Going Carbon Free: Vancouver Builds a Green Economy

March 15, 2018 | Adaptive Futures, Carbon-Free Advantage, Cities, Climate Innovation Laboratory Cities, Consumption Reduction, Green Branding, Renewable Energy, Urban Climate Innovation, Urban Transformation
by Pete Plastrik

The creative destruction of the fossil-fuel energy sector that is underway offers cities unique economic opportunities, as well as the pain of a massive transition. Few cities have done more than Vancouver to convert the opportunities into short-term economic activity and long-term positioning in the emerging renewable energy economy -- as made clear by the city's new performance report, "State of the Green Economy 2018."

The first thing to notice in the report is the economic sectors that are growing: green buildings and clean tech. The green building sector has developed deep expertise in building envelope performance, while the city and the province of British Columbia have adopted some of the toughest green building standards in the world. The clean tech sector covers clean-energy production, management and storage; water treatment and management; material efficiency and circular economy; advanced materials development; green agritech; and clean transportation. Province-wide, clean tech companies raised $6 billion in equity investment between 2011 and 2017.

The report notes that "green job growth includes both new and transitional jobs. New jobs come from market expansion and growth, while transitional jobs are existing jobs in traditional sectors that have become green due to changed norms and practices (e.g. construction changes due to greener building codes). On average, 40 percent of growth in green jobs each year may be attributed to new jobs, while 60 percent of growth is due to transitional jobs."

It also points to some of the fundamentals for urban success in the emerging economy:

• Branding--"Vancouver has a global reputation as a leading clean and green economy"
• Talent -- Large numbers of highly educated people who become green-business entrepreneurs and employees and want to live in a sustainable city.

The report has much more information that other cities may find useful for developing strategies and indicators of their standing and progress in the economy that is coming.