Our Green Initiatives

• No Waste of Space. Floating home communities are compact with small footprint homes and without wasteful lawns to care for, anchors to stir up toxic sediment, toxic anti-fowling coatings underwater and without leakage of fossil fuels or lubricants associated with recreational boats.

• Access to Work and Play. Floating home communities are perfectly situated for active lifestyles, with access to waterborne recreation and, at Granville Island, waterborne transportation to work and to other urban facilities and amenities.

• A Home to More Than One Family. Years of industrial pollution and urban alteration to the natural environment have reduced the capacities of many plant and animal species to thrive in False Creek. The hulls of the homes at Sea Village provide aquatic plants and bi-valve animals (muscles and oysters) with solid, non-toxic foundations, which remain below tide levels, and on which plants, bi- valves and sea stars flourish. When assessed, our barges and floating walkways were found to yield higher and healthier densities and more diverse plant and animal ecosystems than those likely to be found in marinas servicing recreational boats and other motorized vessels.

• Slowly reclaiming life from a formerly toxic site. Sea Village is home to kelp nurturing operations and we help the Squamish Stream Keepers in their efforts to re-establish False Creek as a significant spawning area for Pacific herring. Bi-valve colonies, like the ones attached to our homes, are known to improve water quality by filtering great volumes of water. Aquatic plants, the fish that plants attract, and bi-valves growing on our barges are food sources for year round resident birds (particularly geese, ducks, heron and grebes) and for migratory birds (golden eye, bufflehead and mergansers are examples).

• Green Acres. Some of our homes are outfitted with vertical gardens, all are primarily electrically heated all have high-efficiency lighting and homes are designed to be well insulated and to maximize daytime lighting. Several homes have heat pumps and others have plans to update their heating systems. Floating homes offer the opportunity to install air to air, water to air heat and water to water (with in-floor systems) heat pumps

• The Housing Piece of a Thriving Urban Village. Sea Village is a vital part of the Granville Island eco-system, which is a world class 15 minute city boasting ride-sharing and alternative modes of transportation, a local natural food market, restaurant conveniences, stores, access to downtown, arts, recreation, youth services and so on.

• Aquatic Daycare. Our watery yards and docks provide a pop-up maternity ward for seals and otters giving birth. Our floating village provides a protected & trusted daycare for these babies while moms go search for food!

• A Royal Flush. Sea Village was one of the first residential communities in False Creek to honour the adequate processing and recycling of its waste. Sea Village was the first in False Creek to install a system that eliminates any outflow of both black and grey water sewage into its waters.

• The Greening of the Great Blue. All Sea Village households participate fully in Granville Island’s solid waste recycling program. In addition, residents routinely remove floating refuse, most involving plastic items, from the waters of False Creek.

• A Marine Incubator: Sea Village is exploring more opportunities to provide our space as a marine incubator for projects involving restoration or cultivation of marine sea life and plant life. Projects or experiments conducted in situ or on site have a higher chance of success and more accurate and representative results. We have been successful in collaborations with non-profit groups to re-establish Pacific herring populations, growing kelp using techniques with rope lines, oyster shells and rocks in an urban environment. We can provide a convenient, safe and protected environment with direct access to the ocean in False Creek, boats, docks and power sources as well as manpower to install and monitor these projects.

• A Habitat for all: Sea Village is committed to researching environmentally friendly designs and methods to eventually replace our docks with a system that creates a new viable habitat for us humans and our sealife and wildlife neighbours. We aim to incorporate habitat enhancement and conservation using sustainable materials, partnering with marine conservation organizations for best practices, using technology as well as community-driven initiatives. A project is currently underway to rebuild a small dock as a test project that will accommodate small boats, a lower ledge for seals and babies to rest and nurse and provide a new surface to be colonized by small organisms, algae and crustaceans which we hope will attract more fish, birds and mammals to our marina.

• An Environmental Diary: Sea Village has a long, profound understanding of its marine surroundings. Ordinary local knowledge based on careful observation and common sense has been recognized as a valuable and untapped resource. It enables us to judge the changes in our environment, understand the causes and decide on the best actions going forward. This knowledge includes understandings and skills we have developed as well as physical conditions such as climate and lunar cycles. Sea Village is formalizing our knowledge in a daily environmental diary, a log of observations, activities and observations to accurately document our environment.

• A Civilian Coast Guard. There have been several occasions when Sea Villagers have provided life saving assistance to boaters and to walking visitors to Granville Island. More typically, in less urgent situations, residents assist boaters by disposing of floating hazards (logs and derelict sections of docks), and we often assist kayak, canoe and paddle boarders when they find themselves to be overwhelmed by changes in wind, wave and tide conditions.