Business Excellence Series 2012 - Sustainability

MAY 2012

A clover ideaSalon owner Jennifer

Wanderleij attracts customers interested

in a shop with a minimal carbon

footprint

Get with the programEnvironmental projects and earth-friendly policies net awards for Michael Kennedy and Stantec

Work promotionsDenise Taschereau helps companies align marketing strategies with green values

Culturally significantSuccess for Michael Driedger comes from a philosophy of good design and social responsibility

sustainability

PRINTING PARTNER SPONSOR

BIV 1178 BES SustainabilityStarter.indd 1 5/10/12 3:25:58 PM


CONTENTS

4 Closing the loop How composting has become a sustainable solution for local business

6 Recycling consumer appeal Two Vancouver companies use sustainable practices to attract clients

10 Taking the green lead Stantec plays a role in standards evolution

12 Shifting attitudes Companies help each other change behaviour and their footprints

16 Luxury meets sustainability B.C. hotels set new green standards to bridge deluxe service and ethics

20 MEC at the White House Why the popular Canadian outdoor store is being recognized for its contribution to the health of communities

22 Waste not Metro Vancouver’s waste-reduction program could be a new gold rush

sustainability

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Steps to successClosed-loop systems, employee buy-in, sustainable purchasing and

environmentally preferred attributes are all great buzz words that

float around the world of sustainability. They lend themselves to a

grand vision of greening a world desperately trying to counteract the

effects of millenia of indifference. But how do these play into the day-

to-day behaviour of businesses, owners and employees?

In this second of Business in Vancouver’s Business Excellence series for

2012, we look at 12 businesses and organizations that have achieved

higher levels of sustainability for themselves or for other companies,

often winning awards in the process. What are the small steps they

have taken to achieve success in reducing their carbon footprint?

What creative solutions have they used to help other companies?

What steps can you take today to green your business and also

improve your bottom line?

Along with our published Excellence Series, BIV presents a breakfast

series with panels of experts in each area of business. Join us for our

Sustainability Breakfast panel with Nina Winham, principal of New

Climate Strategies; Denise Taschereau, founder of Fairware; and

Michael Driedger, sustainability building adviser, Perkins+Will; 7-9 a.m.,

Marriott Vancouver Pinnacle, 1128 West Hastings. Visit www.biv.com/events/biv for tickets and more information.

– Baila Lazarus, features and magazines editor,

Business in Vancouver

MAY 2012

leadership MAR 2012

sustainability JUN 2012

marketing SEP 2012

philanthropy DEC 2012


Ingrid de Jong Joffe

Two Vancouver restaurants, Trafalgars Bistro and Sweet Obsession Cakes and Pastries, are feed-ing the land instead of the landfill by implementing

an onsite, closed-loop organic waste com-posting program.

By collaborating with GreenGood Composter, Inner City Farms and Urban Impact recycling, the restaurant and bakery have eliminated 100% of the or-ganic waste that used to go to the landfill. Now they recycle 98% of their remaining garbage and the organic waste is com-posted onsite before it is taken away to be used in the soil of local farmlands.

Sustainability of its products and sys-tems are front of mind for restaurant co-owners Stephen Greenham and Lorne Ty-czenski. The bistro uses sustainable prod-ucts from the Pacific Northwest while the bakery next door makes its treats without any stabilizers, preservatives, artificial colour or flavourings.

“We decided to be more responsible about the way we run our food service business and started by offering recyc-lable containers several years ago,” said Greenham. “We connected with Inner

City Farms who told us about the Green-Good Composter. We had been recycling everything but our organic waste for sev-eral years and this machine allows us to implement a closed-loop system.”

In September the two eateries in-stalled a GreenGood GG-50 composting machine; it composts organic waste in 24 hours and reduces food waste by 90% to 95% of its original volume. In four months, the restaurant went from filling an industrial-sized dumpster four times a week to a half-full plastic grocery bag.

“Organic waste is very bad for the landfill,” said Brian Leung, co-owner of

GreenGood. “It needs a microbial process in order to break down. When organic waste is delivered to the landfill, it is not aerated, which is bad on the environment as it generates toxic levels of methane gas.”

Traditional organic waste composting requires worms, layering and turning the rotting material several times, dealing with fruit flies, bad odour and at least 30 days to decompose.

The GreenGood Composter is an aer-obic composting machine that processes food waste within 24 hours, down to 90% of its original volume.

“Food waste and meat products are

Closing

As part of Trafalgars’ focus on sustainability, all the meat is sourced locally, the majority of

seasonal produce comes through its farm-to-table initiative and all seafood is 100% Ocean

Wise compliant

How composting has

become a sustainable

solution for local business

on organic waste

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the loop

4 BUSINESS IN VANCOUVER EXCELLENCE SERIES


Trafalgars Bistro and Sweet Obsession Cakes and Pastries partners Lorne Tyczenski and Stephen Greenham with a GreenGood composter: “we

decided to be more responsible about the way we run our food service business”

very high in water content and can be composted within 12 to 24 hours using a microbial process,” said Leung. The com-poster has charcoal filters to ensure there are no odours, and it is scalable from household and commercial to industrial use.

Restaurant staff had already been sep-arating its non-organic waste for years.

“Once we became committed to investigat-ing its practicality and cost-effectiveness, we weighed the organic waste before put-ting it in the dumpster and got everyone on board by separating the recyclables into different containers,” said Tyczenski. They separated waste into eight different disposal streams: returnable containers, hard plastics, soft plastics, glass, paper, metal cardboard and organics.

Then the question remains, what to do with the compost? To close the loop, once a week Inner City Farms picks up approximately 240 kilograms of compost from Trafalgars and Sweet Obesession, and distributes the nutrient-rich com-post for use in the soil of neighbourhood farms throughout the city. Anything that’s not organic gets collected by Urban Impact and ABD Solutions to be recycled.

The brainchild of five friends, Inner City Farms is a Vancouver-based urban agriculture collective that grows vege-tables, fruit and herbs in neglected gar-den spaces and residential lawns and con-verts them into small-scale organic farms throughout the city. Then they distribute the food back to the community.

Inner City sells “shares” to local fam-ilies; each share translates to weekly boxes of produce that can feed a family of four, delivered from June to late October – up to 1,300 boxes of organic produce an-nually.

“Last year, we sold 50 shares of vege-tables,” said co-founder Will Valley. “This year, we’re looking at selling 60 shares as

well as selling to chefs from local restau-rants. They get really excited about being able to use our products because the vege-tables taste better and their dishes taste better.”

In addition to the ecofriendly solution, Trafalgars and Sweet Obsession have ex-perienced significant savings in waste- removal costs, and the composter will pay for itself in approximately two years.

“Ultimately the GreenGood Composter saves money,” said Greenham. “We used to pay $900 every month to empty the dumpster of garbage and organic waste. Now we pay $100 on extra power every month, but save $800 on the dumpster fees.”

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“We had been recycling everything but our

organic waste for several years and this machine

allows us to implement a closed-loop system”

– Stephen Greenham,

co-owner,

Trafalgars Bistro and Sweet Obsession Cakes and Pastries

BUSINESS IN VANCOUVER EXCELLENCE SERIES 5


Recycling consumer appeal Two Vancouver businesses use

sustainable practices to attract clients



Clover Hair Salon

owner Jennifer

Wanderleij: “it’s

a little more time

consuming but

we’ve whittled it

down to an easy

routine so we

hardly notice”

Peter DeVries

Clover Hair Salon bills itself as one of Vancouver’s most sustainable places to get a haircut. It has good reason to: by using a comprehensive waste management system Jennifer Wanderleij, owner of the downtown shop, has also been able to bring the shop’s waste aversion to 98%.

It’s a significant accomplishment. By comparison, accord-ing to a 2011 waste management report by Metro Vancouver, the average household creates around 1,000 kilograms of waste per year; Wanderleij has her business down to just 20 kilograms. Green Workplace Consulting, a Vancouver-based business that provides fee-for-service consulting and workplace sustainability

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training, helped Wanderleij with her green operations to avoid practices that see many other salons have of discarding what could otherwise be recycled.

“We’ve exceeded the criteria for a green workplace for monitoring our footprint, by not printing things, by recycling what we can, doing energy efficiency upgrades, composting, and [greening] basically anything that goes on here,” said Wander-leij. Rather than using the somewhat sim-plified, traditional separation of recyc-lables, she’s implemented a more compre-hensive process that includes the separa-tion of plastics into groups of their seven different classifications. She even com-posts cut hair, which is picked up by gar-deners who use it as an animal repellant.

“It’s a little more time consuming but

Kimbo Design

principal and creative

designer Kim Pickett:

“it [will] be more

profitable for the

client because

everybody is buying

a green option these

days”

we’ve whittled it down to an easy routine so we hardly notice,” she said. Anyone looking in from the outside might see an arduous, complex system, but once it was in place, said Wanderleij, learning to fol-low it turned out to be just like any other task, and staff quickly bought in to the cleaner operations.

It wasn’t easy to get started, she said, and it took a lot of work to find the pri-vate companies to pick up the various materials. Their services also come with a cost.

“There are monthly charges for com-posting and recycling alternatives - it’s the cost of maybe one or two of my cli-ents,” she said. But that cost is offset by the fact that the designation draws cli-ents in. “[It’s] probably the reason given

by more than 50% of our new clients. [It] holds a lot of appeal.”

Wanderleij’s environmental mind-set isn’t unique for Vancouver’s small businesses. Kimbo Design, a Vancouver graphic design company, has also taken steps to green its operations. It recently won a Green Dot Award for a project it completed for a signage campaign promo-ting energy conservation. The Green Dot Awards recognize businesses that have exceptionally high environmental stan-dards, and Kimbo was noted for a com-bination of sustainable design service and the sustainability of the materials used in the project.

“Classic designs have a lasting impact on consumers,” said Kim Pickett, prin-cipal and creative director. “Our goal is

“Our goal is to create longevity. This saves the client money while reducing

environmental impacts”

– Kim Pickett, principal and creative director, Kimbo Design



“[Greening the

company is] probably

the reason given by

more than 50% of our

new clients. [It] holds

a lot of appeal”

– Jennifer Wanderleij,

owner,

Clover Hair Salon

to create longevity. This saves the client money while reducing environmental impacts.” The industry poses its own challenges when it comes to using sustainable products. It’s one of the rea-sons Kimbo works closely with its printer, ensuring it has ethical certification, that it uses environmentally friendly inks, and that it runs as close to carbon-neutral operations as possible.

Printing, said Pickett, is where the graphic design process can make good headway in reducing its carbon footprint. But the choices aren’t just in the kinds of ink to be used. The materials on which they print also pose significant environmental impacts.

“Something might not be a sustainable material but then you have to weigh that against other factors that come into play,” said Pickett, such as longevity and durability. Usually, she said, longevity in products is the goal, and that can be a balancing act because some more environmentally friendly products degrade faster, resulting in a need to replace them sooner, and that has an impact as well.

Those considerations have changed the methods by which people in her industry approach projects.

“Before, we would think about it in the printing stage and that would [now] be too late. So we’ve moved that into the very first stage.” And although there may be some elevated costs in the materials and processes used in the design, said Pickett, the mar-ket has become more excited about purchasing environmentally friendly products.

“It [will] be more profitable for the client because everybody is buying a green option these days.”

Sustaining our advantage.At Audi, sustainability is a commitment that permeates everything we do – from research to design to manufacturing. And the driver ultimately benefits, because at Audi there is no contradiction between performance and efficiency.

For years, we have been a technological leader in performance-oriented, fuel-efficient engines and lightweight aluminum construction. Lower weight equals not only lower fuel consumption and, therefore, CO2 emissions, but a more dynamic driving experience. And just over the horizon, Audi e-tron will come to define the electric vehicle of the future – with no compromise in driving pleasure, design and comfort.

This is where the meaning of Vorsprung durch Technik really takes shape – a philosophy in which every aspect of design is driven by the goal to give drivers a distinct “advantage” through integrated, progressive technology. What’s good for the environment and society as a whole is also very good for you – the Audi driver of today, tomorrow and long into the future.

Many companies talk about sustainability. We have proof of it waiting at your Vancouver area Audi dealership. Visit us any time for a test drive and see just how exciting reducing CO2 emissions can be.



Brenda Young

For two consecutive years, Stantec was named one of Canada’s greenest employ-ers by Canada’s Top 100 Em-ployers, recognized for its robust environmental pro-

grams and earth-friendly policies includ-ing a travel demand management (TDM) study to determine employee commuting habits and sustainable barriers.

The company’s services include plan-ning, engineering, architecture, project management and project economics for infrastructure and facilities projects.

“Our sustainable team uses education and engagement principles company-wide to get buy-in, including monthly themes, online information, activities and events,” said Marty Janowitz, vice-president, sustainable development at Stantec. “We now have an automated pro-gram to reduce energy use by turning off computers at night.

“We encourage staff to rent the most fuel-efficient cars. And we’re developing green procurement policies to drive sus-tainable change, encouraging managers to pay attention to whether a building is energy-efficient or not. The criteria used

to be quality, suitability and cost, but now we’re considering a building from an energy point of view, looking at proper-ties where we can meter energy usage.”

Janowitz says that systemically, the en-vironment is an organism that includes transit, water and waste water.

“It’s like a human system in terms of how you design it and how the parts are related. Systemic change and behaviours don’t shift overnight. It happens step by step.”

He believes social marketing and edu-cation, plus the proverbial carrots and sticks, will shape attitudes and interests.

Stantec plays role

in sustainable

standards evolution

Taking the green lead

Stantec regional leader for B.C. Michael Kennedy: “we get businesses to

look at life-cycle costs, encourage innovative sustainable design, and

adjust procurement guidelines, whether it be roads, bridges or other

infrastructure”



“It’s an urgent matter, because nature bats last,” said Janowitz. “There are forces more powerful than what we can control. In the business environment, we have to go slow, be pragmatic and keep our col-leagues on board.

“Business is the most powerful force for social change. It’s innovative, creative and has a strong survival instinct. Many businesses are rapidly waking up to cli-mate change. We’d like our company to be identified as a shaper, defining the next generation of business.”

Michael Kennedy, Stantec’s regional leader for B.C., says that what started as an in-house initiative by employees who wanted their company to be the greenest has spread to dialogue with clients to be-come part of the design and construction process.

“Ideas are put out at an early stage with contractors to show sustainable value and benefits, to encourage smart deci-sions to take place, so that it makes sense from every perspective,” said Kennedy.

“We get businesses to look at life-cycle costs, encourage innovative sustainable design, and adjust procurement guide-

lines, whether it be roads, bridges or other infrastructure.”

With sustainable standards in-house from composting to green purchasing, employee committees measure how they control company waste, trying to divert to sustainable goals including recycling all IT equipment along with 90% of their paper.

Cordelia Crockett, senior transit plan-ner and part of Stantec’s transportation solutions group, sees sustainable solutions as always step by step.

“Buy-in includes education, geograph-ic factors and travel preferences,” said Crockett. “We use web surveys and work-shops for monitoring and outreach. Not everyone can telecommute, so there are limits. We work with people and their unique habits.

“Our group is working on alternative transit technologies and facilities, gener-al policy and making transit greener. We need to watch fuel costs, the car industry and gas prices to keep transit attractive.”

Crocket says that their TDM surveys help to pinpoint what is driving employ-ees’ travel choices, with a concrete ex-

planation of what specific changes – such as cost of passes, parking or geography – need to be considered.

“When it comes to encouraging other cities and organizations to be more sus-tainable, it’s important that we walk the talk, and maximize our greenness before we can implement change internationally,” Crockett said.

TransLink’s TDM program manager Patricia Lucy says that Stantec is part of a co-operative network of employers and different service providers they work with to demonstrate how sustainable travel can work in their TravelSmart program.

“There’s small changes that people can make on a daily basis. There are cer-tain market segments who don’t want to give up their cars, but the millennials are a big driver of change. They’re the sharing economy, and are connected in large net-works with new rideshare programs such as HitchWhistler,” Lucy said.

“We’re trying to bring TravelSmart up to a more regional level, sharing resources to make a bigger impact. It is a challenge, but people are open to making small changes.”

“When it comes to encouraging other cities and

organizations to be more sustainable, it’s important that

we walk the talk and maximize our greenness before we can

implement change internationally”

– Cordelia Crockett,

senior transit planner and member of the

transportation solutions group,

Stantec



Baila Lazarus

While the three Rs of waste manage-ment – reduce, reuse, recycle – roll off the tongue eas-ily, what’s not as

straightforward is how to accomplish them.

It may be hard, if not impossible, to look at your company’s waste stream, for example, and see any value in it. But in the past few years, organizations around the Lower Mainland have been develop-ing programs to do just that – create value out of waste, as well as aide in the reduc-tion of overall carbon footprints.

In Vancouver’s Strathcona area, the Strathcona Business Improvement As-sociation (BIA) has been branding itself as a green hub in an urban core. The BIA helps connect businesses with one

another so that one company’s waste can be another’s source of income.

“All these things landing in the landfill can be valuable to others,” said Joji Ku-magai, executive director of the Strath-cona BIA.

In a recent example, a local fabric dis-tribution business had hundreds of old sample books they were going to throw out. The pieces of material seemed too small to be of any use, but a creative artist took the samples and transformed them into wallets and handbags to sell.

In another example, the BIA linked a printing company with another business that produces corporate gift boxes. Rath-er than use Styrofoam peanuts or other packing material for their gifts, the busi-ness now uses paper off-cuts from the printing company.

“The big challenges is relationship building – talking to businesses about

what sustainability is,” said Kumagai. “It can be daunting. Everyone knows there’s something that should be done in the community. Some are ahead of the curve, others trying to find their way.

“For the most part, when people find out it’s a chance to reduce their footprint and to improve efficiency of the supply chain or reduce waste or repurpose items for peope who are doing good things – they’re keen.”

The Strathcona BIA is in the midst of building a type of Craigslist for waste sharing. Those with items to give away can list them in a special section of the BIA’s site, as can those looking for unique materials.

A glance shows people looking for tree branches that have recently been cut down, computer printers and monitors, and used, clean packing peanuts.

At Vancouver’s Fairware, co-founder

Shifting

Joji Kumagai, executive

director of the Strathcona

Business Improvement

Association, stands amid a

pile of trash he hopes will

become someone’s treasure

attitudesCompanies help each other change

behaviour and their footprints

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Fairware co-founder and CEO Denise

Taschereau (far left): “we’re part

of the strategic conversation: How

do we align the product with the

values?”

Michael Driedger, sustainability

building adviser, Perkins+Will:

“changing habits like these, as well

as consumptions habits, is always

challenging”

Denise Taschereau changes client behav-iour through promotional products.

“We help companies align promo-tional products and marketing incentives with their sustainability values,” said Taschereau. Fairware provides promo-tional solutions for companies that want to maintain sustainability throughout their brand, but it also works with cli-ents to take advantage of their own waste stream to build new products. For ex-ample, working with Aspen Ski Resort, Fairware took their old ski uniforms that were out of date and made them into tote bags and toiletry kits.

“We’re starting to see companies

come to us to try and make products out of waste,” said Taschereau, who added that Fairware is now creating padfolios out of old banners from the 2010 Games that RBC will use for London Games this summer.

Recently named one of the top-10 fast-est-growing promotional product dis-tributors in Western Canada, Fairware is more than just a product provider, Taschereau points out. It works with a company’s whole marketing plan.

“We look at the brand roll out, market-ing strategies, the coming quarter and the coming year, and we talk about what they want to achieve and how the products tell

that story,” she explained.“Our core client base has a deep com-

mitment to social responsibility. We are not sitting in offices of companies that are early on in this strategy. We work with Patagonia, Aveda, Vancity – companies that are quite evolved. We’re part of the strategic conversation: How do we align the product with the values?”

That commitment to social respon-sibility starts with a strong culture, said Michael Driedger, sustainability build-ing adviser for architecture design firm Perkins+Will.

“It’s everyone embracing a philosophy of good design – which is sustainable

“It can be daunting. Everyone knows there’s something

that should be done in the community. Some are ahead of

the curve, others trying to find their way”

– Joji Kumagai,

executive director,

Strathcona Business Improvement Association

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Ethically sourced

promotional products

provided by Fairware:

tote bags for Aspen

Ski Resort are made

out of old ski uniforms;

Vancity mugs send

a serious message

about how many

disposable coffee cups

are thrown out every

year

design – and social responsibility, which goes hand in hand with environmental responsibility. We engage staff on multiple lev-els from transit and fi tness subsidies to donating our consulting time to local projects in Vancouver that could benefi t from our services but can’t aff ord them.”

Recently, Perkins+Will has focused a lot of eff ort on changing behaviour around air travel.

“As for operational and staff engagement it is creating a cul-ture of people who will use communication technology over transportation technology,” Driedger explained. “Given the ef-fi ciency and importance of face-to-face interactions, getting people to use teleconference equipment will continue to be a challenge. Changing habits like these, as well as consumptions habits, is always challenging. Getting people to use less and edu-cate themselves more is never an easy task in a society with at-tractive products and information overload.”

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Diana Cikes

Although the concepts of

“luxury” and “sustain-ability” rarely go hand-in-hand, British Colum-bia is seeing a growing consumer demand for

deluxe goods and services with sound en-vironmental and social credentials.

Luxury hotels, like the Four Seasons Vancouver and the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, are emerging as leaders in this movement toward “sustainable luxury”

through the implementation of cutting-edge technologies, policies and programs that are setting the international standard for sustainable business operations.

Both hotels have recently joined the ranks of only 51 prestigious hotels and resorts worldwide to achieve the highest Five Green Key rating by the Green Key Eco-Rating program, which ranks, certi-fies and inspects hotels and resorts based on their commitment to sustainable

“green” operations.“It started in 2007,” said Todd Jeannotte,

director of catering and conference servi-ces at the Four Seasons Vancouver, about the hotel chain’s journey toward becoming a leader in sustainable hotel operations.

“I realized that we needed to quantify and formalize what we already had in place, not only in terms of our operations but also our corporate mindset. And we had to push it forward. ... Otherwise, we’d miss the boat on where we should be as a socially responsible company, and we’d miss the boat on what our customers want.”

Where

“It’s not about being 100%

green. It’s about being greener.

Every little bit we do makes

it better”

– Todd Jeannotte,

director of catering and conference services,

Four Seasons Vancouver

luxury meets

B.C. hotels set new green standards

to bridge deluxe service and ethics

sustainability



Using the self-assessment tools pro-vided by the Green Key Eco-Program as a benchmark for structuring their improve-ment efforts, the Four Seasons formed a green committee and began to assess operational areas such as utility con-sumption, employee training and supply chain management.

Investing in a hybrid heating system, the hotel was able to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint by programming and monitoring energy consumption based on the its daily capacity and activities.

“There are so many new products and technologies out there to help”, said Claire Macdonald, marketing manager for the Wickaninnish Inn, which recently installed high-efficiency fireplaces with electronic ignition modules that elimin-ate the need for a standing pilot light.

But making such improvements re-quired an upfront investment and a solid, long-term commitment to improvement.

“There’s that leap of faith that’s going to happen for any business that decides they want to make some progress toward be-

ing more green because it’s going to cost money at some point,” said Jeannotte. “It really comes down to having a commit-ment to do the right thing.”

At times, that commitment requires an investment of time rather than money. “It actually took us two years to find the per-fect napkin,” Macdonald explained. “We wanted a product that was environment-ally friendly but still of high quality in texture and appearance.”

The resort eventually decided on 100% compostable napkins made from bamboo,



a highly renewable and sustainable natural resource.With the same commitment to sustainability and improve-

ment, the Wickaninnish Inn understands the upfront costs in-volved. Having recently completing over $2.5 million in up-grades to the hotel, the Wick features a second high-efficiency boiler, the first of which was installed in 2008. Recent upgrades also include more energy-efficient lighting and fireplaces.

Demonstrating that luxury and sustainability no longer need to be mutually exclusive, hotels across B.C. are beginning to incorporate natural materials into the guest experience, like the Inn at Laurel Point in Victoria, which now provides earth-friendly guest amenities created with tree bough oils sustainably

harvested from B.C.“It’s really about celebrating your environment,” said Macdon-

ald. “We’re always looking at our own environment for inspira-tion and try to source things from the area, from materials to workers, to local artisans. That’s all a part of sustainability.”

Although becoming more sustainable is not always easy, it is an experience that carries many rewards.

“There are many things [the Four Seasons did] over the past few years that have not only been good for the environment, but have actually saved us money over the long term,” said Jeannotte.

In an effort to reduce linen usage, which carries a significant annual cost and wastes energy and water to maintain, the Four

“It actually took us two years to find the perfect napkin.

We wanted a product that was environmentally friendly

but still of high quality in texture and appearance”

– Claire Macdonald, marketing manager, the Wikaninnish Inn

The Wickaninnish Inn features wood panelling, window and door trims, crown mouldings and baseboards sourced from salvaged or recycled wood



Seasons purchased new residential tables, eventually completely eliminating linens from its buffets. “Three years later, we had completely paid the tables off,” said Jean-notte.

Secondary effects of the Four Seasons’ improvement efforts were also carried down to suppliers.

“As we started to look at our purchas-ing practices, we found that we could mo-tivate our suppliers to rethink their own practices,” Jeannotte said. “It was as easy

as asking for alternatives to Styrofoam containers or requesting 100% post-con-sumer napkins.”

This trickle effect of sustainability pro-vides an example of how small but con-sistent efforts can lead to significant out-comes.

“It’s not about being 100% green,” Jean-notte explained. “It’s about being greener. Every little bit we do makes it better, from our purchasing practices to the menus we offer.”

Macdonald also discussed the import-ance of having a top-down support struc-ture in place.

“Our commitment to sustainabil-ity comes down from management and is part of the soul of the hotel. And it’s a journey that never ends. We’re always looking for ways to get to the next level.”

“But you can’t do it all at once,” Jean-notte cautions. “Just start chipping away slowly and eventually things will start to happen.”

“It’s really about celebrating

your environment. We’re always

looking at our own environment

for inspiration and try to source

things from the area, from

materials to workers, to local

artisans. That’s all a part of

sustainability”

– Claire Macdonald, marketing manager,

Wickaninnish Inn



“MEC has a goal that by the end of 2012 at least 50% of the materials we

use for apparel in our MEC brand products will be bluesign certified”

– Esther Speck, director of sustainability, Mountain Equipment Co-op

MEC at

Why the popular Canadian

outdoor store is being

recognized for its contribution

to the health of communities

the White House

Mountain Equipment Co-op director of sustainability

Esther Speck: “over time we’ll have more products with

environmentally preferred attributes”

By Peter DeVries

In an event held at the White House on April 12, U.S. President Barack Obama paid tribute to the Outdoor Industry Associa-tion (OIA) Sustainability Work-ing Group (SWG) for the work

it’s been doing to improve communities. Mountain Equipment Co-op’s participa-tion as both a founding member and cur-rent OIA SWG advisory council mem-ber adds a Canadian point of interest to the prestigious honour. By engaging pro-grams such as Bluesign, which provides

independent auditing of textile mills to ensure manufacturing processes are run-ning green, and using clothing tags that mark products as sustainably sourced and manufactured, MEC takes caring for the environment seriously. We spoke with the company’s director of sustainability,



Esther Speck, to learn more about how MEC has been infusing its operations with earth-friendly initiatives, and what it’s meant for business.

What is the Outdoor Industry Association and how is MEC involved?It’s a North American association for the outdoors. Members of the OIA include brands [such as MEC], retailers and other suppliers. A number of these got together in 2007 to develop a shared product sus-tainability-indexing tool that provides a standardized framework and language to assess product level sustainability.

Over the last four or five years, over 200 brands and retailers worked together on this index as part of the OIA’s sustain-ability working group.

These also comprised the founding members of the Sustainable Apparel Co-alition, which is a broader coalition of brands that represent about 30% of global apparel and footwear supply chains. The [SAC] adopted the OIA’s eco-index as the basis for its apparel and footwear index.

As a key member of the OIA, where is MEC in its journey toward sustainable industry practices? The outdoor industry, from my perspective, has always been conscious of the integral business link between

its core purpose, which is promoting being active in the outdoors, and the importance of protecting the outdoors. I believe that businesses within the industry have been active in conservation and protection issues for years, and that would have been the first stage.

Now I think the second stage, which at an industry level really started in 2007, is about product and operations impact. The work to really examine and index, in a systematic way, our collective and shared supply chains around products really started at that time.

What are MEC’s customers seeing as a result?Our customers are seeing an ongoing evo-lution in the integrity of our products. We have a product sustainability symbol and that marks a product as unique or inter-esting from a sustainability perspective.

Right now the attributes are environ-mental; for example, products that are made from recycled polyester, or from organically grown cotton, or repurposed materials, and we hope to expand that in the future to social attributes. Over time we’ll have more products with environ-mentally preferred attributes.

Why is MEC investing in this model of doing business? MEC exists to help people get outside. We do that by providing products and

services, and that’s bottom line for us. We do that in a way that has a lower environmental impact and creates more positive values. Everything we do has to have a business case to help us achieve our purpose. This comes in on a number of different levels.

I would say it’s three things: one is appeal to consumers. The brand value connection is an important component. Second is business continuity, and the work we’re doing with our supply chain helps us to have better and stronger rela-tionships with our suppliers.

Third is access to resources and places to play. In the longer term, it’s to ensure that we have access to the materials we need to make products, for example, that we have water to dye our materials and ac-cess to petrochemical bases that we require to make our products, and it’s about pro-tecting the places where our members play.

What is MEC’s plan for the future of sustainable operations?MEC has a goal that by the end of 2012 at least 50% of the materials we use for ap-parel in our MEC brand products will be bluesign certified. I think what we’re do-ing is creating a common learning and understanding platform and creating a market for better designed products. And that’s a collaborative effort – it’s some-thing MEC could never do on its own.

“It’s to ensure that we have access to the materials we need to make

products, ... and it’s about protecting the places where our members play”

– Esther Speck,

director of sustainability,

Mountain Equipment Co-op



Waste notCollecting organic material

could be the new gold rush

Metro Vancouver senior engineer, solid waste department, Andrew Marr: “there is an opportunity for companies that want to get into the business

of hauling organics”

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Peter DeVries

Metro Vancouver last year launched a new program aimed at in-creasing waste diver-sion in the region. The plan set four guide-

lines: reducing waste, maximizing reuse, recovering energy from waste, and dispos-ing of what’s left only after it’s been deplet-ed of its reusable qualities. Called the



“Most forward-thinking businesses know that

waste equals cost.”

– Andrew Marr,

senior engineer solid waste department,

Metro Vancouver

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Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan, the goal is to bring waste diversion levels from 55% to 70% by 2015. Andrew Marr, senior engineer at Metro Vancouver’s solid waste depart-ment, believes the region is on track to achieve its goal.

The greatest opportunity, says Marr, lies in organic waste collection. Accord-ing to Metro Vancouver’s 2010 garbage facts, the region produces more than three million tonnes of waste per year. Of that amount, about half is organic.

Construction sites and businesses are the largest contributors, each producing about 1.2 million tonnes. The construction industry diverts around 76% of its organ-ic waste, whereas businesses do less well at 44%.

Residential units contribute signifi-cantly less waste, but their diversion rate is notably different: multi-family homes di-vert only 16% of their 260,000 tonnes and single-family homes divert almost three times as much, separating 46% of their 800,000 tonnes.

Aside from minimizing environmental impacts, the plan offers some promising opportunities for businesses and entrepre-neurs who are looking to capitalize on the waste diversion market. By the numbers, businesses, which throw out the greatest amount of organic waste, offer the best op-portunity for building an industry around collection.

“If you look at organics, about half of it comes from businesses, and most of what

they throw out is food,” said Marr.Marr believes achieving the change can

be accomplished in part by selling organic waste collection as a viable business.

“There is an opportunity for companies that want to get into the business of haul-ing organics,” said Marr.

According to Metro Vancouver, the market supports the idea that the creation of these businesses is financially feasible. They won’t get any competition from Met-ro Vancouver either, said Marr. “Metro Vancouver is not in the business of process-ing organics, and it has no intention to be.”

The cost of managing garbage is just over $100 per tonne. The cost to take or-ganic material to a composting facility is around $60 to $70 per tonne. Although the numbers can vary somewhat, said Marr, there is money to be made if busi-nesses do it right, and he says Metro Van-couver is trying to help.

“We want to increase the financial in-centive to divert organics,” said Marr. So they’re setting the stage for success for those wishing to invest in the business.

By setting up a price structure that makes it profitable to divert garbage, they’re creating an economic and regu-latory climate that will make these busi-nesses viable. Conversely, by imposing disposal bans and fees, they’re trying to compel people to leave the pure garbage businesses.

“We are providing some certainty for investors by saying the rules are going to change and here’s how they’re going to

change, and here’s the timing. People will recognize that this [will] happen, and that it’s [not] a risky business.”

Marr noted that in order to foster the healthy growth of new collection busi-nesses, a balance must be struck between the rate at which waste-producing busi-nesses divert more of their organic waste and that at which new waste collection businesses sprout up.

He thinks businesses will be receptive. “Most forward-thinking businesses know that waste equals cost,” he said, adding they face their own challenges in facilitat-ing the change. Many of them simply don’t have the space to house the facilities need-ed to divert their waste.

To help remedy the problem, Metro Vancouver is working with municipalities to modify existing bylaws to ensure new business construction provides for space to house containers that would facilitate this type of recycling.

Nonetheless, there are other cost sav-ings for businesses making the change as well. For example, diverting organic waste means that a business would need a small-er container for garbage, and that it might need to be collected less frequently.

“We can’t put numbers to it yet, but cer-tainly anecdotally it looks like significant changes are happening,” said Marr. Asked what financial incentives Metro Vancou-ver has created for would-be investors and entrepreneurs, his answer was simple:

“The incentive is the business opportunity itself.”



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Business Excellence Series 2012 - Sustainability

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