Green Graffiti

Since 1991, the Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA) has acted as a catalyst for youth led and centered sustainability programs in Vancouver and in 15 countries internationally.

Our proposed idea for the Aviva Community Fund is called "Green Graffiti", an initiative to engage Vancouver citizens in the green building movement through the creation of green, or living wall gardens. EYA is partnering with BC Housing to install living walls on four, low income residential buildings in communities across Vancouver. The project brings together residents and local youth volunteers to collaborate on the design, installation, and maintenance of the wall systems that will include food plants, culinary herbs, and native species for wildlife with an additional "façade greening" to increase green wall surface area and resultantly, improve the environmental / aesthetic impacts. The four sites have been chosen based on lack of surrounding green space, need for community building, interest in food production and desire to improve energy efficiency. Volunteers will routinely monitor the walls' performance using indicators such as wall temperature to assess the environmental benefits of the two year endeavor.

Paramount to the success of the project is an educational and training campaign to convey the importance of green wall and green roof technologies in mitigating the effects of climate change and the urban heat island effect, improving stormwater management, and contributing a visual amenity that can provide food, wildlife habitat, and therapeutic value to high density urban areas where conventional tree and shrub planting is not feasible.

If the Green Graffiti idea should win the Aviva Community Fund, the money will be used to pay for:

MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES: Living Wall panels, plant material, monitoring system, lighting, soil media, cedar planters

HUMAN RESOURCES: One youth project coordinator, 20 hours a week for two years and a Youth Videographer to produce a film on the project