mailto:Amanda.mitchell@vancouver.ca

In early 2009, Mayor Gregor Robertson formed

the Greenest City Action Team (GCAT) to

determine how Vancouver can become the

greenest city in the world by 2020.

Local experts in:

Climate protection

Transportation

Land use

Green energy

Food security

Finance

Biodiversity

Economic development

Environmental health

The Bright Green Future

Report laid out the ground

work for the Action Plan,

including ten long term goals

A Bright Green

Future Report

Draft Greenest

City Action Plan

Feb 2009 Feb 2010 June 2010 Oct 2010 Dec 2010 Jan 2011

Greenest City Timeline

Spring 2011

• Council Adopts

Ten Long-Term

Goals, directs

staff to create

implementation

report

• GCAT tasked

with creating

greenest city

vision and quick

starts

• Talk Green to Us

launches at Pecha

Kucha (Phase 1

public consultation)

• Working Groups

established

• External Advisory

Committees formed

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

• Ideas Slam, Open

House, Phase 1

consultation closes

• Working

Groups finish

draft Greenest

City Action Plan

• Talk Green

Vancouver launches

(Phase 2 public

consultation)

• 2020 Targets

approved by

Council (Jan 20,

2011)

• Final Action

Plan goes to

Council for

approval

• Implementation

continues

Spring 2011

Implementation Greenest City

Action Team

Talk Green

Vancouver

Greenest City

Action Plan

Talk Green to Us

Internal Working Groups

External Advisory

Committees

Zero Waste

Green Economy

Green Buildings

Climate Leadership

Green Mobility

Access to

Nature Lighter Footprint

Clean Water

Clean Air

Local Food

Public input/

dia

logue

EAC

EAC

EAC

EAC

EAC

EAC

EAC

EAC

EAC

EAC

GC2020 Steering

Committee

(Working Group Chairs)

deeper engagement

To get the word out:

11,800 video views

900 direct mail

Advertising reach

Events:

Over 3,700

people at live

events

o Educate & communicate recommended

actions

o Collect feedback on the draft plan and

gauge level of support

o Reflect back public comments

o Build support for, and ownership in, the

final plan

o Get/keep stakeholders and staff engaged for

implementation

o Set expectations

o Broaden reach

o Model a different kind of City-led public

engagement process

Phase two engagement methods

Co-hosted/organized workshops, dialogues

and events

Presentations

Webinars

DIY consultations

Unconference (including Wiki and webinar)

Student involvement, collaboration (SFU

Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue, John

Oliver Secondary, UBC scholars)

Multicultural Roundtables

Internal staff engagement

Illustrated videos

Online, social media tools

Sought advice

Worked with community groups and local leaders

Translated illustrated videos

Engaged ethnic media (talk shows, print and radio ads)

Co-organized multicultural community roundtables

Greenest City Camp

What did we find

out?

35,000+ people have participated

9,000+ people with a high level of engagement

Phase 1+2 Public Engagement Activities Metric

Number of unique ideas from P1 online forum 726

Number of registered users from P1 and P2 online forums 3,414

Number of votes from P1 online forum 28,026

Number of comments from P1 & P2 online forums 2,262

Number of visitors to websites 35,979

Number of cities visiting website 1,600+

Number of people on our mailing list (as of June 1, 2011) 2,358

Total video views (as of June 1, 2011) 25,940

Twitter followers (as of June 1, 2011) 4,514

Facebook fans (as of June 1, 2011) 2,298

In person outreach at events (P1 & P2) 6,045

Direct mail (letters to community organisations) ~1,200

Innovative use of methods

Collaborating with other organisations

Two-way dialogue and transparent discussion

Connecting online and in person events

Hard to determine who we were engaging

Ideas vs. feedback

Need for coordinated City engagement

Time intensive, requires responsive staff

Need for a social media policy

Start with a vision

Set ambitious targets

Develop the plan with an integrated, cross-

departmental approach (break down silos)

Engage residents in a forward-looking vision

Find quick wins to kick off implementation

Work with networks of networks

Test new methods of engagement

We’ve completed 80% of the priority actions in

the original GCAP report. This summer we

will be finalizing a plan for the next set of

actions.

This summer we will launch a Greenest City

refresh with a focus on storytelling