When Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson set the goal of making his city the world’s greenest, he meant it.

A year after starting his first term in 2008, Robertson began implementing his “Greenest City 2020 Action Plan,” with the goal of becoming an environmental world leader by 2020. The award-winning plan tackles everything from energy efficiency to building standards to waste reduction to encouraging residents to grow their own food.

And it’s working.

According to the latest Greenest City report, Vancouver water consumption is down by 18 per cent, 23,400 new trees have been planted, 3,200 green and local food jobs have been created — all contributing to a reduction of community CO2 emissions by 6 per cent from 2007 levels and keeping the city atop global rankings for livability and health.

And, in Wednesday’s unanimous council decision, Vancouver City Council decided to go even further: recommitting to a long-term goal of deriving 100 per cent of its energy from renewable sources.

Canada’s First 100% Renewable City

In adopting this resolution the City of Vancouver becomes only the fourth city in North America — and the first in Canada — pledging to decarbonize. San Jose, San Diego and San Francisco have all pledged to get off fossil fuels, starting in 2022, 2035 and 2020 respectively.

When Vancouver would go 100 per cent renewable is still to be determined. Now that the motion has passed representatives from City Hall will work with specialists and experts over the next six months to figure out how soon Vancouver could phase out its use of fossil fuels. They’ll report back to Council in the Fall, after which implementation will begin in earnest.

Fortunately, As other cities pursuing a low carbon future have learned, going green has huge potential for local value creation.

For example: After committing to 100 per cent renewables by 2050, the city of Frankfurt reduced its emissions by 15 per cent and grew its economy by 50 per cent.

Where Cities Lead, Will Nations Follow?

Getting to a complete elimination of fossil fuels powering Vancouver’s transportation, heating and cooling is a huge step — particularly when both Canada’s federal government and the B.C. provincial government seem reluctant to implement the kind of bold policy needed for transformative climate action.

Despite pressure from the UN to put forward an aggressive emission reduction pledge in advance of December’s Paris climate summit, carbon reductions from Canada’s Conservative government remain among the lowest in the developed world. Environment Canada recently revealed that Canada is likely to exceed its own 2020 emission reduction targets by at least 20 per cent.

Even though British Columbia is home to one of the most progressive carbon taxes in the world, Premier Christy Clark pledged to freeze the tax for five years as part of her 2013 re-election campaign. Instead, her administration is focused on building infrastructure to ship BC LNG to Asian markets.

In the absence of other leadership, it makes sense why Vancouver City Council is compelled to act. As Mayor Robertson said to council before the historic vote:.

“Cities, as the most direct level of government, need to take action. The world can’t wait for national governments to finish their negotiations. It’s time we get on the path of figuring out how to eliminate fossil fuels in as aggressive of a timeline as is realistic.”

Councillor Andrea Reimer echoed his urgency: “We have a moral imperative to act.”

NB: It is worth noting that should the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker expansion proposal be approved, Vancouver’s energy and emission savings through the Greenest City program would be wiped out by one day of operation.

Full disclosure: The author worked for Vision Vancouver during the Fall 2014 municipal election.

Image Credit: Juan Alberto Garcia Rivera via Flickr

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When you think about what Canada is known for on the international stage these days, fighting climate change is not exactly near the top of the list. Without credible plans from Ottawa and many provincial capitals, Canada’s climate-fighting reputation is up in smoke or, as the Economist put it, the moose has lost its sunglasses and Canada is “uncool.”

But when you look beyond the headlines, there is another story — one in which the vast majority of Canadian communities are committed to fighting climate change.

DeSmog Canada reached out to experts across Canada to get their opinions on which municipalities are leading the fight against climate change. Immediately, it became clear we could easily list Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton or Vancouver and tell great stories about these innovative cities.

Vancouver, for instance, nominated most often by the experts, is reforming its bylaws, permits, regulations and policies in an effort to become the greenest city in the world by 2020. Whether it is energy, food, grants, efficiency, jobs, bikes, procurement or construction, Vancouver has a sustainability policy, subsidy or project. Add in the work Surrey, Burnaby and the City of North Vancouver are doing to evolve from Vancouver bedroom communities into sustainable urban environments and the story could start and end in the Lower Mainland.

But we wanted to look beyond the big players to find the other guys — the innovative communities you probably haven’t heard about yet. Drum roll please …

Dawson Creek, B.C.

Dawson Creek, at "Mile 0" on the Alaska Highway, sits in the middle of B.C.'s natural gas fields. Photo: Shawn via Flickr.

Way up in the Peace Country, 400 kilometres northeast of Prince George, lays Dawson Creek — a city of fewer than 12,000 people in the heart of British Columbia’s natural gas fields.

During the last decade, the town has installed solar hot-water heaters on municipal buildings, changed its building-code bylaws to require every new house to be built “solar ready,” started charging a $100-per-tonne levy on greenhouse gas emissions and channeled the cash into a carbon fund, developed an anti-idling campaign, embraced a nearby wind farm and in 2012 became Canada’s first Solar City.

During this sustainability boom, the region also saw a massive influx of development from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of natural gas wells. Fracking requires large amounts of water, combined with chemicals, used to blast the natural gas from the shale rock formations. Faced with repeat drought years, Dawson Creek partnered with Shell to build a water-reclamation plant to provide water to industry and preserve the town’s drinking water.

"Now we have about 4,000 cubic metres of water a day going through this effluent plant that can be used for fracking instead of surface water or the city's treated water," former mayor Mike Bernier told Postmedia.

Guelph, Ontario

A footbridge in Riverside Park, Guelph. Photo: Patty O'Hearn Kickham via Flickr.

Guelph, Ont., located 90 kilometres west of Toronto, was the winner of the 2014 Sustainable Communities Award for Energy from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The city, population 120,000, has leveraged Ontario’s green energy policies to develop close to 1,000 solar installations and has cut emissions by capturing methane from the landfill and composting organics.

Since 2006, Guelph has cut emissions per capita by 17 per cent. (The city was also helped by Ontario’s policy of phasing out coal-fired power plants). Guelph is aiming to have two district-energy systems operational by this year or next to provide hot or cool water from a central plant to customers, reducing emissions even more.

“By 2031 we’re expecting to add approximately 50 per cent more in population and a per capita reduction of 60 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions,” says mayor Karen Farbridge.

Varennes, Quebec     

The Saint-Joachim Chapel was built in 1832 in Varennes, Quebec. Now the city is leading the way to the low-carbon future with several technology research centres calling Varennes home. Photo: Gilles Douaire via Flickr.

Varennes, Que., located about 25 kilometres from Montreal, is home to a number of technology research centres, including Hydro-Québec’s IREQ, CanmetENERGY and the National Institute for Scientific Research. It is also the home office of the biggest biofuel producer in Canada, Greenfield Ethanol.

Greenfield is building an ethanol plant in Varennes using non-recyclable, non-compostable waste and an anaerobic digester, using organic waste from the surrounding area to produce biogas. 

The City of Varennes is replacing its city lights with energy efficient LEDs, using electric cars (with seven charging stations in the city) and building a new net-zero library — the first in net-zero building in Canada.

“Its yearly energy consumption will be zero thanks to geothermal technology, 700 solar panels, radiating floors, solar walls and smart lighting,” says mayor Martin Damphouse.

T’Sou-ke First Nation, B.C.

T'Sou-ke Chief Gordon Planes amongst a sea of solar panels. Photo: David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

About 40 kilometres west of Victoria on Vancouver Island is the T’Sou-ke First Nation. It is a tiny community of 250 members (150 on reserve), but it has a claim to fame as British Columbia’s “most solar-powered community.”

In 2009, through B.C.’s Solar Community Program, the T’Sou-ke Nation installed 75 kilowatts of solar power and now sells excess power back to the grid. All homes on the reserve have solar hot-water systems and have had energy-efficiency retrofits. The community also built a greenhouse and runs a community garden, selling extra produce to roughly 30 stores on southern Vancouver Island.

“When you think about the T’Sou-ke Nation, this tiny group on the edge of Vancouver Island, developing probably the most solar-intensive community in Canada, it is quite an achievement,” says Andrew More, T’Sou-ke solar program manager.

Most recently, the T’Sou-ke Nation became a partner in a $750-million wind-power project that will produce enough energy to power 30,000 homes.

Bridgewater, Nova Scotia   

Bridgewater Farmers' Market. Photo: John McCarthy via Flickr.

Bridgewater, located about 100 kilometers down the south shore of Nova Scotia from Halifax, has transformed its community’s energy system. Bolstered by provincial policies, the town of more than 8,000, has replaced street lights with LED lights, conducted energy efficiency retrofits to municipal buildings, introduced an anti-idling program, changed land-use policies and started buying locally installed solar power.

As a result of the major overhaul, Bridgewater reduced energy consumption from its town’s facilitates in 2012 by 15 per cent from 2007 levels and exceeded its goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent.

“I take particular pride in knowing that our town has done an exemplary job in dealing with sustainability planning,” says Mayor Carroll Publicover.

Main Photo: Dawson Creek grain elevator. Credit: Shannon via Flickr.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.