City of Victoria councillors are opting in to a challenge put forward by the District of Highlands to reduce their ecological footprint.Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and Coun. Sarah Potts are putting forward a motion to accept a challenge put forward by Highlands Mayor Ken Williams in March.
The Municipal Survivor Climate Challenge was sent out to all municipalities in the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities, and asks participants to measure their ecological footprint using an online calculator, and try to reduce it within a year.
READ MORE: Highlands challenging B.C. municipalities to reduce ecological footprint
The online calculator looks at factors like food choices, transportation habits and living conditions to determine how many planet Earths would be required if everyone on the plant lived a similar lifestyle to the quiz taker.The District of Highlands mayor and council all took part in the challenge and an average of their numbers was taken.
The results showed that 2.4 Earths would be required if everyone lived like an average Highlands councillor, 4.14 hectares of land and 6.94 tonnes of carbon dioxide would be emitted.
So far, the City of Colwood has also accepted the challenge.
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The challenge will officially begin on Earth Day 2019 (April 22) and wrap up the following year.
Victoria City Council will officially vote to participate at committee of the whole on Thursday.
To find out your ecological footprint, you can visit footprintcalculator.org
-With files from Shalu Mehta
