Environment

As we continue to grow, we must protect our environment. We need to build up rather than out, to ensure that our City is not only prosperous today but is also there for our children and grandchildren in the future.

Good environmental stewardship is important to Waterloo’s future, as we all want to live in a place we can enjoy today and our children and grandchildren can enjoy for decades to come. City Council plays an important role in guiding how and where the city grows, how we manage and protect our water systems, how each of us gets from place to place, and what public spaces each of us can use to live and play.

When we finalize the City’s official plan, we need to make sure we have the right strategy to focus our future growth to build up rather than out, because the land not already planned for development is critical for protecting our groundwater. We also need to support alternative modes of transportation and guide future development so that more people can choose to walk, bike, or take public transit to get where they’re going efficiently and safely.

Good environmental stewardship can also contribute to a more fiscally responsible City, both now and for the future. When the City uses less water, less gas, and less energy, it doesn’t just save the City money. It also conserves these resources for future generations. And it reduces smog and other impacts that negatively affect our quality of life today. The City is leading by example through its participation as an “observing organization” of Sustainable Waterloo, a local organization that helps businesses reduce their environmental impacts while lowering their financial costs.

I support the City’s past efforts to put the environment first, from the green roof at City Hall and efforts to protect our ground water, to the more recent energy conservation initiatives and the planting of 10,000 trees in our community.

In committing to reduce its own impact and its financial costs, the City has an opportunity to increasingly live its commitment to put environment first. I will work with Council to make sure that we build on our environmental leadership and create a community that is not only prosperous, but sustainable.