Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Environmental strategy laid out in detailed document

WES could make resort a world leader in environmental stewardship From high level operating principles to simple daily practises, the Whistler Environmental Strategy has been set down on paper and adopted by council.

WES could make resort a world leader in environmental stewardship

From high level operating principles to simple daily practises, the Whistler Environmental Strategy has been set down on paper and adopted by council.

The thick document outlines the steps "to do our part" towards achieving environmental sustainability, said Dave Waldron, manager of environmental services, who presented the document to council on Monday night.

WES has been four years in the making and incorporates The Natural Step Framework as part of the guidelines for reaching sustainability.

Seeing WES adopted by council was a landmark day for some councillors.

Councillor Ken Melamed said the strategy was one of the greatest areas of satisfaction for him since he’s been on council.

All the councillors praised staff on the hard work that was done in bringing about the comprehensive strategy.

Eckhard Zeidler, one of the directors with the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment, said WES is potentially one of the most important documents in town.

"The key element is that it goes way beyond mere words," said Zeidler, who was at Monday’s council meeting.

He said there was a very strong sense after Waldron’s presentation that WES is a real working document, defining Whistler’s responsibility to sustainability through definitive goals and set tasks.

Some of those tasks have already been completed, like preserving the Emerald Forest and the River of Golden Dreams.

Other projects are in progress, like developing standards for a hierarchy of trails. This is currently in draft form with Community Services Department in the municipality.

And there are other projects planned for the future, like assessing the feasibility of a Whistler Environmental Research Centre.

"We recognize we have a long way to go but also realize how far we have come," said Melamed.

There are over 200 specific tasks listed in the document, which have been given status, priority and timelines. They are also subject for review to determine whether they have been working and whether they ultimately steer the community toward sustainability.

WES is a lofty document from its mission statement, which commits Whistler to being a world leader in environmental stewardship, to the eight operational principles, which act as high level guidelines.

In the more practical sense, WES defines three main topic areas or directions. Each of the three directions supports several goals and tasks.

The first of those directions is land use.

Waldron said the pattern of development and growth on any landscape could have a very dramatic impact on the environment.

"(It can have) drastic effects on the resources we consume," he said.

He posed the questions that what if everybody had sprawling single family homes in Whistler or if all the hotels where strip motels along the highway? How would this kind of land use affect Whistler?

To work towards sustainability in land use, WES defines specific goals. One of those goals is establishing and maintaining a Protected Areas Network within the municipality. This would be the most significant contribution to protecting remaining biodiversity, said Waldron.

It would protect critical habitat and wildlife habitat corridors as well as maintain healthy streams, lakes, wetlands and riparian area.

Put in practical terms some of the tasks to work towards this goal would include establishing watershed management plans for area creeks and implementing ecological monitoring for the Rainbow Conservation Area.

The second major WES direction is infrastructure.

Waldron said there is a shift within communities in infrastructure management. They are no longer looking at impact mitigation in the form of better landfills or water treatment plants. Instead, they are looking at impact mitigation at the start of a cycle though efficient uses, re-using and recycling.

The municipality has done a lot of work here, especially in its efforts to build a more sustainable transportation network.

WES encourages more of that work, like enhancing inter-city travel options, and looking into the viability of an additional train station.

One of the other goals under infrastructure is improving materials and solid waste management.

Specifically the municipality has set out to develop a "re-use-it" and "waste exchange" program, site and building.

Waldron said it would be "like a dating service for stuff."

Another major goal in this direction is sustainable energy use and air quality.

Of the greenhouse gases produced in Whistler, 49 per cent come from passenger vehicles, 30 per cent from commercial and institutional sources, 12 per cent comes from residences, and 9 per cent comes from the municipality (of that 9 per cent, 7 per cent comes from the landfill.)

The community as a whole spends $48 million annually on energy.

Waldron posed the question: what if the community could achieve a 10 per cent reduction on energy use?

Put in practical terms, one of the tasks set out in WES is to prepare a community energy strategy. The Draft Final of the Community Energy Plan has been finalized but has yet to be presented to council.

The last of the three main WES directions is implementation.

One of the main goals in this direction is creating a leading municipal organization, which other organizations can emulate and work towards.

Waldron said the municipality has already taken on this role, from two-sided photocopying to experimenting with push lawn mowers and drinking organic coffee.

Another main goal under implementation is to create an environmentally-aware resort community. The municipality spearheaded the Whistler. It’s Our Nature Speaker Series and is now putting on community workshops as part of Whistler. It’s Our Future.

The WES has another goal: to be continuously improving on the existing tasks and goals. In this way, the municipality would set tasks, then implement them, take measure, evaluate and report. And finally review.

Zeidler thinks this is one of the defining aspects of WES.

"It’s fluid but it’s based on real first order principles of sustainability," he said.

"That will not change."

He says the document could totally evolve as the community changes but at the core of the strategy is the four System Conditions of The Natural Step.

The System Conditions state that, in a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing:

1. Concentrations of substances extracted from the earth’s crust;

2. Concentrations of substances produced by society;

3. Degradation by physical means, and;

4. In a sustainable society, human needs are met world-wide.

"Those four system conditions define a sustainable society and that’s not going to change," he said.

"The world could change entirely but the system conditions still ring true."

In this way he sees the WES as a document that could be used by future councils to guide Whistler’s path to sustainability. And he hopes future councils carry on the same work.