City Exceeds Targets for Preserving Natural Areas, Cutting Pesticides

EcoVision

June 11, 2010

The City of Edmonton has reduced pesticide use to the lowest levels in 17 years and secured more than 240 football-fields equivalent of natural areas, according to the 2009 EcoVision Annual Report. At the same time, the city’s continued growth has limited progress on air pollutants and greenhouse gas reduction.
 
The report, to be presented to City Council’s Executive Committee on June 16, measures Edmonton’s sustainability targets in five key areas: air, climate, land, water and environmental management.

“The EcoVision Annual Report is an important tool the City of Edmonton uses to ensure we stay on track with our goals to preserve and sustain our natural environment,” says Deputy City Manager Joyce Tustian. “This eco report shows our progress on issues that are very important to Edmontonians, and demonstrates our accountability and commitment for continuous improvement.”

The report includes measures of city operations as well as citizen progress in some areas. For example, citizens reduced residential waste going to landfill last year, while City operations reduced use of toxic substances such as pesticides and herbicides, and reduced air pollutants from the transit fleet.

While the City has increased the amount of natural areas being preserved – 30 hectares more than targeted, the report cautions that too much natural area continues to be lost to urban sprawl. The water category gets high marks for citizens and city operations decreasing water consumption, while the climate and air categories continue to fall short of targets due to increases in greenhouse gas emissions caused by Edmonton’s urban growth and personal single-vehicle commuting. The City’s overall environmental management system continues to maintain and increase internationally recognized certification (ISO 14001). 
 
Areas where the City is targeting improvement include increasing housing density; increasing waste diversion rates (which was lower than targeted in 2009 due to temporary shut down of the composting facility for upgrades); and greenhouse gas emissions.

EcoVision Annual Report 2009 reports on 17 priority objectives contained in the 2006 Environmental Strategic Plan. This plan is being updated with public and expert consultation in 2010 to become The Way We Green – a visionary strategy for making Edmonton the nation’s leader in setting and achieving the highest standards of environmental preservation and sustainability both in its own practices and by encouraging and enabling the practices of its partners.

The full EcoVision Annual Report is available at www.edmonton.ca/ecovision
The project to update the Environmental Strategic Plan: www.TheWayWeGreen.ca

 

For more information:

Mary-Ann Thurber

City of Edmonton
Environment Office
Title Communications Officer
Telephone

780-442-1698
Email maryann.thurber@edmonton.ca
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