Sustainability Strategy

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What is the Sustainability Strategy?

The Comox Valley Sustainability Strategy (CVSS) is a regional plan that creates new knowledge and guides approaches to sustainability for communities in the Comox Valley. The CVSS is a tool for:

  • generating innovative actions
  • guiding future policy decisions of regional/local governments
  • mobilizing community resources
  • inspiring collaboration

The CVSS is the result of collaboration between the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD), the City of Courtenay, the Town of Comox and the Village of Cumberland, as well as input by dedicated community members and review by the public and various government agencies.

View the Comox Valley Sustainability Strategy

Goals of the Sustainability Strategy

The key goal of the strategy is to create collaboration and learning between all citizens, organizations and governments that are currently active in the Comox Valley, and inspire new programs, policies, partnerships and technologies that will ultimately contribute to a sustainable region.

More specifically, the CVSS outlines targets for the year 2050 in globally significant topic areas, including: climate, energy, water, ecosystems, food, economy, and society. For example, the climate target for 2050 states:

The Comox Valley will reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from 2007 levels with the following milestone targets:

  • 2020 – 33% (BC legislated)
  • 2030 – 50%
  • 2040 – 65%
  • 2050 – 80%

The strategy then lays out how to make progress towards these global sustainability targets through goals, objectives, phased targets and actions.

Sustainability Strategy in Action

The CVRD has several projects/initiatives underway to help meet sustainability goals, including:

Airshed Roundtable Project: The overall purpose of this project is to collaboratively develop and implement a Regional Airshed Protection Strategy to guide actions moving forward and ultimately improve air quality in the Comox Valley.

Coastal Flood Mapping: The CVRD is completing coastal flood mapping of the entire CVRD geographic area in order to gain a complete picture of sea level rise in the region and enable better planning around hazards and future flood mitigation.

To learn more about actions the CVRD is taking towards sustainability visit the Environment services page.

What’s the Difference between the Sustainability Strategy and the Regional Growth Strategy?

Both the CVSS and the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) look to the future, and both strategies are about improving the quality of life and the environment in Comox Valley. As a result, the two sets of strategies are complementary.

The Sustainability Strategy focuses on establishing specific environmental principles and related regional and municipal actions, while the RGS focuses on the overall pattern of land use in the Comox Valley and the creation of a sustainable human settlement pattern. More specifically, the CVSS helps meet goal #4 of the RGS: to minimize regional greenhouse gas emissions and plan for adaptation.

Finally, the RGS is a mandated regulatory document, whereas the Comox Valley Sustainability Strategy is a guidance document for long-term community sustainability.

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