Vancouver EcoDensity Charter: Green liveable cities

Vancouver is often praised as one of the most liveable cities in the world with its location between the Canadian Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. For many years, planners in Vancouver have worked towards a high-density city. Despite this, Vancouver – like most other North American cities – has a large environmental impact. Today, Greater Vancouver has 2.1 million residents and an ecological footprint  of 6.7 hectares per capita. The ecological footprint available pr. capita is only 1.8 and thereby the ecological footprint of Greater Vancouver amounts to almost 300 times its geographical area. This is, however, not unusual for a North American city of the equivalent size.

Main contributors to Vancouver’s ecological footprint are transport and construction, maintenance and operation of buildings. A high-quality densification, EcoDensity, is perceived as the way to reduce the city’s ecological footprint.

Dense cities use less land to house more people, thus reducing pressure on the region in terms of urban sprawl. A dense city puts people close to shops, jobs, amenities and services, resulting in more trips made by walking, biking and public transportation instead of by car. Dense communities can also make diverse green systems, such as district energy, cheaper to build and higher density buildings themselves enable sharing of resources such as energy and water.

The idea behind EcoDensity can be illustrated as a tricycle symbolizing the three cornerstones of sustainability: Economy, equity and environment. The driving wheel of the EcoDensity tricycle is environmental sustainability, while the side wheels that keep the balance and the possibilities for movement are liveability and affordability.

The Vancouver Council has initiated the EcoDensity programme through a consultation process including an EcoDensity Fair, a Speaker Series, several workshops to review progress and ongoing communication through the EcoDensity website. In the process of writing the EcoDensity charter, a series of workshops and public meetings took place. On June 10 2008, the Vancouver City Council unanimously voted to adopt the EcoDensity Charter.

A range of EcoDensity actions has been decided and two actions - ‘Rezoning Policy for Greener Buildings’ and ‘Rezoning policy for Greener Larger Sites’ - are to be implemented by the City immediately.

Inspiration from Vancouver
Eight pillars that support a sustainable city:
1: A complete walkable community
2: A low-impact transportation system
3: Green buildings
4: Flexible open space
5: Green infrastructure
6: A healthy food system
7: Community facilities and programmes
8: Economic development

For more information see planetizen.