ECO-ACTION

@ a glance

- Grow more urban forests with an eye to improving their self-sustainability.

- Preserve municipal park land and greenspaces with written commitments to ensure promises are upheld.

- Make roads more accessible to bicycles and pedestrians and initiate a new bike-share program with municipal funding.

- Draft a municipal carbon-emissions commitment for the next decade with integrated strategic planning to make it happen.

- Replace the use of non-sustainable bio-diesel in municipal fleet vehicles with either local, recycled bio-diesel or some other source of energy such as electricity and/or hydrogyn fuel-cell power.

- Consider taxing inefficient vehicles driven in Victoria without justifiable purpose.

- Offer Victoria-specific environmental information supplements to residents wishing to reduce their carbon footprints.

- Preserve and expand Gary-Oak meadows and organize the replacement of remaining invasive weeds with native species in Beacon Hill and other local parks.

- Ban disposable plastic water bottles from City Hall and consider taxing their sale within the municipality.

- Introduce City Hall's multi-faceted recycling program to more locations and ensure that unofficial bottle collectors have easy access to recyclable containers via dedicated bins.

- Regulate the activity of private and commercial cruise ships in the inner harbour to ensure highest environmental standards are maintained.

- Offer council meeting and COTW agendas in immediate digital files via bluetooth or flash drives to reduce paper consumption among attendees.

- Mandate the use of recycling bins in public washrooms for paper towels or compost bins for biodegradable towels.

- Commend carbon-trading initiatives from local companies such as Harbour Air with special consideration in civic information supplements and brochures to ensure the public can knowingly support greener businesses.

Many more commitments for environmental improvements are listed under Sustainability and Parks.