Climate Change and COVID-19

 Help fight climate change from home with these easy tips!

• Relocate your workspace around natural light to avoid the use of artificial lighting
• Reduce food waste by storing food properly to avoid early spoilage  
• Opt out of plastic cutlery, plates and extra sauce packets from your takeout order 
• Skip the dry cycle on your dishwasher
• Wash and sort recyclables prior to tossing them in the blue bin. Use the What Goes Where tool if you are unsure if an item is recyclable or not
• Cool and store leftover water from boiled vegetables or pasta to water your plants
• Turn down the air conditioning and open up windows on cool, breezy evenings

City of Vaughan has declared a climate emergency

See the full text of the City’s declaration

The City joins a growing list of cities worldwide (including 31 Canadian municipalities) who have deepened their commitment to climate action by declaring a climate emergency.

• Green Directions Vaughan 2019 was approved by Council in December 2019.
• Council approved the Local Improvement Charges (LIC) Feasibility Study, as an initiative demonstrating progress on climate change, and endorsed a draft implementing by-law. Staff are evaluating next steps to capitalize a home energy retrofit program. Learn more about Vaughan's LIC Study.
• Review of the Sustainability Performance Metrics in collaboration with the City of Markham, City of Richmond Hill and City of Brampton is complete. Staff are assisting in preparing the Completion Report.
• The City is working with ClimateWise Business Network to engage the owners of commercial floor space in Vaughan to improve compliance to the Energy and Water Reporting of Buildings (EWRB) regulation.
• The City and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority are partnering to bring a Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Program (SNAP) to Thornhill. SNAP is about neighbourhood revitalization to make our communities more sustainable and aims to identify innovative solutions to community risks and challenges. 
• The City is participating in the Youth Challenge International’s Innovate MY Future program. Through the Innovate MY Future program, Canadian youth across the GTHA have the opportunity to take action on local climate issues and design youth-led projects to make a real difference in their communities. Registration for youth climate action catalyst team members is now open – until July 19 – at youthclimateaction.ca 
• The Vaughan Official Plan Review (OPR) is underway and will include a Climate Adaptation and Resilience Framework as a supporting study.

Partners for Climate Protection

Green Directions Vaughan, the City's Community Sustainability and Environmental Master Plan states that the City will promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by identifying and working with partners to evaluate the community's greenhouse gas emissions.

The City of Vaughan is a proud member of the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program. The PCP framework is widely used throughout Canada to audit GHG emissions, identify how GHG emissions can be reduced and demonstrate measurable results for GHG emission reductions. It is a performance-based milestone model, which allows for flexibility regarding goals, timelines and targets.

The PCP Program is a partnership between the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability. The City of Vaughan was the 206th Canadian municipality to join the PCP Framework.

The PCP program addresses emissions that result from corporate and community activities:

Corporate emissions result from actions taken by the City to provide services to its citizens. Emissions from buildings, vehicle fleets, streetlights, water/sewage and waste are quantified by the PCP program.

Community emissions result from the activities of citizens throughout the community. Emissions from Residential, Institutional, Commercial, Industrial, Transportation, and Solid Waste sectors are identified by the PCP program.

The City of Vaughan has already made progress on several of the PCP program milestones:

Milestone One: Create a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and forecast.

• Vaughan has completed the first milestone with its submission through a report ratified by Vaughan Council in June 2013.

Milestone Two: Set an emissions reduction target.

• With the greenhouse gas emissions inventory and forecast now complete, the City of Vaughan is now working towards setting emissions reduction targets.

Milestone Three: Develop a local action plan.

• At a corporate level, the Environmental Sustainability Office is working closely with the Building & Facilities Department to explore energy conservation opportunities in our facilities as we move toward implementing our energy conservation and demand management plan as per O.Reg. 397/11 requirements.
• At a community level, the City of Vaughan has developed a Community Climate Action Plan which involved engaging the community through the creation of a multi-stakeholder steering committee, hosting an open community forum and launching an on-line community platform.

Milestone Four: Implementing the local action plan.

• The City of Vaughan is responsible for facilitating implementation of the Community Climate Action Plan and maintaining momentum. The stakeholder group meets regularly to discuss the progress on implementation of specific action items outlined in the Plan.

Community Climate Action Plan For Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Municipal governments are taking action on climate change, and rightly so: communities are the places we live, work, and play; and the effects of climate change will be most acutely felt at the local level. Taking action through the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program, the City of Vaughan conducted a comprehensive audit of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Vaughan.

 
 
Community GHG Emissions by Sector Community GHG Emissions by Source

When it comes to climate protection, all parts of the community - residential, commercial and institutional, industrial, solid waste and other sectors - have tremendous potential to reduce greenhouse gases. Turning to the community to help drive this effort, the City of Vaughan, in partnership with a multi-disciplinary team at Lura Consulting, initiated the next phase in its proactive approach to climate protection through the creation of a Community Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Read the Community Climate Action Plan below.

Creating the Community Climate Action Plan

From September 2013 to January 2014, the City began to develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Engaging a wide variety of local stakeholders - from businesses to community groups to engaged citizens - the City sought valuable input and expertise, actions and implementation plans to help craft a successful "made-in-Vaughan" approach to tackling climate change.

1) Our Stakeholder Steering Committee

This guiding committee was comprised of approximately 40 individuals representing over 30 different businesses, institutions and non-profit organizations operating in Vaughan. Meeting approximately once a month between September 2013 and January 2014, the Steering Committee helped to guide and refine the vision and goals of this GHG emissions reduction effort; draft over 85 sector-specific GHG reduction targets; and outline a community implementation plan for 2014. Key Steering Committee project documents and presentations can be found below:

• Steering Committee Toolkit
• Steering Committee Terms of Reference
• Steering Committee Meeting #1 Presentation - September 2013
• Steering Committee Meeting #1 Summary Notes - September 2013
• Steering Committee Meeting #2 Presentation - October 2013
• Steering Committee Meeting #3 Presentation - December 2013
• Steering Committee Meeting #4 Presentation - January 2014

2) Open Community Forum and Online Idea-Sharing via IdeaScale

In November 2013 an open Community Forum was held at Vaughan City Hall to engage Vaughan citizens in community action planning to reduce GHG emissions. The Forum was co-hosted with Vaughan's Natural Heritage Network Study. Members of the public were invited to get involved, share opinions and ideas and learn more about the two projects and how they both relate to Green Directions Vaughan, the Community Sustainability and Environmental Master Plan. Following the open Community Forum, the public was encouraged to continue to offer their thoughts, opinions and ideas on the over 85 proposed sector-specific GHG reduction actions online via IdeaScale - an online idea-sharing platform designed to capture community expertise and innovations.

Initiatives arising from this Community Climate Action Plan will work to reduce overall GHG emissions in Vaughan while positively impacting the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the community.
Interested in finding out more?
Want to get involved?
Contact environment@vaughan.ca.