Vancouver: Topping the Lists for Liveability, Cost of Living and Being Green.

Vancouver: Topping the lists for liveability, cost of living and being green.

Vancouverites can proudly say that their city has consistently topped the charts as the world’s most livable city, placing third in 2012 according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Report. However, to their dismay, Vancouver has also been ranked by the EIU as the most expensive city in North America and more surprisingly also the third worst dressed city by MSN Travel. The City of Vancouver has not formulated any policies to improve the residents’ fashion sense however; it has set out on a quest to become the world’s greenest city by 2020. The city is not trailing too far behind. The Siemens Green City Index ranked Vancouver as the greenest city in Canada, second in North America, and falling just below six other European cities.

To get the city to the top most spot, City of Vancouver in collaboration with 35,000 people created the very ambitious Greenest City 2020 Action Plan tackling the environmental issues of carbon emissions, waste and ecosystems. Ten long term goals and specific targets concerning green economy, climate leadership, green buildings, green transportation, zero waste, access to nature, lighter footprint, clean water, clean air, and local food are established.. The goals, targets and sustainable policy plans take into consideration that the environment, society and economy are closely embedded and interconnected with each other. Since the inception of the Action Plan in 2011, the City of Vancouver released an update on the implementation until October 2012, and some progress has been made towards achieving the various targets.

Many people deem the plan to be overly ambitious and financially unfeasible for the city. The targets seem far-reaching, and they fear that while Vancouver could become the greenest, it will surely also become the most expensive in the world. The costs and financial burdens of the long-term goals are not clearly...