management from supply to demand-side approaches.

The WaterBucket: Sustainable Approaches to Water Resources: The vision of this website is to provide a resource-rich, highly interactive ‘destination location’ for timely and provocative information about water sustainability in BC.

Water Conservation Strategy for BC: The Strategy promotes water as a highly valuable resource and provides a framework to guide and encourage efficient and cost-effective water use throughout the province.

Rainwater (Stormwater) Management

Capital Regional District - Stormwater Codes of Practice: These codes are a set of rules regulating what can and can’t go into the stormwater system, along with a list of controls and monitoring that may be required at each location.

City of Surrey – East Clayton Headwaters Project: This project is a multi part project to demonstrate a more sustainable way to build our new communities.

City of Toronto – The Green Roof Incentive Pilot Program: This program was developed to support residential, commercial and institutional construction of a variety of types of green roofs.

City of Vancouver – Sustainable Streets: In order to promote a more natural environment, Sustainable Streets allow the rain water to drain into a specifically designed boulevard areas so the rain water is absorbed into the ground and supports plantings of native grasses, shrubs and trees.

Greater Vancouver Regional District: As part of its role in stormwater management, the GVRD has produced numerous technical reports on stormwater management and drainage management including:

Master Municipal Construction Document Association - Green Design Guidelines, (490 KB): This manual describes alternative design practices which support environmentally friendly initiatives in municipal infrastructure and land development projects.

Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia: The guidebook approach is designed to eliminate the root cause of negative ecological and property impacts of stormwater by addressing the spectrum of rainfall events.

Tackling Non-Point Source Water Pollution in British Columbia: An Action Plan: This Action Plan describes the ways that the British Columbia government proposes to address Non-Point Source water pollution to achieve the goal of clean water for all British Columbians.

Water Balance Model for British Columbia: This web-accessible modeling tool enables users to compare scenarios for rainwater runoff reduction in order to achieve a light ‘hydrologic footprint’.

Wastewater

Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment - Canada-wide Strategy for the Management of Municipal Wastewater Effluent: The strategy will provide specific measures to improve management of municipal wastewater in a consistent manner which will better protect the environment and human health.

Guidelines for Developing a Liquid Waste Management Plan: These guidelines will help municipalities determine what should be addressed in a Liquid Waste Management Plan.

Ministry of Health – Land Use Program (Sewerage): Provides expert advice to Health Authorities and develops legislation and guidelines regarding all aspects of sewerage systems.

Municipal Sewage Regulation - Highlights Regarding Use of Reclaimed Water: This fact sheet describes the production and use of reclaimed water.

Energy

A Vision and Implementation Plan for Growing a Sustainable Energy Cluster in British Columbia: The plan provides a framework which promotes building smart, sustainable energy systems that leverage innovations to enhance how the province generates, delivers and uses energy.

BC Clean Electricity Guidelines: The guidelines are intended to promote the development of a wide range of energy resources and technologies throughout British Columbia.

BC Hydro Power Smart: This website provides tips, tools, programs and products that are designed to enhance energy management expertise, so you can improve energy efficiency.

BC Sustainable Energy Association: This non-profit association of citizens, professionals and practitioners is committed to promoting the understanding, development and adoption of sustainable energy, energy efficiency and conservation in British Columbia.

Community Action on Energy Efficiency Pilot Program: A provincial program that supports municipal energy efficiency projects.

Community Energy Association: This collaboration of the Province, Union of BC Municipalities, Planning Institute of British Columbia and other key partners, is a first-stop for B.C. local governments on energy and climate action planning, and energy efficiency, renewable energy and carbon-neutral initiatives.

Opportunities for Local Government Action on Energy Efficiency in New Buildings – Part 1 Overview, (PDF - 563KB), Part 2 Measures, (PDF - 406KB): The goal of this project is to motivate municipalities to promote energy efficiency in new buildings, and to assist municipal decision makers with the process of identifying and implementing measures to increase the energy efficiency of new buildings.

Other Energy Links from the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources: The following hyperlinks provide links to government bodies, public organizations and associations.

West Coast Environmental Law – Clean Air Bylaws Guide, (PDF - 3MB): The guide details what local governments can and can’t do about air pollution through their bylaw-making powers and highlights some of the municipal clean air bylaws that are already in place around the province and elsewhere and provides examples of model bylaws.