Marching orders for green committee

City council hopes to get a heap of green ideas from a local committee this year on everything from trash to traffic lights.

Council approved a list of priorities for the environmental advisory committee (EAC) at a meeting Monday. The list asks the committee for advice on nine environmental topics, including greenhouse gases, solid waste, baseline data collection, the former public works yard and a study on the state of the Sturgeon River.

It shouldn't be too big of a workload for committee members, as they've already done a lot of work on some of the topics such as solid waste, said Coun. Cathy Heron. "I think the committee is ready for some new projects."

Green communities

One of the biggest will be the development of a green communities policy, Heron said, which, when complete, would help council create rules for more efficient development. "It's everything from density to what you put in the house," she said, and could include rebates for items such as low-flush toilets.

The City of Edmonton is working on such a policy, said Mark Brostrom, director of Edmonton's office of the environment. The capital has been constructing its own buildings to a LEED Silver standard, for example, and has struck a task force to look at how to renovate existing buildings. "It's looking at ways to green the building stock."

The City of Vancouver created its green building strategy in 2008, according to its website. City bylaws now require electricity consumption meters and dual-flush toilets in all new homes, set minimum standards for insulation, and restrict the use of incandescent and halogen light bulbs. Homes built to the new standards will use 33 per cent less energy per year than typical ones, suggests a report to council, and could prevent about 1,300 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

Urban farms, idling

Coun. Len Bracko added urban agriculture to the original list of eight priorities, citing it as an emerging topic. "It goes back to the basis of food supply," he said. Rising food and fuel prices may mean we need to produce more food locally, and we may need to use city land to grow it.

Bracko wanted the committee to look into green roofs, community gardens and food education. The city has many open spaces that could grow food for the food bank, teach people about farming and promote the farmers' market, he said.

One of the less typical priorities on the list is traffic-light idling.

St. Albert has an idle-free bylaw, said EAC chair Merv Rogan, yet it has many intersections that keep cars idling at long red lights. "You've got people just sitting there doing nothing," he said, especially late at night. "I think there may be some tweaking that needs to be done."

Red-light idling is actually a very small source of air pollution and greenhouse gases, said city environmental manager Leah Jackson, and an unavoidable one. "It doesn't matter what light turns red, somebody is always going to be stopped."

Construction of Anthony Henday Drive had changed traffic patterns on St. Albert Trail, said city transportation and urban development manager Brian Hartman, so the city plans to tweak the lights this spring to improve traffic flow, which could reduce idling. "The new timing [pattern] is being implemented as we speak."

The EAC would also look into plastic bags, a topic of particular interest to Heron. "Plastic bags are a huge nuisance," she said, as they're tough to recycle and take forever to decay in a landfill. She asked administration and the committee to research ways to discourage their use. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo has banned them, she noted, while other municipalities have started charging for them.

The committee would discuss these priorities at its next meeting, Heron said.