The Environment and Plastics Industry Council have produced guidelines on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from residential solid waste: www.cpia.ca/files/files/files_Epicreport-2.pdf.
Signing on to the provincial water conservation guidelines can help save water AND energy. Through other infrastructure optimization such as sewer-heat recovery, additional savings are possible.
One example of energy savings from other infratructure results from replacing traffic lights and street lights with energy efficient lighting. The City of Vancouver saves $247,500 in energy costs, and $110,000 in maintenance costs, as a result of changing the bulbs in 670 traffic lights (http://www.bchydro.com/business/success/story4287.html)
Green procurement policies ensure that along with other priorities such as value for money, climate and energy concerns are not forgotten when the municipal government goes shopping. While some of these choices may involve higher upfront costs, they lead to lower running costs for municipal operations, through lower heating, fuel and electricity bills. A simple green procurement policy would use existing and widely recognised green certification frameworks. A generic tool for developing a green procurement policy is available here: http://www.cec.org/eco-sat/webform/home.aspx?CFID=17796040&CFTOKEN=36711000.