Love him or hate him, but Mayor Gregor Robertson is helping put Vancouver on the map as one of the greenest cities in the world. It was announced by the World Wildlife Fund yesterday that Vancouver tops the chart of Canadian cities leading the fight against climate change and he hopes to top the world chart in 9 years.

The organization ranks cities based on indicators such as cutting greenhouse gas emissions, using renewable energy, and encouraging green building and transportation.

Toronto came in second and Montreal was third, while Victoria, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Hamilton, Halifax, Mississauga and Yellowknife rounded out the Top 10 list on the climate-change scale.

Vancouver has launched a program called Imagine 2020, which aims to make it the greenest city in the world in just nine years. The program goals include green buildings and transportation, growing local food, and becoming a "mecca" of green enterprise.

The city is working towards a zero waste challenge and has started collecting household food scraps along with yard waste for composting. City planners have been adding on to the labyrinth of bike lanes around the city and Vancouver is on the forefront of developing green roofs, including the new roof on the Vancouver Convention Centre that is home to a bee hive.

On Monday, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson announced yet another pilot project that deconstructs rather than demolishes neighbourhood homes, keeping over 90 per cent of a home out of the landfill.

Let’s hope the city embraces these changes and we can make the 2020 goal.

Don’t forget that 8:30pm next Saturday is Earth Hour. The WWF hopes to have one billion people around the world turn out their lights to raise environmental awareness.