Our Green Initiatives

Being ‘green’ is a way of life for our municipality.

Council and staff of the Town of Ladysmith take our commitment to sustainability very seriously.  The Town has shown significant leadership on sustainable development issues over the past decade.  We are guided by the principle that to be sustainable, we must encourage a lifestyle that meets our needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

We are committed to putting in place the use of best practices that lead to:

• a sustainable water supply
• stable local employment
• more and better public transit
• the use of vehicles powered by alternate fuels
• producing—and using—geothermal, biomass, wind, water, and solar energy
• treating our sewage to tertiary levels
• producing zero waste

Watch Ladysmith's Green Initiatives Video.

What We Are Doing

In recent years, the Town has:

• Been the first community in the Cowichan Valley Regional District to introduce a recyclables pick-up program
• Been one of the first communities in B.C. to introduce curbside pick-up of household organic waste
• Eliminated the use of pesticides and toxic products in municipal parks, and planted native, drought tolerant plants and turf to reduce our water use
• Brought in water meters to help reduce water consumption by 24 per cent between 2002 and 2010, during a time that saw population growth over 17 per cent
• Put in place a rain barrel rebate program
• Carried out a Sustainability Visioning Initiative involving Ladysmith’s citizens in charting the future of our community
• Adopted a Community Energy Plan
• Introduced a Bylaw requiring all new homes in Ladysmith to be solar hot water ready
• Supported the Ladysmith Community Garden
• Grown vegetables in City Hall flower beds, and donated the vegetables to the Food Bank
• Updated the Zoning Bylaw to include Green Initiatives

2017 Town of Ladysmith "Veggie and Flower Gardens"

Please see below for what is planted in the gardens around Ladysmith.  

Ladysmith Third in B.C. for Energy Reduction During Earth Hour^TM 2012 

So many Ladysmith citizens were in the dark for an hour on Saturday, March 31, 2012 that the town recorded the third highest drop in electricity used for all of BC.  The town's 5.8 per cent reduction in electrical consumption between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. last Saturday was the highest drop of all communities on Vancouver Island.

While residents turned off lights and appliances, the Town did its part by turning off the lights in the trees along First Avenue and surrounding streets.

Earth Hour is an annual global event hosted by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund). The goal of the event is to encourage individuals to turn off unnecessary lights and electronics in an effort to conserve power and in doing so, demonstrate support for climate change reduction efforts.