That’s an irresistible question – answered by Ben Adler in Grist:
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While Seattle and Portland look and feel a lot like Vancouver, their per capita emissions are roughly three times as high. The U.S.’s closest competitor to Vancouver is New York, followed by San Francisco, then Philadelphia. …
In part, Vancouver is just lucky. British Columbia is rich in hydroelectric power … It also helps that Vancouver has a relatively mild West Coast climate.
But Vancouver has also made a lot of smart public policy choices. … According to environmental advocates, the city has pursued three main agendas that account for its success:
1. Offering transportation alternatives.
2. Density, building codes, and transit-oriented development.
3. Clean, productive waste management.
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The biggest problem with Vancouver is that this high quality of life attracts too many people. Last year, The Economist ranked Vancouver the most expensive city in North America …
While Vancouver is doing great comparatively, it still needs to do more if it is to meet the generally accepted goal of an 80-percent reduction in greenhouse emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. …
Vancouver may not even meet its own goals. “We’re less than halfway to our emissions targets,” says Stephanie Goodwin, Greenpeace’s director for British Columbia. “They want to reduce emissions by 33 percent from 2007 by 2020. They’ve made less than a 10 percent reduction so far. How far will the city really get over the next 6 years?”
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Plenty of glass walled condo towers have frustrating design errors that really impact energy efficiency and just livability. Far too many do not have windows that open enough to property cool the place when it is sunny. Right now it is sunny and around 12 degrees. But I bet you there are many south facing buildings where it is over 25 degrees inside just because of the solar gain. What is actually beneficial – solar heating – becomes a nuisance because you get too much solar gain, even when it is still cool outside. I have been in just such condos in weather like this where all the windows are open the maximum amount, but the place has become uncomfortably hot. This is crazy.
Air conditioning is now quite common in condo towers even though we only actually need it a few days a year. (I’m not including elevators and hallways where air conditioning is necessary much more and ought to be included.) But in places where the windows don’t open enough, you have to put the air conditioning on even though it is only 10 degrees outside. This is crazier.
And please, can we just kill off that stupid enclosed balcony zoning bonus. The idea of a multi-seasonal space is a very good one, but a 50 square foot corner of the apartment that is walled off from the living room is just silly and gets in the way of livability. The whole wall of most condo towers is now glass, so this enclosed “balcony” offers no more outdoor feel that the rest of the place, all it does in introduce some annoying walls – that people just remove – and a flooring change. I wouldn’t give up on multi-seasonal space, but some new ideas need to be tried out. I would suggest:
Outdoor balconies that really are multi-seasonal with moveable wall type systems that allow them to be opened up.
Balconies that have a low sill. Too many balconies have a high sill to accommodate baseboard heaters, and these diminish the usefulness of them. First they are a psychological barrier for the space to flow inside and out, and second they hurt when you stub your toe on the high sill.
Juliette balconies, again with moveable walls, that would allow an area to be opened up in summer and closed down in winter.
Clean productive waste management?
Really?
Then can someone explain why Metro Vancouver is hoping to ship 700,000 tons of garbage annually across the Salish Sea to the City of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island where local officials and contractors are hoping to cash in on a proposed incinerator that would spew tons of greenhouse gases and toxic cancer propducing chemicals into the atmosphere.
It is worhwhile noting that this proposed incinerator is directly upwind from Point Grey, Kitsalano, the West End and downtown Vancouver.It is also upwind from the productive farmlands of the lower mainland.
Out of sight does not mean out of the air shed. Shipping garbage out of the municipality does not constitute a zero waste policy. What is not good for Vancouver is not good for Nanaimo. Myopic environmental views are not acceptable. This dirty and stinky waste management strategy needs to see the light of day followed by the dust bin of history.