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Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) | City of North Vancouver. The City has adopted the LEED Green Building Rating System as part of its ongoing sustainability program to reduce environmental impact, save energy and reduce operational costs as well as provide long term benefits for the community. The LEED building rating system, or "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design", is a series of environmentally sustainable construction guidelines that result in the creation of sustainable, high performance buildings.

Under this rating system, a project or building earns a series of credits for various building features that lead to sustainable building performance. In turn, a building or project then receives a Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum LEED accreditation. New civic buildings will be designed and built to conserve both water and materials, minimize waste, maximize air quality, protect surrounding areas and continue to provide environmental and community benefits over their lifetimes. Green building and renovating. Vancouver Convention Centre » Vancouver Convention Centre Goes Platinum. News Vancouver Convention Centre Goes Platinum Posted on February 9, 2010 First convention centre in the world to receive highest level of LEED® certification The Vancouver Convention Centre is proud to announce that its iconic West building, opened in April 2009, has been awarded LEED® Platinum certification for new construction by the Canada Green Building Council.

“The Vancouver Convention Centre is the only convention centre in the world to receive the highest level of LEED® certification,” says Kevin Krueger, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts. “While the West building was to have been designed to a LEED® Gold standard, the resulting quality of its design, construction and operations warranted a Platinum designation, making us a leader in environmental sustainability in our industry,” says Ken Cretney, General Manager, Vancouver Convention Centre. Vancouver Convention Centre‟s sustainable design features and practices include: • local BC wood products used throughout the building.

Buy a composter for your yard. Sea to Sky Green Guide - City Farmer's Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden. The 1572 m2 demonstration garden, which was established in 1982, is a beautiful haven of sustainability. It boasts extensive green infrastructure including, a composting toilet, green roof, cob shed, organic food garden, natural lawn, waterwise garden, and worm and backyard composters. Visitors can learn how to safely collect irrigation water using a rain barrel. Different kinds of composting units are also on display. The demonstration garden has become an information hub both locally and internationally. For 32 years, City Farmer has taught people how to grow food in the city, compost their waste, and take care of their home landscape in an environmentally responsible manner as well as providing workshops, tours, media interviews and private consultations that promote further learning and awareness.

Tours: Available upon request. Www.cityfarmer.info This post was imported from the 'Greater Vancouver Green Guide', it's part of the 'Green Guide Portal' to the Green Building Brain. Worm composting bins. Composting. What not to pour down the drain. Whatever goes down the drain directly affects aquatic life, water quality, and the liveability of your neighbourhood. Help protect our waterways by properly disposing of household items.

Food scraps: compost them When food enters the ocean it requires oxygen to decompose. The more food in the ocean, the less oxygen there is available for fish and other organisms. Instead of using your in-sink garburator, recycle your kitchen scraps with your yard waste for pickup by the City, or purchase your own composter. Cooking grease: put it in the garbage Grease quickly turns solid within sewer pipes, and can cause blockages that lead to backups and sewer overflows. Pour hot cooking grease into a tin can or drink carton to cool and solidify before disposing the grease into the garbage. Medication: return it to the drug store In many places around the world, trace levels of pharmaceuticals can be found in the water supply. Where To Take Things. You told us you wanted to know where to take things, either for recycling or safe disposal. Thousands of residents and businesses use the online and regularly updated data base Metro Vancouver Recycles and it’s free app weRecycle.

Find more information on how Metro Vancouver manages waste. Of the 3.6 million tonnes of solid waste we produce annually in the Lower Mainland, about 55% is recycled. This includes recycling by residents, businesses and schools, and represents about 1.8 million tonnes. Recycling does more than reduce your garbage. Find more information on how Metro Vancouver works to increase recycling rates. Facility Tours. Recommended for Grade 8 or 10Cost: $200 Give your students the chance to do some real-world learning. Explore the state of the art Seymour Capilano Water Filtration Plant, the science of water treatment and green building technology. Discover alternative career choices and uncover what it takes to provide 2.3 million people with access to the best drinking water in the world. More Details • SCFP allows 1 program booking per week from October 6 to December 5, 2015• Teachers may choose the Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday for their program (earliest arrival on site is 8:30am) • Pre- and post-trip resources are available• $200 fee for a 2-hour program, $275 for a 4-hour program (includes the bus, resources, and staff presenter time)• Class size is limited to 32 students (2 volunteers max.) • The SCFP is located at 4400 Lillooet Rd. in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, 5km north of Capilano University in North Vancouver.

Sample Program Outline Curriculum Connections-Gr. 8. Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Chris Jordan - Midway. On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of thousands of dead baby albatrosses. The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean. For me, kneeling over their carcasses is like looking into a macabre mirror.

These birds reflect back an appallingly emblematic result of the collective trance of our consumerism and runaway industrial growth. Like the albatross, we first-world humans find ourselves lacking the ability to discern anymore what is nourishing from what is toxic to our lives and our spirits. Choked to death on our waste, the mythical albatross calls upon us to recognize that our greatest challenge lies not out there, but in here. ~cj, Seattle, February 2011 ALBATROSS film trailer.

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