Sustainable and Natural Built Environment

Vancouver:

Greenest City 2020 Action Plan approved in 2011.

• Vancouver is set to bring the community-based greenhouse gas emissions down to 5% below 1990 levels, even as the population has grown by over 27% and jobs have increased by over 18%.
• Vancouver’s electricity is generated in British Columbia- 93% of it from renewable sources. We are also developing neighborhood-scale renewable energy projects. Conversion to renewable sources will create new green jobs.
• The city has implemeted the greenest building code in North America. Vancouver is rising to meet the green transportation challenge by creating compact neighborhoods with higher density to provide easy access to work, shopping and recreation. The City has shifted investment to walking, cycling and transit infrastructure.

GREEN BUILDINGS

• Require all buildings constructed from 2020 onward to be carbon neutral in operations.
• Reduce energy and greenhouse Gas emissions in existing buildings by 20% over 2007 Levels.

Insulation, Heating and Lighting system upgrades, and energy-efficient appliances, as well as on how people operate buildings.

Canadians spend the majority of their time indoors, so how can changing the way that they spend their time effect the enironment.

GREEN TRANSPORTATION

• Make the majority (over 50%) of trips by foot, bicycle, and public transit.
• Reduce average distance driven per resident by 20% from 2007 levels.

Transportation effects the air we breathe, the amount of land we need, our physical health and well-being.

Safe, Convenient, and Enjoyable travel by foot/bike.

ZERO WASTE

• Reduce solid waste going to the landfill or incinerator by 50% from 2008 levels.

Garbage has become so common that it can be hard to imagine life without it.

Recycle more, and save trees, and metals from the earth.

ACCESS TO NATURE

• All Vancouver residents live within a five-minute walk of a park, greenway, or other green space by 2020.
• Plant 150,000 new trees by 2020.

Enjoyable, promote neighborhood socializing.

http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/Greenest-city-action-plan.pdf

http://vancouver.ca/green-vancouver/renewable-city.aspx

Los Angeles

http://www.environment.ucla.edu/reportcard/

Sustainability: "Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." - from United Nations WCED 1987

L.A. County: Most populous county in the nation, and consists of 88 individual cities.

2015 Report Card

Water - C

Air - C+

Ecosystem Health C-

Energy & Greenhouse Gasses - B-

Environmental Quality of Life - C+

Ecosystem Health

• Over 35,000 acres of land are at high risk of vegetation type change due to over-burning
• LA County has lost >96% of its total wetland area from 1850 to present
• Lows in greeness values since 2013 indicate vegetation is experiencing extreme water stress due to the drought.
• Urban Streams throughout the county exhibit very poor function, and poor viological condition.

Waste

• Total hazardous waste generated in LA county in 2013 was 2.2 million tons, two times as much as in 2011
• There is a lack of county-level data on actual quantities and final disposition of municipal waste diverted from landfills.
• Contaminated soils from site clean-up comprised themajority (68%) of hazardous waste in 2013