Greening the Corporation of Vaughan

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Greening the Corporation of Vaughan

Employee Engagement

All of The Employee Environmental Education Internal Advisory Team (IAT) consisting of eight employees from various City departments, meets regularly to provide input on the Environmental Sustainability Employee Education Strategy.

All of the initiatives within the Strategy help build the foundation for a strong environmental ethic among employees. Some of the highlights of the early successes achieved include:

Vaughan Unplugged. A week long campaign to challenge employees to unplug non-networked electronics in the office
Take the Stairs Challenge. Partnered with the Recreation & Culture Department and the internal United Way team to integrate an environmental component to a month long challenge event. Staff were encouraged to improve physical fitness and reduce environmental impact by logging the number of stairs climbed to reduce elevator usage .
20-Minute Makeover. Departmental staff teams participate in the annual litter pick-up program at high traffic parks and public spaces throughout the City
Caught Green Handed. A new employee recognition program that thanks employees who take action to minimize environmental impact through a green e-card.
Employee Education webpage. An internal website used to convey information about key programs, activities, a tip of the week, a success story of an internal department, the benefits of being green at work, and a resource centre.
Newsletter. The other communication tool that has been effective in delivering key messages to staff has been the Eco-Compass Newsletter. The quarterly Newsletter was initiated in December 2010 contains information items such as new programs, book reviews, a 'did you know' feature and staff success stories

Green Buildings

Green Buildings are key to urban environmental sustainability is establishing a sustainable built form. The City of Vaughan continues to set the bar high for construction of green buildings with the adoption of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

Buildings are LEED certified with the Canadian Green Building Council using a scorecard rating system. Points are awarded based upon performance in six key areas of human and environmental health:

Sustainable Sites
Water Efficiency
Energy & Atmosphere
Materials & Resources
Indoor Environmental Quality
Innovation & Design Process

The total number of points determines if the project is certified as silver, gold or platinum level.The following City of Vaughan buildings have achieved, or are pursuing, LEED certification.

Vaughan City Hall - LEEDing by Example
Vaughan Fire Rescue Station 7-9

Vaughan Fire Rescue Station 7-10

Other Initiatives

City Hall Tours. Created a five station tour stop identifying key attributes of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. In the past eight months, close to 700 visitors have participated in the tour. Eight staff from various departments volunteered to take the training and commit to memory the tour script.
Green Fleet Strategy. Council approved a Green Fleet Strategy, which also involved investigated the feasibility of partnering with other municipalities in a Pure Electric Vehicle Municipal Feasibility Program. Staff driver training continued to be a prominent area of the Green Fleet Strategy.

In house waste reduction activities. The new City Hall, which became home to 500+ employees in March 2011, introduced a three stream waste diversion program consisting organics, recyclables and waste stream. At the City’s ten community centres, seven libraries, nine fire halls and operations yards, two stream waste diversion is in place
Thought leadership project - Embedding Sustainability in Municipal Culture. Along with nine other Canadian municipalities, the City of Vaughan provided examples to the Natural Step on integrating relevant language and best practices on embedding sustainability into the culture of municipalities. The Natural Step produced a guidance document that was shared with municipal governments across Canada in September 2011.

Contact Information

Phone:
905-832-2281
905-832-8585

TTY:
905-832-8585

Email:
environment@vaughan.ca

Location:
City Hall
Level 200
2141 Major Mackenzie Drive
Vaughan
L6A 1T1

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