The purpose of this report is to inform local government approaches to supporting public childcare in BC. The report provides an overview of the different types of publicly delivered childcare currently offered in B.C. Included is a discussion of the benefits and challenges of public delivery. Future opportunities to leverage resources towards building a system of universal access to childcare are also discussed.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: healthy city

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2019
Michelle Gautreaux

This project aims to identify best practices in planning for sea level rise for employment lands in the City of Vancouver, including industrial and port lands. Includes a summary of tools and approaches found in the literature and used by other jurisdictions including land use/regulatory tools, engineering, financial tools, economic resilience planning, multi-stakeholder engagement and public awareness and education. Implementation considerations and recommended next steps are provided.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: climate and renewables, green economy, healthy city

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2019
Halina Rachelson

This project advances Vancouver's Circular Economy of Food (CEF) by answering two questions:

  1. Which indicators best track the valorization of waste?
  2. What is the economic value of our local CEF?

An AHP survey was designed and distributed to a panel of CEF related professionals. The results validate two KPIs from a set of indicators. The CEF's economic value for the region of Metro Vancouver is calculated and an initial policy & action plan presented.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: green economy, local food, zero waste

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2019
Dionissios Batistatos

This study identifies the major challenges and opportunities for the implementation of on-street electric vehicle charging from light poles in the City of Vancouver, aiming to address homes without access to off-street parking. It includes a review of the programs and projects of other jurisdictions; an assessment of the existing streetlight poles electrical infrastructure; and a recommendation of possible locations for pilot projects.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: green economy, green transportation, healthy city

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2019
Andres Puentes

As the City of Vancouver approaches the culmination of the 2020 Greenest City Action Plan, there is an opportunity to assess and set new food policy targets. As targets are measured by indicators, there is also an opportunity to review, evaluate, and select new indicators to inform the development of these emerging targets. This report reviews existing food system indicator frameworks in order to develop a series of recommendations for the City.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: local food

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2019
Shannon Lambie

This project focuses on improving our understanding of the health and environmental impacts of street dirt and establishing a benchmarking of Vancouver's street sweeping operations. It consists of a literature review of street dirt analysis, including chemicals of concern and potential chemical concentrations, as well as and a benchmarking study which gathers street sweeping operational and fleet data from various cities to compare with Vancouver's street sweeping operations. 

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: clean water, healthy city, lighter footprint

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2019
Timothy Luk

This summary report documents an initial step by the Equity and Inclusion Office at UBC to create a standardized analysis of what qualifies as equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) content in courses and to map the presence of these courses within the Faculty of Arts. This is the start of a larger scale project to track the strengths and trends of how EDI is represented in curricular offerings at UBC.

Partner: UBC Equity Diversity & Inclusion
Keywords: social sustainability, sustainability in education

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2019
Elydah Joyce

This report synthesizes the outcomes of the various elements of the Lower Fraser Valley visual air quality pilot study and, where possible, identifies the key features of the study that could be relevant to developing recommendations for a visual air quality program. Regional work on visual air quality has been coordinated by the BC Visibility Coordinating Committee. Results, findings and recommendations arising from the pilot study inform the development of actions for improving visual air quality.

Partner: Metro Vancouver
Keywords: sustainable development, green economy

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2019
Bianca Ravani Cecato

This project aims to review pricing strategies used in other jurisdictions that charge for a wide range of wastewater contaminants other than biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS) and volume and evaluate these strategies for use in the Metro Vancouver context. Includes recommendations to develop similar pricing strategies for contaminants, and the information and data required to develop the new contaminant fees.

Partner: Metro Vancouver
Keywords: waste management & recycling, water, contaminants, fees

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2019
Varshini Baskar

This project aims to gain a better understanding of the relationship between N2O emissions and wastewater treatment plant processes in Metro Vancouver. A literature review was conducted to investigate the potential sources of N2O emissions in Annacis Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, potential measurement methods and measures to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from Metro Vancouver wastewater treatment plants.

Partner: Metro Vancouver
Keywords: water

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2019
Yehan Chen

Background research and practical resources to support the Fraser Health Energy, Environment and Sustainability team. This report details the significance of chemicals of concern and presents informative resources to support the Zero Waste and Toxicity program at Fraser Health. This work aims to raise awareness among stakeholders and transition towards reducing chemical exposure across Lower Mainland facilities, health care services and supporting operations.

Partner: Fraser Health
Keywords: supply chain management & green procurement, waste management & recycling

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2019
Brianne Della Savia

The goal of this project is to increase BC Energy Step Code adoption in small and medium communities by optimizing the Community Energy Association's support efforts. This report focuses specifically on the unique challenges and opportunities of implementing the BC Energy Step Code in smaller communities by identifying common barriers and determining actions for the Community Energy Association moving forward. This research is largely informed by interviews conducted with planners and building officials.

Partner: Community Energy Association
Keywords: green buildings, leadership & behaviour change

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2019
Geneva Lloyd

This project aims to introduce elements of a new business model to dramatically increase the number of electric air source heat pumps in Metro Vancouver to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets. Recommendations include the use of an ASHP rental program, demand aggregators, on-bill and property assessed clean energy/local improved charge financing, renewable heat incentives, carbon off-sets, and partnerships with contractors and manufacturers.

Partner: Community Energy Association
Keywords: green buildings, supply chain management & green procurement, sustainable development & green economy

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2019
Aaron Nelson

The purpose of this report is to understand the current ability to implement renewable energy for backup power solutions. A review of current technologies in energy storage, and alternative fuels was analyzed to recommend a final hybrid based solution that would be best suited for residential buildings.

Partner: BC Housing
Keywords: green buildings, sustainable development & green economy, resilience

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2019
Derek Oppedisano

This report aims to develop a framework for future energy codes that address some of the limitations that exist with current codes.

Partner: BC Housing
Keywords: green buildings, social sustainability

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2019
Helena Behnam

In the new era of sustainable mobility, the focus is mostly on the environmental impacts of electric, autonomous and shared vehicles, yet they will also have other meaningful impacts on regional economies. Not warranting enough attention to the economic aspect would not give us a complete picture of the impacts of these new modes of transportation. To this end, we estimated the regional economic impacts of SAVEs in Metro Vancouver.

Partner: TransLink
Keywords: sustainable development & green economy, transportation, economic impact

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2019
Shabnam Hossein Khalaj

In recent years, the City of New Westminster has prioritized health and wellbeing, stimulating discussion of how two of its legacy recreation facilities (Canada Games Pool and Centennial Community Centre) contribute to health and wellbeing and how a new facility might improve baseline levels. This project was developed to investigate how these facilities currently contribute to community health and wellbeing, with the intention of being used in the future for the new facility for comparison.

Partner: City of New Westminster
Keywords: recreation, health & wellbeing, equity

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2019
Laura Chow

This report investigates research collaborations between the University of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver or other municipalities in Greater Vancouver on sustainability and liveability issues since 2010. The study's objective is to better understand how to increase and improve such research collaborations. The report includes recommendations to inform the development and implementation of city-university partnerships in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

This project informed a peer-reviewed article in the International Journal of Sustainability in Education: Strengthening city–university partnerships to advance sustainability solutions: A study of research collaborations between the University of British Columbia and City of Vancouver

Partner: UBC Sustainability Initiative (Urban Innovation Research)
Keywords: leadership & behaviour change, sustainability in education

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2019
Stefan U. Pauer

This project assesses the GHG impact of the City of Vancouver's food procurement practices and identifies policy priorities, considering other municipalities' work and equity challenges associated with implementing changes within institutional food provision. This analysis suggests that the most effective GHG emission reduction strategy is a dietary shift away from meat, particularly beef and pork, but strong partnerships with stakeholders are required to understand existing inequities in choices among clientele

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: climate and renewables, lighter footprint, local food

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2019
Poushali Maji

This project aims to identify and evaluate beneficial opportunities to repurpose excavated disposed soils to reach the goals highlighted in the City of Vancouver's Zero Waste 2040 plan. This project includes amount and composition of incoming soils to the Vancouver Landfill, a forecast of future inflow soils tonnage to the Vancouver Landfill, possible soil repurposing options and highlighted viable options for the City of Vancouver.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: lighter footprint, zero waste

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2019
Bhushan Goyal

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