Gibsons Named World's Most Liveable Community
The Sunshine Coast town of Gibsons has earned a Gold Award for liveability from the United Nations-backed International Awards for Liveable Communities.
Gibsons - pop. 4,200 - won in the Whole City category for towns with a population under 20,000 for best practice and leadership in creating a socially and environmentally sound community.
A 40-minute ferry ride from West Vancouver, Gibsons consists of the quaint fishing village of Gibsons Landing and the commercial-industrial hub of Upper Gibsons on Highway 101.
The award recognizes the town’s aggressive program of guidelines to encourage development that conserves enery, water and land as well as the first-in-North-America Geo-exchange District Energy System, which will capture thermal energy with underground heat-exchangers on municipal greenspace and supply heat to up to 900 residential and commercial buildings.
“We’re feeling fantastic,” said Gibsons Chief Adminstrative Officer Paul Gipps. “We weren’t sure how we were going to do against towns that are up to 20,000 people.”
Mayor Barry Janyk and two city staffers attended the 13th annual LivCom Awards over the weekend in the Czech Republic to present the town’s achievements.
Gibsons is committed to managing the community’s growth without disturbing the natural environment, a theme team Gibsons emphasized in their pitch to the conference, said Gipps.
“It wasn’t so much a matter of doing things to win,” said Gipps. “We just needed to tell the story of what we have already done.”
Other winners in the Whole City category include Newark, England (pop. under 75,000), Melville, Australia (pop. up to 200,000), Shilong, China (pop. up to 750,000) and Dailin, China (pop. over 750,000)
By Randy Shore , Vancouver Sun October 13, 2009
Gibsons - pop. 4,200 - won in the Whole City category for towns with a population under 20,000 for best practice and leadership in creating a socially and environmentally sound community.
A 40-minute ferry ride from West Vancouver, Gibsons consists of the quaint fishing village of Gibsons Landing and the commercial-industrial hub of Upper Gibsons on Highway 101.
The award recognizes the town’s aggressive program of guidelines to encourage development that conserves enery, water and land as well as the first-in-North-America Geo-exchange District Energy System, which will capture thermal energy with underground heat-exchangers on municipal greenspace and supply heat to up to 900 residential and commercial buildings.
“We’re feeling fantastic,” said Gibsons Chief Adminstrative Officer Paul Gipps. “We weren’t sure how we were going to do against towns that are up to 20,000 people.”
Mayor Barry Janyk and two city staffers attended the 13th annual LivCom Awards over the weekend in the Czech Republic to present the town’s achievements.
Gibsons is committed to managing the community’s growth without disturbing the natural environment, a theme team Gibsons emphasized in their pitch to the conference, said Gipps.
“It wasn’t so much a matter of doing things to win,” said Gipps. “We just needed to tell the story of what we have already done.”
Other winners in the Whole City category include Newark, England (pop. under 75,000), Melville, Australia (pop. up to 200,000), Shilong, China (pop. up to 750,000) and Dailin, China (pop. over 750,000)
By Randy Shore , Vancouver Sun October 13, 2009