Report by: Pietra Basilij Mentored by: Juvarya Veltkamp

Initial Report: September 2013Updated: June 2014

GREEN ENTERPRISE ZONEQUICK-START ROADMAP

VANCOUVER ECONOMIC COMMISSION

Report Topic:Project scoping & preparatory groundwork for stimulating the growth of a green enterprise zone in the False Creek Flats industrial area.

Vancouver’s 2020 Greenest City Action PlanGreen Economy Goal: Secure Vancouver’s international reputation as a mecca of green enterprise for 2020.Green Economy Targets: Double the number of green jobs over 2010 levels AND double the number of businesses engaged in greening their operations over 2010 levels.

Live DocumentInitially prepared for September 2013, this report has undergone a number of iterations as new information and timelines have presented themselves. This version was updated in June 2014.

Location: Vancouver, BC

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Establishing the Greenest Place to Work in the World

Within Vancouver’s 2020 Greenest City Action Plan, one of the priority actions for achieving the Green Economy Goal is to establish a Green Enterprise Zone (GEZ) in the False Creek Flats industrial area. This area would showcase green innovation, feature green buildings and green infrastructure, support sustainability-related industries, and evolve to become the ‘greenest place to work in the world’.

As a project that involves a huge number of stakeholders and spans the domains of economic development, urban planning, design, engineering, and social enterprise, forming a Green Enterprise Zone faces a number of preliminary challenges. These include establishing leadership roles and accountability structures, finding launching points from which the project can gain traction, and engaging the business community to help drive the transition from a traditional industrial zone to an innovative green enterprise zone.

This report addresses some of these challenges by outlining some immediate actions the Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) can take to seed and support the transformation of the False Creek Flats into the greenest place to work in the world.

The actions identified through this report were derived through a series of interviews with business owners in the False Creek Flats which targeted the most prevalent industry types and business sectors. In conjunction with ongoing business engagement activities in the area, these interviews acted as a pilot project to uncover current economic drivers, challenges, and opportunities in “the Flats”. The interviews were focused on capturing perspectives from key business clusters that could provide substantial insight into the wider business community.

The feedback received throughout the interview process revealed a number of opportunities for both individual businesses and entire business clusters. These included opportunities to expand and attract upcycling-related businesses, to share resources and information to reduce redundancies, and to use collective marketing and communications to help build capacity and awareness within a business sector.

Three key roles emerged for the VEC in its pursuit to support and stimulate the transformation of the Flats into the greenest place to work in the world.

Targeted Engagement – Advocate for and engage businesses in the local area planning process, visioning for the future of the Flats, and implementation of the many programs and transformations that will take the Flats from a traditional industrial zone to an innovative, green workplace.

Demonstration & Business Development — Leverage opportunities in the False Creek Flats to showcase and demonstrate sustainable products/services, cleantech innovations, and innovative green business models, while building a strong support & partnership network for green innovation.

Telling the Story — Activate the Flats through spreading a cohesive message about green enterprise opportunities in the area, innovative greening practices that are already underway, and the vision for the future of the Flats in order to attract the attention of the local and international (green) business community.

The quick-start actions in each of these roles that are identified in this report involve starting with what’s available, sending a signal about the transformation of the Flats, and planning for the future.

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1.0 BACKGROUND

The False Creek Flats

Local Policy + Green Neighbourhoods

The Green Economy

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CONTENTS

2.0 BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT

Information Gathering

Interview Overview

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3.0 QUICK-START ROADMAP

Opportunities Overview

Targeted Engagement

Demonstration & Development

Telling the Story

Summary: Quick-Start Action Plan

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4.0 CONCLUSION ............................................ 24

5.0 REFERENCES ............................................. 25

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VEC — Vancouver Economic Commission

LAP — Local Area Plan

GCAP — Greenest City Action Plan

VEAS — Vancouver Economic Action Strategy

GEZ — Green Enterprise Zone

FCF — False Creek Flats

BACKGROUND

The False Creek Flats

The False Creek Flats are bounded by Main Street to the west, Prior Street to the north, Clark Drive to the east and Great Northern Way to the south (Figure 1). Encompassing approximately 300 acres of land in the center of the city, the Flats are inhabited almost exclusively by businesses, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and public services. As the industrial core of the city, the Flats are home to over 500 businesses and more than 8000 jobs, the majority of which are in service, wholesale, and manufacturing industries.1 Many of these industries are located in the Flats to serve clients in the downtown and its surrounding neighbourhoods.

Although these industrial lands need to be protected under Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy2, the shape of industry in the False Creek Flats is rapidly changing. While textile, food, and automobile -related sectors remain strong, recent years have brought signifcant growth in the digital media, education, professional services, and arts & culture sectors. Several factors are now contributing to the significant amount of attention and energy being directed to the False Creek Flats by both the City and the local business community:

• The introduction of several educational institutions, art galleries, and studios to the Flats promises a huge influx of students, as well as intellectual and creative capital to the area.

• The City’s support for a number of hub facilities, including a recycling hub, arts hub, and food hub in the Flats demonstrates an openness to, and support for, innovative forms of development & colocation.

• Rising land values, combined with diminishing job lands, make the Flats one of the last remaining industrial zones with significant redevelopment potential in Vancouver.

1 Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre. False Creek Flats Business Sector Data Set, derived from bus. license data, 2013.

2 Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy, pg 27.

Despite these changes, the built environment of the False Creek Flats still reflects its traditional industrial zoning. It is dominated by warehouses, multi-story office buildings, and significant rail and highway infrastructure. While many of the City service facilities and office structures in the area are relatively new constructions, the overall impression the Flats gives off is that of an aging industrial zone, plagued by poorly maintained buildings, yards, and infrastructures, yet ripe for creative new development.3

In recent years, a vision has been put forward for the Flats to become the ‘greenest place to work in the world’. As a formal tidal flat, the area was once an ecologically significant gathering ground for several First Nations and the terminus for a number of freshwater streams. Today, the streams have been channeled underground, but the Flats remain a water collection zone and continue to be a food production space for urban farmers.

Since the Flats were originally filled to create additional rail terminals, large swaths of rail cut through the area in both the north-south and east-west directions. Although active, these rails are no longer operating at their intended capacities and have since been mirrored by major arterial streets. This infrastructure limits the connectivity between the Flats and its surrounding neighbourhoods, but it also serves as an important connection mechanism for those industries moving large quantities of material into and out of the downtown core.

Filling the Flats not only enabled centralized industrial development in Vancouver, it also left behind a legacy of City-owned land.4 Today, these lands present an incredible opportunity for the City to lead renewal in the Flats through creative, sustainable, and replicable redevelopment models.

3 Derived from “Words to Describe the False Creek Flats” exercise at the Green Enterprise Initiative Business Workshop held in the False Creek Flats on June 20, 2013.

4 Eastern Core Statement of Significance, pg 30

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Figure 1: The False Creek Flats within a Local & City-Wide Context

Maps from:Metro Vancouver 2010 Industrial Lands Inventory.

Donald Luxton Eastern Core Statement of Significance, 2013.

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GREAT NORTHERN WAY

industrial zoned land

False Creek Flats boundary

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Former Streams and shorelines of Vancouver

Map from: Paul Lesack, UBC

False Creek Flats

BACKGROUND

Local Policy + Green Neighbourhoods

Within Vancouver’s 2020 Greenest City Action Plan and Economic Action Strategy one of the priority actions for achieving the Green Economy Goal is to establish a Green Enterprise Zone (GEZ) in the False Creek Flats industrial area. This area would showcase green innovation, feature green buildings and green infrastructure, support sustainability-related industries, and evolve to become the ‘greenest place to work in the world’.

As a first step, Vancouver City Council has put forward a directive for the Planning Department and the Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) to partner in the local area planning process for the False Creek Flats.1 This represents an opportunity to pioneer a new kind of working relationship between economic development and planning and to engage with a diverse business community throughout the planning of its physical and economic transformation.

Within this context, it is the VEC’s role to identify an overarching economic strategy for the False Creek Flats. Business consultation in the Flats along with outside research will be strong drivers of this strategy; however, several other significant city-wide plans and strategies will also be considered throughout its development. Chief among these are the Greenest City Action Plan, the Vancouver Economic Action Strategy, and the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy. (See figure 2 for more detail on City of Vancouver strategic alignment).

Partnering with City Planning on a local area plan for the Flats presents a number of opportunities for the VEC to hold the business banner throughout the planning process. These include helping form the story and branding of the False Creek Flats; applying the lens of attracting businesses, employees & investment to the planning process; and influencing policy based on the spatial and regulatory needs of existing businesses.

1 Brian Jackson, Report on Eastern Core Planning: June 25, 2013.

There is currently no Business Improvement Association or equivalent governance structure in place in the False Creek Flats to represent the businesses in a unified manner. Thus, the VEC has a role not only in holding the business banner throughout the planning process, but also in seeding and supporting the types of programs and partnerships that will lead to the successful implementation of a green enterprise zone.

Sometimes referred to as ‘Eco-Business Zones’, ‘Eco-Industrial Parks’, or ‘Industrial Eco-Districts’, Green Enterprise Zones are geographic areas in which a systems approach is taken to planning and development. This systems approach implies prioritizing the relationships between various components of the neighbourhood over individual cultural, ecological, industrial, or transportation issues in pursuit of a more efficient and effective use of resources. At its most basic, a Green Enterprise Zone is a geographically-based initiative involving the collaboration of businesses, governments, and communities to decrease the waste of materials, energy, land, and infrastructure, and to increase ecological performance, human health, and social capital. Ideally, the result of partnering with City Planning throughout the LAP process while simultaneously working with the business community on green enterprise focused initiatives will be the create the following:

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A Local Area Plan that supports

the aspirations of the economic

strategy

An Engaged Business & Land

Owner Community, ready to implement

change on the ground

A high level economic strategy

in support of green enterprise

development

BACKGROUND

Establish a Green Enterprise Zone; Develop a Zero Waste Hub; Grow Green Jobs; Green Business Operations

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Figure 2: Strategic Alignment in the False Creek Flats

Figure 3: Breakdown of the GCAP Green Economy Goal

RELEVANT CITY PLAN / STRATEGY

EXAMPLE OBJECTIVES THATLAND IN THE FLATS

GREENEST CITY ACTION PLAN

ECONOMIC ACTION STRATEGY

REGIONAL GROWTH STRATEGY

DIGITAL STRATEGY

FOOD STRATEGY

Promote Innovation Zones; Support Creative & Green Economies; Support Talent & Workforce Development

Protect Industrial & Mixed Employment Lands

Land a Centre of Excellence in Urban Food

Support Digital + Smart City Infrastructure; Support a climate for growth in the digital sector

GOALVision

GREEN ECONOMYVancouver Globally Reputed as a Mecca of Green Enterprise

TARGETMeasure

TARGET 1: Double Number of Green Jobs

(from 2010 to 2020)

TARGET 2:Double Companies Involved in

Greening Operations

FOCUSObjective

NEW ROLES:

Increase the number of green roles in traditional

sectors

NEW BUSINESSES:

Increase the number & size of businesses in green sectors

INACTIVE BUSINESSES:Increase number

of businesses engaged in greening

ACTIVE BUSINESSES:Increase number

and scale of greening activities

BACKGROUND

The Green Economy

Within Vancouver’s 2020 Greenest City Action Plan, two targets were established under the green economy goal of making Vancouver a globally reputed mecca of green enterprise. The first is to double the number of green jobs over 2010 levels, and the second is to double the number of businesses involved in greening their operations over 2010 levels. Figure 3 demonstrates how these green economy targets can be broken down further into four objectives.

The green economy component of establishing a Green Enterprise Zone can also be broken down according to these two targets. In doing so, two channels of investigation emerge: The first is the retention, expansion, and attraction of green sector businesses, and the second is the engagement of traditional sector businesses in greening their operations.

Figure 4 demonstrates how each of these channels demands a different lens when investigating the Flats.

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GOALVision

GREEN ENTERPRISE ZONEFalse Creek Flats as ‘greenest place to work in the world’

ECONOMIC AGENDAActivity Focus

GROW GREEN SECTORS: Retain, Expand, and Attract businesses in

green sectors

ENGAGE TRADITIONAL SECTORS:Engage existing businesses in greening

their operations

FOCUS AREASObjectives

ACTIVITIES:Develop an environment

conducive to green innovation;

Build green talent;Attract new green

investment & capital

SECTORS: - cleantech

- materials mgmt- sustainability services / edu- landscape & remediation

- green building & construction

ACTIVITIES:Locate common

challenges & opportunities for

greening operations;

Develop appropriate support mechanisms

for greening

SECTORS:- food

- textiles + fashion- arts & culture

- production/mfging- digital media &

software

STRATEGYMethodology

OPPORTUNITIES ANALYSIS:SWOT assessment

GAP ANALYSIS:unmet needs assessment

Figure 4: Breakdown of the Green Enterprise Zone Economic Development Goal

BACKGROUND

BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT

Information Gathering

Several engagement and analysis activities have already taken place in the False Creek Flats in attempt to better understand the area and its business community. The interview process that was used to craft most of the suggestions in this report was shaped by these early activities. They influenced who was interviewed, the purpose of the interviews, and the topics that were addressed. This section looks at how businesses in the False Creek Flats have been engaged to date, answering:

• Who led the engagement activities and for what purposes?

• How was the VEC involved?

• What were the key take-aways or lessons to further guide the interview process?

LHSBC GREEN ENTERPRISE INITIATIVE WORKSHOPS

In June of 2013, Light House Sustainable Building Centre help a Green Enterprise Initiative business workshop as an open workshops for businesses and organizations located in the False Creek Flats. The aim of this workshop was to generate ideas about the future of the Flats and build relationships among businesses. Approximately 35 businesses and 10 City of Vancouver and VEC staff attended the workshop. VEC played the role of acting as a point of contact for attendees, and helping facilitate group breakout discussions.

Key Takeaways:• Identification of keen businesses to with whom to

follow up• Forming relationships with businesses as a first step

is often an easier & more effective way of identifying synergistic opportunities than analyzing data

INDUSTRIAL PROFILING, FCF BASELINE ANALYSIS

Based on GIS data and business licensing records, Light House Sustainable Building Centre conducted a baseline analysis of businesses in the False Creek Flats. This analysis identified the most prevalent industry types, business sectors, and business sizes in the Flats. The VEC

contributed time to investigating businesses, correcting misclassifications, and assisting with data analysis.

Key Takeaways:• Identification of industry types and business sectors

whose feedback is most scalable and, therefore, more relevant to the wider Flats business community

• Identification of breadth of business sizes to ensure the spectrum of business sizes is represented

BUSINESS RETENTION INTERVIEWS

The sector development team at the VEC conducts a series of ongoing business retention interviews that focus on specific sectors within Vancouver’s economy. Although these interviews are conducted city-wide, many relationships have been forged with businesses in the False Creek Flats, specifically in the cleantech and creative digital media sectors. These interviews are designed to locate challenges to, and opportunities for, business development. These interviews have led to a great degree of in-house expertise in the VEC’s focus sectors—cleantech, digital + interactive, and innovation.

Key Takeaways:• VEC already has strong relationships with leaders

in the clean tech and digital media sectors who can help drive participation and sector feedback

• Actions specific to these sectors are already being investigated, so additional information collection interviews should focus on other prevalent sectors

FALSE CREEK FLATS INDUSTRY SURVEY

The False Creek Flats Industry Survey was conducted in 2005 to establish basic information about businesses in the Flats, including their key needs or concerns and their primary reasons for locating in the Flats. This survey is scheduled to be re-administed in the spring of 2014. It is a City-led initiative aimed at establishing baseline information for the planning process.Thus far, the role of the VEC has been to provide input as to additional information that should be collected through this survey

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in order to make it a more valuable resource for the VEC.

Key Takeaways:• Information that can be compared to the 2005

survey results will be most useful for determining business trends in the Flats over the past decade

BUSINESS INTERVIEWS

FIfteen business interviews were conducted over the summer in 2013 to act as a micro-investigation into the specific challenges and opportunities facing businesses in the Flats. The businesses interviewed represent a cross section of the False Creek Flats economy, taking into account the variety of business sizes in the Flats, as well as the most prevalent industry types and business sectors. Interviews from a limited number of businesses were therefore able to provide significant insight into the various business clusters in the neighbourhood, making the feedback received more scalable and relevant to the wider business community.

Looking at the business make-up of the Flats, the three most prevalent industry types are wholesale (18.6%), manufacturing (17.7%), and arts & production (12.9%). The three most prevalent business sectors are textiles/fashion (23.9%), arts & culture (14.1%), and food (12.3%). Of the 15 businesses interviewed for this research, 7 are in wholesale, 6 are in manufacturing or production, and 2 are in service provision. They spanned the sectors of food (4), textiles (4), arts & culture (5), resource management (1), and building supply (1). Three of the businesses interviewed also cross into the realm of social enterprise, bringing the lens of the wider communities they serve into the discussion.

The interviews aimed to uncover answers to the following broad questions:

• What are the current drivers of economic development in the False Creek Flats?

• What are the common challenges business face in this area?

• What does ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’ mean to the various businesses already operating in the Flats? (What are they already doing to green their operations?)

• And where do the key opportunities lie for supporting and stimulating the growth of green enterprise in the Flats?

The structure of the interviews was derived from four separated sources: Two were eco-industrial networking surveys used in other projects across the country1; one was the False Creek Flats Industrial Survey2 (conducted in 2005); and the final source was the BusinessWorks3 retention interview outline used by the VEC. Through combining these interview structures and analyzing them for necessary additions of my own, seven essential categories of information emerged:

• Location Factors• Logistics Challenges• Utility Use• Workforce & Company Culture• Revenues & Markets• Greening & government programs• Areas of greatest challenge/concern, and

opportunity.

1 Casavant, Tracy. Business Survey: Greater Sudbury Eco- Industrial Networking Strategy. August, 2013. Casavant, Tracy. Business Survey: Ross Eco-Industrial Park. 2007.

2 Mustel Group Market Research. False Creek Flats Industry Survey. City of Vancouver: 2005.

3 Vancouver Economic Commission. BusinessWorks Interview. Salesforce.com Database: 2013.

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BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT

Interview Overview

In order to see some of the trends that emerged from the interviews, I have broken down the feedback according to the seven essential categories of information that were identified in the information gathering stage. Where relevant, feedback has also been categorized by sector.

LOCATION

Of the fifteen businesses interviewed, ten expressed concern over space, implying either a different location or additional space would be needed, but only two of these businesses implied these changes/upgrades would need to be made urgently. Four of these businesses suggested they would probably relocate only parts of their business such as additional storage space or office space; three are already undergoing renovations at their current locations; and three discussed the possibility of completely changing locations (two of which wanted to remain in the Flats).

Three key drivers emerged as important factors for choosing to locate in the Flats:

1) PROXIMITY to customers, competitors and suppliers was of paramount importance to almost all sectors. Food and textile wholesale businesses needed to be particularly close to their competitors in order to capitalze on customer traffic, and arts, production, and textile manufacturing businesses needed to be within an arms reach of complementary equipment, material, and expertise suppliers.

2) ACCESS TO TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE was also key to many of the business sectors who rely on the highways surrounding the Flats to reach their suppliers on the edge of town and their customers in the downtown area.

3) INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES with outdoor yards, loading bays, large floorplates, and internal cranes are a rarity within the city, so these were a huge draw for many of the businesses. The arts and culture sector also relies heavily on sharing space in old warehouse facilities as a means of keeping costs down.

LOGISTICS

In examining the waste streams, storage, and transportation needs of businesses in the Flats, a few trends arose:

1) DIFFICULT WASTES such as toxic inks, paint liquid wastes, and plastics used for packaging meat were some of the only outputs that could not be accounted for in extensive recycling or reuse systems.

2) STORAGE was a limiting factor for most businesses on a seasonal basis. For produce businesses, storage needs are higher in the winter, whereas for other sectors, seasonal storage needs are more inconsistent.

3) TRANSPORTATION FLEETS are predominantly owned, not leased. For many of the smaller businesses with shipment needs, personal trucks and courrier services are the norm. Biofuels have not been investigated by most businesses.

UTILITIES

Utility use is extremely high among the warehousing businesses, especially those on produce row who require extensive cold storage. Costs range between $60,000 annually and $130,000 annually.

Water use is fairly negligible in most of the sectors examined except in businesses making paints or using dyes. Here, water use for cleaning is extremely high.

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BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT

PEOPLE & CULTURE

All of the businesses interviewed claimed they almost exclusively use personal networks, business networks, and word of mouth to find employees. Generally, employee retention rates are high, so looking for new employees is a rare occurence. The only recruitment concern voiced was that of being able to find suitable sewing and production labour in the fashion and textiles sector.

REVENUES & MARKETS

In reviewing the growth strategies and markets being explored by businesses in the False Creek Flats, a couple of key points were made by some of the younger businesses:

• Although some of their most lucrative projects are ones in which they play a facilitation role between larger businesses, many of the small to mid -size businesses in the False Creek Flats are looking to eliminate parts of their business that falls outside their core competencies and grow projects within their core areas of expertise.

• There is a desire among some of the arts & culture businesses to grow their reputations internationally. A need was identified to do this collectively through better marketing and communications of Vancouver’s maker economy.

• Many of the smaller production businesses rely on their bigger neighbours to source materials. Thus, it is important to maintain a variety of business sizes in close proximity.

GREENING BUSINESS PRACTICES

All of the businesses interviewed claimed to have some type of greening practices in place. Recycling programs are the most common. Of the fifteen businesses interviewed, four provide a green product or service,

three are actively engaged in greening their business practices, and another three are just starting the investigation phase for green retrofits.

Several launching points for supporting businesses in greening their operations were also mentioned. For many businesses in the Flats, ‘green’ already means the following:

GREEN RETROFITS — Many of the wholesale and manufacturing businesses in the Flats are undergoing lighting assessments, truck idling assessments, and other efficiency assessments.

UPCYCLING — While some businesses are approaching this from the angle of extended producer responsibility, others are approaching upcycling as a means of acquiring unique/inexpensive raw materials to which they can add value through processing.

CLUSTERING — Locating in close proximity to customers, suppliers, and competitors allows for the easy sharing of equipment, resources, and expertise between businesses in the same sector.

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES

The challenges and opportunities faced by businesses in the False Creek Flats were fairly unique to the individual sectors interviewed.

ARTS & CULTURE — These businesses expressed two major needs: the need for better marketing and communication of Vancouver’s arts & culture economy, and the need for help building the capacity to take on larger scale projects. Businesses self-identified the opportunity to collectively market the arts, culture, and design offerings of Vancouver, as well as the opportunity for the City to provide space for multiple design and production businesses to come together and work on larger scale projects, building their capacity to take on work at different scales.

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BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT

TEXTILES / FASHION — The challenges faced by this sector included dealing more effectively with textile wastes and establishing relationships with textile/clothing manufacturers to source consistent material byproducts. The inherent opportunities this sector pointed about attracting or growing a business dedicated to the collection and redistribution of textiles.

FOOD — Two major challenges or roadblocks were pointed out by businesses in the food sector. The first was being able to see tangible results from greening operations in order to justify making facility upgrades. The inherent opportunity here is to use one of the businesses as a demonstration for the other and to share information and success stories between businesses that are approaching upgrades from different angles.

The second challenge is finding a shared facility for processing near end-of-life food, as well as engaging the community in cooking classes, food education, and industrial-scale composting. With several social enterprises dedicated to food in the area, there is an opportunity to explore food hub options under a similar model to the recycling hub which is underway on Industrial Ave.

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BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT

Opportunities Overview

The feedback received throughout the interview process revealed three types of opportunities for supporting and stimulating green enterprise in the False Creek Flats:

• Opportunities to help grow or green individual businesses through forging connections with potential new partners

• Opportunities to improve the productivity or growth of a business cluster through programs, marketing assistance, or regulation changes

• Opportunities to improve the physical or social working environment

The opportunities that businesses identified with regards to improving their own operations predominantly revolved around building and site retrofits and focusing on core competencies (thereby eliminating redundancies with neighbouring businesses in a cluster). Opportunities identified with regards to improving the performance of clusters revolved around resource sharing, collective marketing and communications initiatives, the sharing of expertise, collective capacity building, and the facilitation of a stronger upcycle economy. And the opportunities identified with regards to improving the social and physical environment of the flats revolved around making infrastructure improvements and seeding the growth of more social amenities such as places to eat, drink, and gather.

Changes to the working environment will largely be addressed in the local area plan and economic strategy for the Flats, but there are a number of activities the VEC can undertake in the short term to benefit both individual businesses and business clusters. These immediate actions are what the quick-start roadmap aims to uncover.

The interview process identified several roles for the VEC in supporting and stimulating the growth of a green enterprise zone in the False Creek Flats:

Targeted Engagement – Advocating for and engaging businesses in the local area planning process, visioning for the future of the Flats, and implementation of the many programs and transformations that will take the Flats from a traditional industrial zone to an innovative, green workplace.

Demonstration & Business Development — Leverageing opportunities in the False Creek Flats to showcase and demonstrate sustainable products/services, cleantech innovations, and innovative green business models, while building a strong support & partnership network for green innovation.

Telling the Story — Activating the Flats through spreading a cohesive message about green enterprise opportunities in the area, innovative greening practices that are already underway, and the vision for the future of the Flats in order to attract the attention of the local and international (green) business community.

Given limited human and financial resources in this first phase of establishing a green enterprise zone, the quick-start actions the VEC can take in each of these roles involve starting with what’s available, sending a signal about the transformation of the Flats, and planning for the future. The following sections outline a number of these initial actions, focusing on those that can be taken by the VEC over the coming year to seed and support the establishment of a green enterprise zone in the False Creek Flats.

QUICK-START ROADMAP

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Targeted Engagement

Targeted Engagement is about:

CAPITALIZING ON LOCAL BUSINESS EXPERTISE and knowledge to help guide planning, land use, and zoning policies as well as economic development initatives to create a climate for green economic growth and innovation in the False Creek Flats.

SHARING INFORMATION & STEALING IDEAS both among local groups and cities worldwide to ensure we are considering the best possible tools for green economic development and putting the information collected from businesses to the best possible use.

CONNECTING EXPERTISE WITH OPPORTUNITY AND RESOURCES in order to more quickly and efficiently ground some of the big ideas that evolve out of the Local Area Plan and Green Enterprise Zone strategy.

The sharing of information and resources between City Planning, the VEC, the False Creek Flats business community, and various technical experts will be of utmost importance to the realization of a green enterprise zone in the False Creek Flats. Targeted engagement is about connecting planning processes and economic development processes with those businesses, investors, and developers that can help lend expertise to achieving the goals of the green enterprise zone.

Connecting planning more closely with business and economic development expertise can help unlock the economic development potential of the False Creek Flats through:

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DEVELOPING BUSINESS ADVISORY CAPACITIES

The False Creek Flats planning process is unique in that the strong majority of stakeholders in the area are businesses. Utilizing the strength of knowledge that businesses have about their own businesses as well as the challenges and opportunities faced by their competitors can make for plans that more effectively account for local business capacities, emerging technologies, and implementation challenges.

ACTION: Identify possible members of a Business Advisory Group and other key stakeholder consultation groups for the local area planning process in order to solicit feeback on business-specific topics throughout the development of a False Creek Flats economic strategy.

Possible members can be identified by their demonstrated interest in the planning process and influence within key sectors of the False Creek Flats economy. The advisory may include business leaders that have already shown up to participate in business workshops or met for an interview regarding green enterprise initiatives. It will be essential to establish the advisory capacity of the Business Advisory group up front, including a set time commitment and list of topics to weigh in on throughout the two year planning process.

• Updating zoning and land use policies to reflect the changing needs of businesses

• Directing ways in which new technologies or innovative practices might contribute to the development of the Flats

• Providing insight to the City as to what intermediary steps are needed for plans to gain on-the-ground traction

• Creating more efficient and grounded plans in which possible partners for implementation of the plan are built in to the process from the start

QUICK-START ROADMAP

FACILITATING THE EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION

The City planning department, the VEC, and the business community have diverse networks and expertise. Given the primarily residential and commercial nature of typical local area plans in Vancouver, the VEC will play an integral role in sharing its expertise on engaging with the business community.

ACTION: Provide input to planning on business engagement activities and information-soliciting mechanisms in order to maximize business turnout and the value of information collected throughout the planning process.

This entails holding the business banner throughout planning and community engagement processes in order to ensure that businesses are engaged in a manner that is effective and relevant, as well as making recommendations as to what types of information needs to be solicited from the business community to help guide economic development. For instance, the False Creek Flats Industry Survey which is implemented by planning can also be utilized by the VEC to identify green enterprise growth opportunities.

ACTION: Assess information being collected by outside organizations for the identification of (green) economic development opportunities.

This involves combing through the results of engagement activities by outside parties to locate possible business synergies, opportunities for greening business practices, and possible draws for new green enterprise start-ups. For example, the results of the False Creek Flats Industrial Survey which is implemented by planning, should also be assesed for economic development and greening opportunities.

ENGAGING IN CITY-WIDE GREEN ECONOMY PROGRAMS

Vancouver has a number of green business programs in the works that have the potential to be piloted or

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showcased in the False Creek Flats, including the Cleantech Demonstration Program, the Greening Businesses Program, and the National Industrial Symbiosis program.

ACTION: Utilize engagement with the False Creek Flats business community to educate businesses on city-wide green economy programs and encourage involvement.

Since we will already be engaging extensively with the Flats business community for the local area plan, this is a prime opportunity to introduce businesses to other city-wide green economy programs. The Flats is home to a number of City-owned buildings, properties, and other assets, as well as a deeply engaged and environmentally aware business community which makes it an opportune location to engage with businesses around the other green economy programs that are just starting to launch in Vancouver.

CONDUCTING BEST PRACTICE RESEARCH

In order to move forward with the ambitious goal of transforming a heavily contaminated industrial zone into the greenest place to work in the world, we need to solicit ideas and expertise from not only the local business community, but from other cities with experience in neighbourhood remediation and revitalization.

ACTION: Conduct precedent & best practice research based on existing conditions in the Flats and economic development needs or opportunities as an investigation into the value of various economic development tools for the Flats.

While the existing conditions component of this research can come from interviews with local business & land owners, the opportunity identification and best practice research will need to come from a number of sources including professional development conferences, literature reviews, and precedent studies from projects around the world.

QUICK-START ROADMAP

Demonstration & Business Development

Demonstration & Business Development is about:

LEVERAGING THE PLANNING PROCESS and VEC’s connections with local innovators to showcase local innovations, give local innovators a chance to show proof of concept, and build support for clean technology and green innovations.

DEMONSTRATING INNOVATION in greening business practices, the use of clean technology, and retrofitting buildings and sites in the False Creek Flats.

ENGAGING BUSINESSES to participate in shaping and kickstarting the transformation of the False Creek Flats.

Creating a Green Enterprise Zone is not only a new and innovative approach to development for the City of Vancouver, it demands new and innovative ways of thinking from businesses as well — an approach to business in which individual businesses are seen as part of a bigger system or community. In order to foster a green enterprise community, the City and VEC can start by demonstrating support for local (green) innovators through giving them a chance to show test their ideas and demonstrate their solutions. Through communicating the types of opportunities that exist within the False Creek Flats and promoting businesses that have innovative ways of approaching those opportunities, not only will the City demonstrate support for green enterprise development, but in the process, it will help businesses grow and gain traction in the local and global economy.

Demonstrating and developing local green business assets and innovations throughout the planning and development process can have a number of benefits for businesses, the community, and the city at large.

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IDENTIFYING DEMONSTRATION SITES

Demonstration sites are about using both public and private land for green innovation experiments. These public showcases can help companies build their capacity for larger projects, build awareness around what they are doing, and act as a critical marketing tool. Identifying opportunities for these activities not ony involves locating potential sites, but also evaluating the characteristics of the site, the types of demonstration it might be suitable for, and the length of time for which it can be utilized.

ACTION: Identify public and private sites that might serve as demonstration sites for green products, services, technologies, or innovations on a temporary or more permanent basis.

Benefits to businesses include: • Attracting investment, customers, and awareness;• Acquiring space to protoype new technologies or

innovations; • Experimenting in the public realm as a means

of starting a conversation and changing cultural stories

Benefits to the community include:• Improvements to facility performance, landscape

performance, and the public realm; • New energy, intrigue, interest and buzz brought to

the neighbourhood

Benefits to the City include: • Acquiring expertise, ideas, and services from

businesses to help reach public goals; • Building a reputation as a city that strongly

supports and helps grow green enterprise;• Attracting additional green enterprises to the city

and the False Creek Flats• Growing green jobs through addressing a critical

period in cleantech company growth

QUICK-START ROADMAP

This will involve Connecting with the City of Vancouver Facilities Department to identify underutilized publicly owned sites that might serve as demonstration sites, as well as soliciting offers from private land owners to dedicate a site or part of a space for showcasing or demonstration opportunities. It will also involve identifying green retrofit needs and available City assets that can be utilized to showcase innovative green technologies.

POPULATING DEMONSTRATION SITES

Populating demonstration sites involves forming partnerships between site owners and businesses for a given length of time. While some of these partnerships may be made on their own through the demo site inventory, any public sites will need to be populated through a more formal public process. A City-wide demonstration platform is currently being investigated to facilitate this matchmaking process called the Cleantech Demonstration & Digital Proof of Concept Program.

ACTION: Develop an online demonstration platform through which businesses, organizations, or individuals can submit requests for demonstration space or projects.

An online platform could take a number of forms, including something similar to Spacelist, Craigslist, or Kijiji. As a matchmaking platform, it doesn’t need to be overly technical, but rather serve as a means of introducing solution providers and asset owners.

ACTION: Seek opportunities in the False Creek Flats to pilot the city-wide Cleantech Demonstration Program, and assist start-ups with pilot project implementation.

The Arts Hub, Recycling Hub, and (possibly upcoming Food Hub) are all located in City buildings and undergoing significant renovations over the coming years. As City-supported endeavours, these projects present excellent opportunities to pilot the Cleantech Demonstration

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Program. Light House Sustainable Building Centre also has intentions to work with businesses on a green building retrofit program, which could also provide synergistic demonstration opportunities.

SHOWCASING THROUGH EVENTS & PROGRAMS

Showcasing through events is about leveraging event organization and attendance as a passive marketing and communications opportunity for businesses. Through their highlighted participation in an event or contribution to an event, businesses are able to build brand awareness among larger, more diverse markets than they might otherwise.

ACTION: Leverage FCF planning events, as well as other Flats-based events to showcase local green products, services, clean technologies, and green innovations.

Throughout the planning process, there are a number of public events that will need to take place including a launch event and a series of open houses. Local green businesses can be highlighted at these events as vendors/suppliers, in mapping exercises, and through speaking notes/visuals. The Eastside Culture Crawl and Centre for Digital Media June Showcase are a couple other examples of events that could be leveraged to showcase green enterprise development in the Flats.

ACTION: Identify outside events & programs with relevance for key business sectors in the False Creek Flats and seek partnership opportunities for showcasing.

Of particular relevance to the Flats are events and programs furthering green economy topics, such as the GLOBE conference on business and sustainability, the international LLGA program for procuring green solutions, or site tours for incoming business delegations with green economy interests. On a more local scale, educational programs such as the CDM Master in Digital Media or CityStudio can be leveraged to help showcase green economy stories in the Flats.

QUICK-START ROADMAP

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Telling the Story

Although part of the planning process will entail communicating the story of the False Creek Flats (past, present, & future), it is the VEC’s role to tell the story through a business lens. This is an important thread for the VEC to weave throughout the planning process because it has many potential impacts not only for the future business community in the False Creek Flats but for its existing businesses and the community at large.

In the Greenest City Action Plan, formulating a Green Enterprise Zone is spoken about in terms of building an “international reputation as being the greenest place to work in the world”. Building this reputation and communicating this vision is essential to:• Attracting new green enterprise to the area• Building a community of keen green enterprise

investors, developers, and talent• Contributing to a sense of identity and civic pride

among the existing business community

Telling the story is about:

BRANDING THE FALSE CREEK FLATS as a hub of green enterprise — a place where supporting green innovation and improving the economic, environmental, and social performance of businesses are of top priority.

ATTRACTING GREEN BUSINESS & INVESTMENT to the area by highlighting business opportunities throughout the transformation of the False Creek Flats, the presence of a strong, innovative green community, and support for green job growth.

SPREADING IDEAS AMONG NEIGHBOURS about innovative greening practices, clean technologies, and green building or landscape retrofit options.

GENERATING CONTENT

In order to tell the story of green enterprise in the False Creek Flats, we need to first define what is meant by green enterprise, form a baseline of the green enterprise activities that already exist in the False Creek Flats, and identify the types of green enterprise activities the City and the community foresee locating here. While we already have some of this information, these actions are designed to help fill the information gaps.

ACTION: Collect individual business stories and business aspirations highlighting innovative attitudes, practices, products, and services for making Vancouver’s economy more sustainable.

These stories should highlight or profile a single aspect of a business or organization that is innovative, green, and memorable. They can be collected through a number of means including:• Interviews with business owners• Solicitation of stories through the website• Conversations with individuals at events, and• Researching individual businesses online

Once these stories have been identified, they can be formatted to read as a cohesive set of business profiles or anecdotes which demonstrate the breadth of sustainability thinking throughout the Flats.

ACTION: Crowd source green assets to populate a public green asset map for the False Creek Flats featuring innovative greening practices, cleantech providers & users, businesses that provide a green product/service, and environmental assets.

Assets should be collected, categorized, and mapped according to type (aka one colour on a map indicates green business, another indicates environmental asset, etc.) for the purpose of tracking green enterprise progress. In order to make the map as complete as possible,

QUICK-START ROADMAP

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these assets should be crowdsourced, meaning they should be contributed through a number of channels including:• Through members of the VEC, City Planning Dept,

and grassroots organizations• Through on-site contributions to a large-scale map

at events and/or on site in the Flats• Through on-line contributions solicited directly

from the community

Mapping these assets will not only allow the City to establish a green enterprise baseline and track progress in the Flats, it will also give businesses the opportunity to literally ‘put themselves on the map.’

CRAFTING THE MESSAGE

Once content has been generated to fill the information gaps in the False Creek Flats story, the VEC needs to take an active role in shaping the messaging and branding of the Flats so that it appeals to a broad audience of businesses, investors, and developers.

ACTION: Form key messages around the vision for the Flats as well as the innovative attitudes and approaches to sustainable business already in place in the Flats.

Using some of the stories, green assets & aspirations acquired from businesses, as well as the parts of the economic development agendas in the Greenest City Action Plan and the Economic Action Strategy that land in the False Creek Flats, begin to answer the questions:• What does ‘green’ mean in the False Creek Flats?• What would a Green Enterprise Zone look like here?• What are the components that make up ‘the greenest

place to work in the world?’

DISSEMINATING THE STORY

Spreading the story of green enterprise in the False Creek Flats will be integral to:

• Attracting business & investment attention to the Flats

• Engaging the community in helping develop an economic development vision for the Flats, and

• Encouraging those businesses in the Flats that are not already engaged in greening their operations or making sustainable business choices to start

In order to serve this wide array of audiences and purposes, the False Creek Flats story needs to be spread through a number of diverse channels.

ACTION: Populate the City and the VEC communication channels with green economy stories from the False Creek Flats.

Both the City and the VEC websites are one channel that can be utilized. Website content might include infographics that highlight existing business activities in the Flats, the ongoing asset map, local area plan updates, and ‘vision’ materials about the transformation of the False Creek Flats through an economic development lens. The Flats can also be highlighted in the neighbourhood section of Vancouver’s investment guide, and throughout the presentations the VEC makes both locally and internationally business delegations.

ACTION: Explore other unconventional or fun means of directing attention towards the Flats and engaging the public to learn about the innovative green practices & technologies that are being employed behind closed doors.

On-site signage, event posters, walking tours, or short videos to shine light on some of the innovative green practices and technologies that are in play in the Flats are just a few options for spreading the green enterprise story to a more diverse audience. Again, this might be aided by capitalizing on some of the activities that the Centre for Digital Media, Emily Carr, and CityStudio are engaged in.

QUICK-START ROADMAP

2.3

2.4

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ACTION MILESTONE / GOAL

1.1Identify possible members of a Business Advisory Group and other key stakeholder consultation groups for the local area planning process in order to solicit feeback on business-specific topics throughout the development of a False Creek Flats economic strategy.

1.2

1.3

Utilize engagement with the False Creek Flats business community to educate businesses on city-wide green economy programs and encourage involvement.

Assess information being collected by outside organizations for the identification of (green) economic development opportunities.

Provide input to planning on business engagement activities and information-soliciting mechanisms in order to maximize business turnout and the value of information collected throughout the planning process.

TARGETED ENGAGEMENT

[ongoing]; Business Survey Assessed by

Aug. 2014

300 businesses engaged by June. 2015

[ongoing];Launch Public Consultation

Jan. 2015

[ongoing];Start with website & business

survey

Conduct precedent & best practice research based on existing conditions in the Flats and economic development needs or opportunities as an investigation into the value of various economic development tools for the Flats.

1.4

1.5Report Complete by

Oct. 2014

2.1

2.2

2.5

[ongoing]; 3 Pilots Implemented

by Dec. 2014

[ongoing]; Flats Made launch event

[ongoing];Greenest City Scholar

Summer 2014

Greenest City Scholar Summer 2014

[ongoing];CityStudio leveraged 2014

DEMONSTRATION & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Identify public and private sites that might serve as demonstration sites for green products, services, technologies, or innovations on a temporary or more permanent basis.

Develop an online demonstration platform through which businesses, organizations, or individuals can submit requests for demonstration space or projects.

Seek opportunities in the False Creek Flats to pilot the city-wide Cleantech Demonstration Program, and assist start-ups with pilot project implementation.

Leverage FCF planning events, as well as other Flats-based events to showcase local green products, services, clean technologies, and green innovations.

Identify outside events & programs with relevance for key business sectors in the False Creek Flats and seek partnership opportunities for showcasing.

SUMMARY: QUICK-START ACTION PLAN

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ACTION MILESTONE

TELLING THE STORY

3.1Collect individual business stories and business aspirations highlighting innovative attitudes, practices, products, and services for making Vancouver’s economy more sustainable.

[ongoing];Minimum 2 Stories per

sector by Aug. 2014

3.2Crowd source green assets to populate a public green asset map for the False Creek Flats featuring innovative greening practices, cleantech providers & users, businesses that provide a green product/service, and environmental assets.

[ongoing];Base map constructed by

Aug. 2014

Form key messages around the vision for the Flats as well as the innovative attitudes and approaches to sustainable business already in place in the Flats.

Populate the City and the VEC communication channels with green economy stories from the False Creek Flats.

3.3

3.4

Explore other unconventional or fun means of directing attention towards the Flats and engaging the public to learn about the innovative green practices & technologies that are being employed behind closed doors.

3.5

[ongoing];1st Round on Website by

spring 2014

[ongoing]

[ongoing];1 Event & 1 Tour in 2014

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SUMMARY: QUICK-START ACTION PLAN

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CONCLUSIONS

Forming a Green Enterprise Zone in the False Creek Flats will no doubt be a long and difficult task. When the conversation shifts from “how do we green business practices in the Flats?” to “how do we form the greenest place to work in the world?”, it is no longer just a question of tactics, but one of social or systemic change.

Dr. Vanessa Timmer of One Earth (a non-profit organization dedicated to transforming unsustainable production and consumption patterns) points to three major components needed for systemic change: social entrepreneurship, institutional entrepreneurship, and scaling out. These stages are often addressed by different groups of people operating in varied regulatory environments; however, through forming strong relationships with planning, educational institutions, social enterprise organizations, and the business community in the False Creek Flats, the VEC has the ability to contribute to each of these stages.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Social Entrepreneurship is about changing our cultural stories—the way we think about living in the world. Changing our cultural stories is often taken on by non-profit organizations, the media, educational institutions, and advocacy groups. Through the “Telling the Story”

actions pointed out in this report, the VEC can start to contribute to the vision of what it means to be the greenest place to work, changing our cultural stories about the role of industrial land in the city.

INSTITUTIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Institutional Entrepreneurship is about changing “the rules” to accomodate new stories. Through a strong partnership with planning, the VEC can more effectively influence planning bylaws and policy to reflect the needs of an emerging green economy. Using the tools of “Targeted Engagement”, the VEC can facilitate bringing the needs of green enterprise development to the table in conversations surrounding the regulatory environment of the False Creek Flats.

SCALING OUT

Scaling out is about taking the momentum behind a vision and building off it with real, on-the-ground actions. Through pursuing the “Demonstration & Business Development” actions outlined in this report, the VEC can help build momentum for green enterprise development by showcasing real life examples of green innovation, and providing opportunities for new green innovations to gain traction.

Stimulating Systemic Change

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REFERENCES

2020 Greenest City Action Plan. City of Vancouver: 2011.

BusinessWorks Interview. Vancouver Economic Commission: Salesforce.com Database: 2013.

Casavant, Tracy. Business Survey: Greater Sudbury Eco-Industrial Networking Strategy. August, 2013.

Casavant, Tracy. Business Survey: Ross Eco-Industrial Park. 2007.

Eastern Core Statement of Significance. Donald Luxton & Associates: 2013.

Light House Sustainable Building Centre. False Creek Flats Business Sector Database. August, 2013.

Metro Vancouver 2010 Industrial Lands Inventory, Metro Vancouver, 2010.

Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy. Metro Vancouver: July 2010.

Mustel Group Market Research. False Creek Flats Industry Survey. City of Vancouver: 2005.

Restakis, John. Humanizing the economy: co-operatives in the age of capital. Gabriola, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2010.

Shea, Andrew. Designing for social change: strategies for community-based graphic design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2012.

Timmer, Vanessa. Where does Change Happen?. Panel Discussion, Spur Festival: June 17, 2013Vancouver Economic Action Strategy (VEAS). Vancouver Economic Commission: 2011.

Vancouver Food Strategy. City of Vancouver: 2013.

Warsi, Juvarya. Vancouver’s Green Economy: Working Paper. Vancouver Economic Commission: March 2011.

** NOTE: Businesses interviewed are not included in references for privacy purposes.