Land Use

Urban form is the single most important determinant of carbon emissions from your community over the long term. Smart Growth and Community Energy Planning are two toolkits that help communities incorporate climate and energy concerns into their long-term plans.

• Smart Growth BC toolkit: http://www.smartgrowth.bc.ca/index.cfm?Group_ID=3383
• Community Energy Association toolkit: http://www.communityenergy.bc.ca/toolkit.htm

A guide to different approaches to planning for sustainability can be found at http://www.sustainablecommunities.fcm.ca/files/Capacity_Building-Planning/30_A_Guide_to_Frameworks_and_Tools.pdf

Transportation Alternatives

Private road transport accounts for more than a third of BC's carbon emissions, and is the single largest source of emissions in BC. The BC Government provides help to local governments through the ‘LocalMotion' program. Policy guidance can be found from the ICLEI (see their report for local governments), while the Victoria Transport Policy Institute recently released a report on reducing emissions through parking management.

Promoting practical alternatives to the private car

A smart growth planning framework will help people live closer to work, shopping and schools. In the short term, municipalities need to help provide alternatives to the wide-spread use of gas-consuming, single occupant vehicles through support for:

• car-pooling, car cooperatives and car-sharing schemes. In the City of Vancouver, parking is free for cars belonging to car-share schemes such as the co-operative automotive network.
• public transit; and
• walking and cycling-friendly infrastructure, and strict limits to the expansion of road and parking infrastructure.

Further information

• http://www.localmotion.gov.bc.ca/
• http://www.iclei.org/documents/Global/Progams/CCP/Sust_Trans_Options.pdf
• http://www.vtpi.org/park_man.pdf

Vehicle Efficiency

Mechanisms to encourage low emission vehicles, such as hybrids and electric vehicles, include favourable parking rates and regulations. Anti-idling bylaws, such as that recently introduced by the City of Vancouver, also help reduce emissions from vehicles. Austin, Texas is pioneering a program to support plug-in hybrids (http://www.pluginaustin.org/).

Building Efficiency and Local Energy

Building Efficiency

While the efficiency of future buildings will be improved with the forthcoming Provincial ‘green building code', announced in the 2007 Throne Speech, BC's existing buildings are major contributors to provincial emissions, primarily because of the natural gas used for space and water heating. Municipalities can use a number of tools to encourage efficiency and renewable energy in the wider community in both new and existing buildings.

A new three-year, $60 million LiveSmartBC: Efficiency Incentive Program will help British Columbians reduce both their carbon footprint and their energy costs through incentives to make their homes more energy efficient. The LiveSmartBC: Efficiency Incentive Program will give homeowners access to rebates for audits and energy efficiency incentives.  More information is available at http://www.gov.bc.ca/empr/popt/livesmart_bc.html 

Joining the Community Action on Energy Efficiency (CAEE) program, run by the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, is one way of getting help to improve energy efficiency within your community. The program has produced a website to promote energy efficiency in buildings in BC: http://www.saveenergynow.ca/

As part of the CAEE program, the provincial government commissioned the Sheltair group to identify tools available to municipalities to promote energy efficiency in new buildings:

http://www.em.gov.bc.ca/alternativeenergy/EnergyEfficiency/energyefficiencypdfs/Part%202%20Municipal%20Energy%20May%203%20with%20logos%5B2%5D.pdf. The Canada Green Building Council has produced guidelines for municipalities on promoting green building (http://www.cagbc.org/green_resources/for_municipalities.php), as has West Coast Environmental Law (http://www.wcel.org/wcelpub/2006/14252.pdf).

Local Energy

Sustainability Solutions Group and the Community Energy Association have produced a guide on how BC municipalities can promote local renewable energy  

Energy can sourced from renewable sources where possible, and municipal buildings consider installing renewable energy such as solar hot water or biomass energy systems.

Where renewable energy is not possible in municipal buildings, BC Hydro offers green energy purchase options: http://www.bchydro.com/business/gpcerts/gpcerts22520.html