For the second consecutive year, the City of Ottawa has been recognized among Canada’s Greenest Employers based on an evaluation of its workplace environmental programs, according to a special feature published in today’s Globe and Mail. This award highlights the City’s commitment to environmentally-friendly programs and initiatives.
Some of the initiatives that earned the City of Ottawa this recognition include:
- The City is one of Canada’s most progressive cities when it comes to long-range transportation planning. For example, the City manages the Ottawa Pedestrian Plan, which has a stated goal of creating a “world-class” pedestrian city. The City recently updated its Ottawa Cycling Plan to include the addition of segregated bike lanes downtown.
- The City’s Official Plan includes measures to enhance the quality of the natural environment, such as plans to address air quality and climate change, environmental management, green spaces for public use, infrastructure, transportation, water resources and wildlife management strategies.
- The City maintains a Green Building Policy to ensure that all newly constructed City buildings greater than 500 square metres are designed to a minimum LEED certification standard – the City currently has 23 buildings that have achieved LEED certification, including Gold and Silver certifications.
Quotes
"Ottawa is a sustainable, innovative and clean city that is committed to the environment. We are moving forward on significant green projects like Light Rail Transit, the conversion of 58,000 streetlights to LED technology and the installation of eight solar rooftops on municipal building. These projects are just a few examples of how the City is shifting how things are done to benefit residents, save money and protect the environment for years to come.”
Mayor Jim Watson
"The City is committed to improving air quality, increasing energy conservation and energy efficiency, and supporting renewable energy generation wherever possible. In 2016 we also began construction on the largest wastewater project in our city’s history – the Combined Sewage Storage Tunnel – which will have long-term benefits on the preservation and sustainability of our local water systems.”
Councillor David Chernushenko, Chair of the City’s Environment and Climate Change Committee
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