Waste
Solid waste management contributes about 9% of BC's greenhouse gas emissions, largely through the release of methane from landfill sites. Strategies to reduce this include:- the installation of landfill gas capture technology, which uses landfill gas to generate energy. The City of Vancouver won the FCM/CH2M-Hill Sustainable Communities Award in 2003 for its landfill gas utilization project. The Regional District of Nanaimo used funding from FCM's Green Municipal Fund to develop its landfill gas energy project (see www.rdn.bc.ca/cms.asp?wpID=180).
- Collection and composting of green waste and biowaste
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.
Water
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.
Other Infrastructure
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.
