Vancouver Magazine
Opening Soon: A Japanese-Style Bagel Shop in Downtown Vancouver
The Broadway/Cambie Corridor Has Become a Hub for Excellent Chinese Restaurants
Flaky, Fluffy and Freaking Delicious: Vancouver’s Top Fry Bread and Bannock
Protected: The Wick is Lit for This Fraser Valley Winery
Wine Collab of the Week: The Best Bottle to Welcome a Vancouver Spring
Naked Malt Blended Malt Scotch Whisky Celebrates Versatility and Spirit
The Orpheum to Launch ‘Silent Movie Mondays’ This Spring
5 Things to Do in Vancouver This Week (March 27-April 2)
Meet Missy D, the Bilingual Vancouver Hip Hop Artist for the Whole Family
What It’s Like to Get Lost on a Run With a Pro Trail Runner
8 Things to Do in Abbotsford (Even If It’s Pouring Rain)
Explore the Rockies by Rail with Rocky Mountaineer
The Future of Beauty: How One Medical Aesthetics Clinic is Changing the Game
4 Fashion Designers From African Fashion Week Vancouver to Put on Your Radar
Before Hibernation Season Ends: A Round-Up of the Coziest Shopping Picks
Residents of Riley Park share a quaint lending library, honey from communal beehives, and, now, responsibility for the planet. The new Project Green Bloc aims to bring these mindful neighbours together to reduce their ecological footprint by 25 percent in three years-the first such community reduction plan in Canada.
In developing Green Bloc’s proposal, area resident (and former David Suzuki Foundation communications director) Jim Boothroyd took cues from “An Urban Meta-bolism and Ecological Footprint Assessment of Metro Vancouver.” The 2013 study revealed that in a city of gourmets, almost half of our footprint is a byproduct of the food production machine. “I was looking to encourage people to begin to address climate change and hyperconsumption on a very local basis,” he says.
A proposal for a tool library is in the works, as is greening a laneway. Roadways are being assessed for urban farming (less pavement, more potatoes). Some locals have even given over their lawns to communal veggie gardens.
More districts will likely follow suit if this pilot takes off. City hall, with funding in hand, is confident. To be the greenest city by 2020 just takes one neighbourhood at a time.