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Going green is good for business. That was the bottom line when Vancouver’s deputy city manager, Sadhu Johnston, spoke to the Vancouver Regional Construction Association on Nov. 24.
Vancouver has set itself the goal of becoming the world’s greenest city by 2020.
There are important global and environmental implications, he said.
Johnston has been with the city for about a year and before that he was deputy chief of staff to Chicago’s mayor, Richard Daley. Johnston served as Chicago’s chief environmental officer, but was raised in Vancouver during the 1980s.
Johnston went on to say the bottom line also counted.
In Chicago, he explained, when the city was attracting such huge companies as Boeing to relocate their head offices, the city’s environment was a major talking point.
It included the quality of life – the air, the water and the vibrancy of the streets.
The quality of life, he emphasized, is a fundamental issue when it comes to being a competitive city in the future.
On the environmental front Vancouver, according to Johnston, is doing rather well.
“Vancouver has the lowest carbon emissions per capita of any city in North America,” he said.
There have been significant reductions since 1990. Vancouver has managed to reduce its emissions to 1990 levels. This is despite the fact that its population has increased 27 per cent and its jobs have increased 18 per cent during the same time.
He said that this has put Vancouver in the role of an environmental leader. It is a city that has shown that economic activity can be increased at the same time that environment impact is decreased.
“This is very good for business. It is good for the folks, who are doing the construction here and for the businesses that are leading the charge.”
He pointed out that many U.S. cities are today where Vancouver was 10 years ago. They are just now starting to create a plan.
On the Canadian front, Vancouver has managed to reverse the upward trend of green house gas emissions, he said, while in the rest of Canada it is business as usual.
The challenge Vancouver now faces, Johnston claimed, is how to move even further along the environmental trail.
The next step Vancouver is aiming for is a 30 per cent reduction in emissions over 1990 levels.
The two largest components are buildings and transportation. In Vancouver, buildings account for 55 per cent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. The city has a fortunate competitive advantage because it has a relatively inexpensive source of Hydro electricity. Many U.S cities depend on electricity from coal fired plants.
He outlined an array of actions planned to meet Vancouver’s goals.
All future buildings in Vancouver will need to be built to LEED Gold standard. However, there is much more to it than that.
By 2020, Johnston said, all new buildings will have to be carbon neutral.
What he called “pioneers” will be needed to achieve the new goals. An important area, for example, will be district energy systems, such as the one used at the Olympic Village, where the majority of the development’s heat comes from its own waste water and sewage.
“We see this as a core part of any big projects going forward,” he said.
“There will be a mandate for new projects saying they must do a feasibility study for district energy”.
Another very important area will be the retrofitting of existing buildings to bring them up to new energy standards.
He said that in the U.S., where economic woes have dramatically slowed new projects, contractors are finding this to be an important source of work.
Johnston also pointed to another area he thinks is key. Construction and transportation must be planned together.
This involves higher density, locating developments near rapid transit and increasing transit.
“That is where the big win is,” he said.