On a glorious summer morning, the view from Bosa Properties' 18th floor offices in Metrotown is breathtaking.
Behind the rise of Burnaby Mountain, the green North Shore mountains from Lighthouse Point to Golden Ears stretch across the boardroom windows.
Until the smog, much of it car and truck pollution, settles in.
Now Bosa is trying to do something about reducing that haze by installing Phase Two charging stations for electric vehicles in all its new residential developments.
Not to protect their executive view, but "we think we ought to be doing this," says senior vice-president Daryl Simpson.
With the increasing availability of electric vehicles like theChevy Volt andNissan Leaf, many prospective owners who happen to live in condos are running into a block on their road to zero-emmission transportation.
There's no place in the underground parkades to plug in their car and it's difficult and expensive to retrofit existing buildings.
So beginning with theSovereign in Burnaby and theViceroy in New Westminster, as well as other Bosa and BlueSky projects in Coquitlam, Vancouver and Victoria, up to a dozen "Bosa Volt" stations that will charge a car in six to eight hours will be installed in parking stalls near the buildings' transformer rooms.
Each station will have a dedicated meter so the owners pay the cost of hydro, rather than the strata.
It's an idea whose time has come, says Simpson.
"The ability to charge electric vehicles is a huge step in facilitating a greener city and doing our part to support sustainability strategies that are being promoted by Canadian cities. By building these charging stations within our projects, we hope to finally make it easier for people to make the green choice and invest in green alternatives."
And while Simpson concedes making the stations available is a marketing tool like any other feature or amenity in a new development, he says he hopes other builders will follow suit.
"Our hope is everyone will jump onto this."
