Green cart award for city

Published: June 25, 2007

Hamilton’s green cart program has won an award from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) for “municipal leadership in sustainable community development”. It was one of ten municipal projects recognized at this year’s FCM conference from among 55 applications.

The award announcement says green carts have gone out to 150,000 households and generated 22,565 tonnes of material in the first six months, bumping up the home waste diversion rate to 55 percent compared to 33 percent before the program started.

“This recognition speaks volumes to the City of Hamilton’s commitment to be leaders in environmental stewardship,” said Mayor Eisenberger in a media release. “It is a proud moment to see Hamilton’s Green Cart Program being recognized as being one of Canada’s top 10 greenest projects.”

Hamilton was one of two winners in the waste category, sharing honours with the town of Ladysmith which last year became the first British Columbia community to offer curb-side organic pickup.

The York region town of East Gwillimbury won in the residential development category for becoming the first municipality in Canada to require all new housing subdivisions to meet or exceed the Energy Star standards that are said to generate reductions of 30-40 percent in greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption.

York region itself was honoured for its VIVA bus rapid transit system launched in 2005 along six routes of existing roads. The system is intended to support mixed-use transit villages along its 80 kilometres of corridors which increased ridership along its 80 km of corridors and succeeded in increasing public transit use by 35 percent in the first year of operation.

The other Ontario winner was the city of Toronto for funding a pilot project of 16 green roofs on a mix of public and private buildings. The city expects the roofs will reduce stormwater runoff, lower energy demands, diminish urban heat island effects and help beautify Toronto.

The awards are co-sponsored by consulting company CH2M Hill and are selected by a judges panel chosen by FCM.

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Author: CATCH News