Surrey, B.C. – On Thursday, September 15th, the Surrey Board of Trade presented four winners with the Surrey Environment and Business Awards at the 10th annual event. The awards were presented to Surrey Board of Trade members or Surrey-based businesses that have demonstrated exceptional dedication to environmental leadership and/or issues. The award recipients are guided by a sense of respect for the environment and demonstrate this initiative consistently.
This year’s winners are:
Small Business Award – Compy Inc.
Compy is a bio-product that is used in conjunction with a person’s organic waste bin. It helps to make things easier, by eliminating odours, absorbing moisture and gunk, and reducing fruit flies. It also reduces the need for bin washing, thus reducing water consumption. This patent pending product is all-natural, non-GMO, and pesticide-free. Compy utilizes 100% Canadian agricultural by-products in their composition, and is currently endorsed by Metro Vancouver, and the townships of Burnaby, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Port Moody, and Richmond.
Medium Business Award – Mansonville Plastics Group of Companies
Since its formation in 1959 as an expanded polystyrene (EPS) manufacturing company, Mansonville Plastics (B.C.) Ltd & Group of Companies has always been committed to service and quality as its hallmarks. With a diversified and well-rounded portfolio of EPS products, our customers have a great number of choices to respond to the business needs of their clients. Being environmentally responsible is part of their mandate in providing EPS solutions. Mansonville Group encourages EPS Recycling and prides itself of being the largest EPS recycler/processor in British Columbia that actively reuse recyclable EPS materials to produce new and innovative environmentally friendly finished products. Mansonville Group also worked with Surrey Board of Trade to develop a position paper to bring the EPS (also known as Styrofoam) recycling issue to the Federal level. This position paper was formally adopted by Canadian Chamber of Commerce as Resolution 41 – Accelerating Domestic Styrofoam Reuse and Remanufacture for Environmental and Economic Gain.
Large Business Award – Vancity Credit Union
Environmental sustainability is one of Vancity’s three guiding principles. They are environmentally conscious in their operations through energy efficiency, recycling and green building practices, as well as providing advice to their members and financial support for organization active in developing technology and services that benefit the environment. Vancity has been carbon neutral since 2008. This means that they reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible, then offset their emissions through the purchase of registered carbon offsets from emission-reducing activities others have undertaken that meet their offset criteria. Vancity has committed to action on four fronts:
- Reducing the negative environmental impact of our operations
- Helping members and employees act by providing education, products and services that benefit the environment
- Enabling the community to act by funding projects that reduce negative environmental impact
- Encouraging governments to implement public policy changes that reduce negative environmental impact.
Circular Economy Award – Cascades Recovery Inc.
A new Circular Economy Award was also presented this year. The winner has demonstrated that they re-invent, re-think and re-define how they use materials. They keep resources in use for as long as possible, extracting the maximum value from them while in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.
Cascades Recovery is the largest discarded material collector in Canada, committed to being circular. Cascades makes more than 400 green products from recycled fibre, amounting to 2.1 million short-tons per year. That means that as an environmentally responsible producer, they have saved over 35 million trees to fill Central Park (NY) 1,100 times. Cascades recognizes ‘Circularity’ is bigger than just their organization. They believe that success will be achieved when all stakeholders within the ‘Circle’ communicate openly and focus their efforts on the same end goal, positive end of life solutions. Their Recovery Plus Program collects not only the most sought after recyclable materials but focuses on finding and building the infrastructure to collect hard to handle materials. Their focus is on building an industry leading Discarded Material Recovery Programs by truly analyzing their partners’ needs and the overall system. They search domestically, internationally and overseas for positive end of life solutions for materials. Cascades works for brand owners to effectively and efficiently manage EPR programs in Canada. Currently managing the entire Province of British Columbia, they understand the brand owner’s needs and works with the entire supply chain to achieve success.
The 10th Annual Surrey Board of Trade Environment and Business Awards Luncheon event also featured keynote speaker Mike McNaney, Vice President of Industry, Corporate and Airport Affairs, WestJet. There was also an update from the Federal Government’s Environment Committee, presented by MP Cloverdale – Langley City, John Aldag and a presentation by the Greater Vancouver YMCA.
Presenting Sponsor: Lawson Lundell LLP
Supporting Sponsor: PW Trenchless Construction
Award Sponsors: Abbotsford International Airport and WSP Canada Inc.
Media Sponsor: The Leader Newspaper
For further information, please contact Anita Huberman, CEO, Surrey Board of Trade, at anita@businessinsurrey.com or at 604.634.0342.
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