section_path: Sustainability
section_name: Sustainability
paragraph_text: Sustainability
  
  The City of Vancouver is a member of Metro Vancouver, which provides sustainable regional services to the Greater Vancouver area. The city electrical grid is serviced by BC Hydro, which claims 97.8% of the energy it generates is clean owing to the extensive use of hydroelectric power generation. The City of Vancouver is the greenest city in Canada according to an independent ongoing urban ecological footprint study.
  
  The Greenest City action plan (GCAP) is a City of Vancouver urban sustainability initiative. Its primary mission was to ensure Vancouver would become the greenest city in the world by 2020. The GCAP originated based on the 2009 work of the Greenest City Action Team, a committee co-chaired by Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson. The GCAP was approved by Vancouver city council in July 2011.
  
  In May 2018, the Zero Waste 2040 Strategy was passed The city began work the same year on decreasing the amount of single-use items distributed in the city. It intends to ban these items by 2021 if businesses do not meet reduction targets. As part of the plan, a ban on plastic straws, polystyrene food packaging and free shopping bags was to go into effect in mid-2019.
  
  In January 2022, the city council passed a regulation mandating that businesses charge a $0.25 fee on single-use cups. This decision was criticized because the fees stayed within the business and were not re-invested in city-wide environmental efforts. On March 28, 2023, the council enacted a by-law that repealed all single-use cup fees.