City Seeks Public Input on a Sustainable Edmonton
October 25, 2010
How far are Edmontonians willing to go to be green? The City wants to know.
Would you give up your car? Pay higher taxes? Let a (gasp) high-rise be built in your neighbourhood?
After eight months of research and engagement with community groups, citizens and environmental experts, the City has some suggestions. Now it’s the general public’s turn to comment on options for sustainability.
At www.TheWayWeGreen.ca and at two drop-in sessions at City Hall on Wednesday, November 3 from 4 to 8:30pm and on Thursday, November 4 from 7:30am to 6pm, the City wants feedback on suggestions to make Edmonton a sustainable city.
Some of the suggestions include: adopting stricter energy-efficiency standards for buildings, decreasing reliance on fossil fuels, controlling urban sprawl, stepping up air quality monitoring, and enhancing management of effluent into the river. Each option could have an impact on the behaviours and the budgets of Edmontonians, as well as the decisions of the City.
“We challenge Edmontonians to ask how far they are willing to go to protect the environment and live within the limits of nature,” said Jim Andrais, project manager for the creating Edmonton’s new environmental plan. “Edmontonians need to tell us what lifestyle changes and infrastructure investments they are willing to make.”
The Way We Green plan - White Paper (also known as a discussion paper) summarizes the options for Edmontonians to consider. The suggestions were grouped into six core areas: Energy and Climate Change; River Water Supply and Quality; Food Security; Air Quality; Biodiversity, and Waste Management.
The White Paper examines each of these categories individually looking at the challenges the city might face in each area, the environmental goals to strive for, and the policy options the City could adopt to ensure those goals are met. Examples include:
- Make Edmonton become climate change neutral – with no net contribution to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
- Shift the majority of Edmonton’s energy to come from renewable/alternative sources.
- Reduce and eventually eliminate combined sewer overflows to the river.
- Set up a City-wide Food and Agriculture Strategy to look at production, processing, distribution, consumption and residuals management.
- Ensure biodiversity lost to development is replaced (in whole or in part) elsewhere in Edmonton.
- Increase efforts to establish strong natural corridors and healthy ecosystems dotted throughout the city.
- Expand air quality monitoring in Edmonton and ensure the regional monitoring network is better integrated with industry.
- Make non-residential sectors achieve the same garbage diversion rate achieved by Edmonton’s residential sector.
- Reduce Edmonton’s ecological footprint through a variety of measures that involve lower consumption, conservation and efficiency.
A final plan, The Way We Green, based on the input received from these sessions and stakeholder workshops is scheduled to be reviewed to become City policy by City Council in early 2011.
The Way We Green will join other 10-year plans, such as the transportation master plan and the municipal growth plan, in a comprehensive strategy for Transforming Edmonton towards a 30-year vision that reflects Edmontonians’ priorities and aspirations, and delivering a quality of life among the best in the world.
To read a copy of the White Paper visit www.edmonton.ca/TheWayWeGreen
For more information:
Mary-Ann Thurber
City of EdmontonEnvironment Office
| Title | Communications Officer |
|---|---|
| Telephone | 780-442-1698 |
| maryann.thurber@edmonton.ca |
Transforming Edmonton
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