Sustainability Scholars Program

Health Emergency Management BC (HEMBC) and Lower Mainland Facilities Management (LMFM) are partnering on a multi-phased project to develop adaptation action plans at the facility-level to holistically strengthen the climate resilience of health care facilities in the Lower Mainland. This report summarizes the first of multiple phases of this project, which aims to provide a first glance at the current state of our facilities’ resilience to extreme events in order to identify priority areas before conducting more detailed assessments that will shape the site-specific adaptation plans.

Partner: Fraser Health
Keywords: social sustainability

Coastal cities all over the world have begun planning for sea level rise out of the recognition of its potential impacts on our land, infrastructure and communities. Public participation is a key part of good planning processes; however, the scope and complexity of climate change demands that planners utilize innovative tools to communicate and engage with the public. This report includes the background, rationale and a roadmap to demonstrate how the recommended engagement tools can used in combination to achieve public participation on sea level rise. 

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: climate and renewables, leadership & behaviour change

This report explores sustainable commuting options for the staff driving to and from the Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) Graveley Campus. The VPD is striving to reduce its carbon footprint and by encouraging staff to “green” their commute, this project addresses both this goal and other strategies outlined in the 2015 VPD Business Plan.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: green transportation, transportation

Well-designed outdoor lighting can contribute to an accessible, healthy, and liveable city. At the same time, cities need to better understand and manage the negative impacts of unnecessary outdoor lighting at night on human health and safety, and on wildlife. The purpose of this project was to lay the groundwork for developing an outdoor lighting strategy by identifying precedents and best practices used in other jurisdictions and recommending ways City staff can move forward on the Vancouver Outdoor Lighting Strategy motion to council.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: climate and renewables

The Vancouver Park Board plays an important role in helping the City achieve its sustainability goals, and this includes the “greening” of Park Board operations through sustainable procurement and other means. This project includes the results from 1) testing a compost tea spray on golf greens with the aim of reducing overall fungicide required for maintaining high-quality golf greens; and 2) testing a selection of “green” fertilizers on a sports field with the aim of reducing overall fertilization required for maintenance of high‐quality sports fields.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: green buildings, social sustainability

This project focusses on the design and construction operations of the water, sewer and streets departments. The overall goal is to identify gaps in current practices and opportunities for using project management tools to address the identified gaps.

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: green buildings, waste management & recycling, water

The report examines strategies used by cities from around the world to maximize the use of existing parking infrastructure in an effort to reduce the need for future parking construction and promote other forms of travel. These outlined strategies will then be applied to the West End neighbourhood in Vancouver in order to demonstrate how progressive parking policies can relieve parking shortages while still promoting the City’s sustainable transportation initiatives. 

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: green transportation, leadership & behaviour change, transportation

New technological innovations in the passenger transportation industry in the form of “ridesourcing services” (also known as “ridesharing”) are disrupting and transforming the taxi industry. Using available research and data, this study reviews all the documented impacts of Uber, and how governments in North America are developing new approaches to regulate the emerging and controversial ridesourcing/ridesharing industry. 

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: green transportation, transportation

This report includes 1) an assessment of the future composition and quantity of demolition, land clearing and construction waste in the Vancouver Landfill (VLF); 2) the chemistry of the wood waste at the VLF; and 3) a review of the applicability of common thermal conversion techniques (including incineration, gasification and pyrolysis) for wood waste treatment. 

Partner: City of Vancouver
Keywords: zero waste, waste management & recycling