Food and Beverage

Pepe’s Mexican Foods De-Stratification Fan

Challenge

In 2007, a cost effective solution to the dual problem of winter heating and summer cooling was needed at Weston Bakeries’ Pepe’s Mexican Foods facility. The plant was located in a leased property, limiting the options for modifications to the building to deal with heating and cooling issues. In the summer months, the installed HVAC system that serviced employee comfort at the packing zone was suffering from infiltration air from the loading dock area, making the system ineffective on hot days. In the winter, unitary gas fired heaters were used to deal with infiltration air during loading operations, but the installed capacity was insufficient to heat the area during the coldest winter months. Both of these situations led to severe employee discomfort, increased heating and cooling costs and lost productivity. Installation of additional cooling and heating capacity was not an option due to building lease constraints.

 

The main stakeholders in this project were our production staff, central engineering, Enbridge Gas and Arbon Equipment.

Strategy

The main goal of the de-stratification fan was to reduce the impact of infiltration air into the plant from the loading dock area. Air temperatures in the packing area and loading dock areas were to be set at a minimum of 18 Celsius in the winter, where at the loading dock doors, routine temperatures would drop to freezing resulting in icing up of the dock leveling plates. Summer cooling was to be accepted based upon reduced wet bulb readings around the wrapping area, where heat stress breaks were to be avoided. The ACGIH values for heat stress adopted by the company allows for a maximum wet bulb temperature of 29.6 Celsius for light duty work.

 

In the summer of 2007, central engineering did a design options review of each issue in turn. Winter heating options included re-working the loading dock mechanisms to weather seal them against air infiltration, installing additional unitary gas fired heaters, installing high speed roll up doors and strict enforcement of doors closed when not actively loading the trucks. The summer cooling options included, additional HVAC equipment, ceiling drop separation curtains and rotating labor breaks. Each equipment addition would add to the operational cost of the facility, as well as consume available capital.

 

The Conservation Projects contact at Enbridge Gas was consulted as to options that had not been considered for supplemental heating needs. In discussion, options such as infrared heating and increased insulation value doors were considered. An out-of-the-box option was also put forward in the guise of large diameter fans. These fans had been installed by commercial clients of Enbridge and it was indicated that they were gaining more popular use. These fans were incented via the Gas Saver Program from Enbridge and this gained our interest as a low cost option to deal with our heating needs.

 

Arbon Equipment was contacted in mid summer 2007, to provide details on large diameter slow rotation fans that are designed to de-stratify large areas. During review of the Revolution Fans offered by Arbon, it was apparent that both heating and cooling issues could be handled. The attached figure from ASHRAE 55 section 5.2.3 tabulates the relationship between air speed and apparent cooling, in effect the “wind chill effect”, and was referenced by Arbon as the reasoning behind the summer benefits of these fans. Enbridge Gas was contacted with our intent to install an Arbon Revolution 24 foot diameter fan in July 2007, and they offered incentives under the Gas Saver Program.

 

In the fall of 2007, the main challenge for the fan installation to proceed was to convince leadership that the design would be valid and offset a conventional gas heating solution. Validity of the design was supported by numerous successful installations in other facilities in the upper USA and also in Ontario, and was openly endorsed by the conservation contact at Enbridge Gas with a pre installation commitment for incentives. This would limit the funding required by the company to get this first trial fan installed. Fall back upon a conventional gas fired unit heater system was little risk due to immediate availability of gas fired unitary heaters.

Result

In the fall of 2007, a 24 foot diameter Revolution Fan was installed half-way between the loading docks and the packaging area. Upon start up, it was found that the wind chill effect provided significant comfort cooling in the immediate areas of the fan. A secondary effect was realized in that the down draft of air and donut shaped air flow of the fan did act as an air dam between the loading docks and the packaging area. This resulted in the AC air in the immediate packaging areas not being displaced away from the employees. A further effect was to wind chill the loading dock employees from early September heat. Mid winter testing of de-stratification was planned and the results below found that over 10 Celsius temperature rises could be had using the de-stratification fan only, with the added benefit of turning off the four unitary gas fired dock heaters that were in place; each dock heater was approximately 100,000 Btu/hr in capacity.

 

In January of 2008, two temperature trials verified the de-stratification effects and temperature rise at floor level by using this fan. In one trial, the fan only was used for 24hrs to heat the floor level areas, and in the second test only unitary heaters were used with the fan off and locked out. Temperatures were checked at the loading dock doors and between the packing area and the large fan. The results were normalized against actual outdoor temperatures at the local airport to remove the possibility of a warmer day skewing results. The attached graphs show that with the fan on the temperatures at floor level were increased from 10 Celsius to almost 20 Celsius, and further into the plant, towards the packing areas, the floor temperatures were increased from 14 Celsius to over 25 Celsius.

 

The business case to drive use of de-stratification resulted from net reductions in capital required and operational costs. The installation of supplementary summer cooling AC and winter unitary gas heaters would have required significant structural roof reinforcement, additional operating utility costs, and special permission from the building owner to do modifications to the structure. The summer AC costs were estimated at $5000 for structural reinforcement and over $15,000 for installation of 15 tons of AC, with the cooling season hydro cost of $3700. Winter heating costs were estimated at $7500 per unit heater added, where it was estimated two units were needed and consuming $5300 of natural gas. Total year one costs of the conventional approach would have been $36,500 with the annual utility bill increased by $9000. Installed, the fan cost $8800, with Enbridge’s Gas Saver program incentive valued at $5600. Utility use of a de-stratification fan is approximately $290 in the cooling year and approximately $400 in the heating year, without the need for natural gas. Total year one costs were $3890, with the annual utility bill increasing by $690. The fan would save the plant over 37,000 kWhrs and 18,000 m3 of natural gas per year.

 

This trial project proved the validity of using large diameter fans to both provide seasonal heating and cooling effects to our factory floors. Subsequent to this initial installation, fans have been added to three other Ontario Weston factories to off set conventional remediation using the AC and unitary heater solution.

 

 

Professional Services

CivicAction’s Greening Greater Toronto – Reducing Energy Use In Office Buildings

Challenge

Improving the energy efficiency of our building stock presents a vast untapped potential to increase our bottom lines, better our workplaces and protect our environment. Commercial buildings account for one third of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the GTA, and consume 37 per cent of the electricity and 17 per cent of the natural gas. There is a well documented “efficiency gap” between the potential investments in cost-effective energy efficiency and the low levels of investment that are actually occurring. Barriers to broader adoption of commercial building energy efficiency include:

• The lack of a measurement standard for energy performance;

• Difficulty in acquiring data to build business cases;

• Ineffective communication between tenants and building owners; and

• Lack of broader education about energy efficiency

Strategy

Greening Greater Toronto has launched the Commercial Building Energy Initiative (CBEI) in September 2009 to address these barriers and improve the energy efficiency of the building stock in the GTA and beyond. CBEI is guided by a Leadership Council of over 50 dedicated members who are committed to work together to improve energy efficiency. Its membership includes 10 major landlords, 10 large tenants representing 40 per cent of GTA building stock and 40 million sq ft of space, service providers and other partners. In a Leadership Council meeting in early 2010, we developed three projects to build knowledge and to inspire behavioural change and collective action:

• Eliminate Knowledge Gaps: Business Case and Living Library

• Greening Our Workplaces Tenant Series

• Corporate Challenge

Business Case and Living Library

In order to bridge the knowledge gaps between stakeholders, Greening Greater Toronto, with partners from The Boston Consulting Group and Halsall Associates Limited, developed a business case for energy efficiency for both tenants and landlords of commercial buildings. The business case looks at major opportunities for savings, the qualitative and quantitative benefits of green buildings, case studies of landlords and tenants who have undertaken energy efficiency measures, and steps on how to get there.

The Leadership Council has also compiled a “living library” catalogue of case studies and energy benchmarks to promote best-practices for energy efficiency. These case studies are taken from their own experience with energy efficiency initiatives, and serve to showcase the great work that is going on in the region. The case studies have found a permanent home on the Partners in Project Green Environmental Best Practices Database.

Greening Our Workplaces Tenant Series

This project invites tenants to host a meeting for neighbouring tenants of the same building, to showcase tenant-led energy efficiency initiatives, with an objective to share best practices, processes, and results, to support and encourage tenants’ energy efficiency initiatives. Also present at these meetings are the landlord, to show support to their tenants, Halsall Associates, to present the business case, and BOMA and Enbridge, to inform tenants about available incentives.

Corporate Challenge

Commercial building owners and managers will set a baseline and benchmark their energy use. Over the next several years, these landlords and their tenants will work together to reduce their energy use and compete for energy efficiency awards in the Corporate Challenge to be launched in the new year.

Result

We have certainly seen how participation in this initiative has changed peoples’ behaviour and the way they think about energy use, and are encouraged as they continue to spread the message. We’ve created and compiled a wealth of resources, including over 18 case studies, a business case for energy efficiency, and information about incentive programs. Our Greening Our Workplaces Tenant Series has connected nearly 200 tenants and landlords to each other (who would otherwise be not communicate with each other) and continues to be valuable forum for information and experience-sharing.

Although it is too early to quantify the Commercial Building Energy Initiative’s impact, we expect that our Corporate Challenge participants will be able to collectively reduce their energy use by at least 10 per cent over the duration of the four-year challenge. We’ve seen how quickly we can mobilize senior executive engagement, establish a new spirit of collaboration and deliver material results. Now that landlords and tenants are talking, they’re exploring waste and water as well.

Manufacturing

Carmanah’s Lighting Solution

Challenge

Global security company Lockheed Martin assessed their Orlando, Florida facility and found their 25-year-old streetlights needed replacing, along with the underground wiring that powered them. Lockheed needed an easy-to-install, field-proven solar-powered lighting system, so they partnered with Florida-based Carmanah distributors SESCO and HD Supply to conduct a feasibility study.

Lockheed had already committed to find ways to reduce energy usage across their facilities worldwide, and had benefited from successful installation of energy-efficient lighting at other facilities. Now they were looking to build similar momentum in Orlando. However, Lockheed had another ‘green’ consideration to contend with: cost. In the past, solar-powered outdoor lighting was a costly alternative.

Strategy

Following a comparison between solar and AC-powered fixtures, representatives from SESCO and Lockheed confirmed that the Carmanah EverGEN solar LED streetlights would be a good alternative for the company—and would produce significant cost savings for the company. The EverGEN solar LED lights are cost-effective to install and come with an energy management system that provides enhanced autonomy while ensuring reliable, all-night operation.The EverGEN solar LED lights are the most common solar outdoor lighting in Florida, offering the most practical and economical alternative to conventional hard-wire systems.

The lighting system was installed along the facility’s main entrance way and a main loop road. Lockheed operates the lighting on an efficient split night system: the light comes on at dusk at full intensity for 5 hours, then dims to 25% of full intensity, and then returns to full intensity two hours before dawn.

Result

The installation of EverGEN solar LED lights has helped Lockheed Martin to manage their energy requirements and costs. Installation of the EverGEN lights, including purchase price and maintenance, is $342,000 over a twenty year period. Conventional AC-powered streetlights, including new wiring and electricity costs, would have been $563,000 over twenty years. The Carmanah EverGEN solar LED streetlights will save $221,000 over twenty years.

The installation has helped Lockheed save energy costs while moving towards more sustainable business practices.

Manufacturing

Kruger Products LP – Emissions Reduction: Biogasification

Challenge

Kruger Products LP is Canada’s leading manufacturer of tissue products for consumer, commercial and industrial use with well-known brands such as Cashmere®, Purex®, SpongeTowels® and Scotties®. Kruger Products has declared an objective of reducing its energy consumption by 15% as well as its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15% over the next five years as part of its Sustainability 2015 initiative being launched in 2010. Sustainability 2015 is a five year strategic initiative aimed at reducing its environmental impact by reducing its energy and water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, waste, emissions from transport and packaging material. Papermaking by its very nature is a large user of both electrical and thermal energy. In addition it is a capital-intensive industry with large machinery requirements. At its New Westminster, BC mill, Kruger Products was looking to reduce its energy costs for operations while lowering its greenhouse gas emissions and its use of fossil fuels.

Strategy

Working with Nexterra, a company specializing in advanced biomass gasification solutions, a technology was installed to covert locally sourced wood waste destined for landfill into a clean burning syngas that is fired directly into a boiler in place of natural gas to produce steam. This steam is then used throughout the mill for a variety of uses. This application is the first system of its kind in the pulp and paper industry as well as the first in Canada. To successfully implement this system, Kruger Products, Nexterra and FPInnovations formed a consortium to build the new system. The project received support from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the British Columbia Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) Fund and Ethanol BC.

Result

The biomass gasification system became operational in December 2009 and has already on track to reach its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 22,000 tonnes per year. This represents a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions at the mill – the equivalent of planting 3 million trees or removing 5,500 cars from Canadian highways. In addition, the mill will displace 445,000 GJ of natural gas annually, the equivalent to heat 3,500 Canadian homes. This significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions at this facility and represent a key contribution towards Kruger Products’ overall objective of a 15% reduction as part of its Sustainability 2015 initiative.

Website Links

www.krugerproducts.ca/sustainability

Food and Beverage

Frito Lay – Zero Emission Trucks

Challenge

As Canada’s largest snack food manufacturer, Frito Lay Canada (FLC) sells millions of bags of product each year. These bags are transported to thousands of retail customers each day through the company’s extensive direct to store delivery network. To service customers from coast-to-coast, FLC operates one the country’s largest private fleets, which accounts for a significant portion of FLC’s carbon footprint. For many years, the company has been committed to continually upgrading improving its delivery vehicle fleet with new and innovative technologies to support its overall supply chain environmental sustainability goals.

Strategy

FLC has made great strides in making its delivery fleet more efficient by improving its existing trucks (improvements include anti-idling mechanisms, more efficient cabin heating systems, skylights in the trailers to reduce the need for artificial lighting, etc), introducing new lighter-weight, more efficient Sprinter vehicles, and by optimizing delivery routes to reduce kilometers driven. Due to these efforts, since 2005 FLC has avoided growing its fleet by 250 vehicles and has actually reduced its fleet size by 55 vehicles while sales have grown.

In June 2010, the company announced its latest fleet innovation with the introduction of zero-emission, all-electric trucks into its delivery fleet. These were made possible through a partnership with Transport Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, making FLC the country’s first food manufacturer to introduce fully-electric vehicles into its delivery fleet.

The six electric vehicles are based at FLC’s major distribution centres across the country – three in Brampton (ON), one in Ottawa (ON), one in Surrey (BC) and one in Laval (QC). Each of the six zero-emission electric vehicles has a 60 kilometer per day range, which meets the daily kilometer needs of the majority of the routes from these distribution centres.

The zero-emission electric vehicles were made by Smith Electric Vehicles, the world’s leading manufacturer of electric vehicles. The six electric vehicles are powered by electricity from the grid, offset by renewable energy credits, and at the end of the battery lifespan (3-5 years or longer) they will be returned to Smith Electric for recycling. As the company purchases renewable energy credits to offset the usage of these vehicles, the electric trucks operate with zero on-road carbon emissions. They also produce zero pollutants and particulate emissions, unlike traditional fossil fuel engines.

The fully electric vehicles feature a 120 kW induction motor that produces virtually no engine noise. A 40 kWh battery pack gives the vehicle a 60 km range and regenerative braking charges the battery while the truck decelerates. The top speed of the electric trucks is governed at 80 km/h to help maximize its range, which makes the vehicles suitable for urban delivery routes.

Result

The new zero-emission electric trucks are now servicing customers in the Brampton, Ottawa, Surrey, and Laval areas. The government, media and public response to these vehicles has been overwhelmingly positive.

Frito Lay Canada will continue its journey to improve its delivery fleet. As electric trucks are not suitable for every area of the country and every route type, the company will continue to work towards a fleet that’s comprised of several types of highly-efficient vehicles that meet its various route needs and driving distances across the country.

Website Links

• FLC Environmental Sustainability Website

• Soundbite from Marc Guay, FLC President

• Soundbite from Helmi Ansari, FLC Sustainability Leader

• FLC Fleet Case Study

Manufacturing

Kruger Products LP – Alternative Energy Project: Biomass

Challenge

Kruger Products LP is Canada’s leading manufacturer of tissue products for consumer, commercial and industrial use with well-known brands such as Cashmere®, Purex®, SpongeTowels® and Scotties®™. Kruger Products has declared an objective of reducing its energy consumption by 15% as well as its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15% over the next five years as part of its Sustainability 2015 initiative being launched in 2010. Sustainability 2015 is a five year strategic initiative aimed at reductions in energy, GHG emissions, water consumption, packaging use, and transportation footprint. Papermaking by its very nature is a large user of both electrical and thermal energy. In addition it is a capital-intensive industry with large machinery requirements. At its New Westminster, BC mill, Kruger Products was looking to reduce its energy costs for operations while lowering both greenhouse gas emissions and the use of fossil fuels.

Strategy

Working with Nexterra, a company specializing in advanced biomass gasification solutions, a technology was installed to convert locally sourced wood waste destined for landfill into a clean burning gas that is fired directly into a boiler in place of natural gas to produce steam. This steam is then used throughout the mill for a variety of uses. This application is the first system of its kind in the pulp and paper industry as well as the first in Canada. To successfully implement this system, Kruger Products, Nexterra and FPInnovations formed a consortium to build the new system. The project received support from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the British Columbia Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) Fund and Ethanol BC.

Result

The biomass gasification system became operational in December 2009 and is already on track to reach its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 22,000 tonnes per year. This represents a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions at the mill the equivalent of planting 3 million trees or removing 5,500 cars from Canadian highways. In addition, the mill will displace 445,000 GJ of natural gas annually, the equivalent to heat 3,500 Canadian homes. This is a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions at this facility and represents a key contribution towards Kruger Products™ overall objective of a 15% reduction as part of its Sustainability 2015 initiative.

Retail

Staples Canada – Making Eco…Easy

Challenge

Our goal/challenge was internal and external recognition of Eco Easy as our commitment to the environment. It was to be our mantra, and more importantly, it was to make our commitments easy to understand, easy to see, easy to participate in, and easy to measure.

We needed to define what environment meant to Staples in Canada. The definition needed to form the foundation of an action plan and it needed to be something that would resonate with our customers and associates. We needed to understand what moves us to be better and to do better. Executive commitment to this initiative was critical if we wanted to make a noticeable difference on a national scale.

We needed establish a cross functional group that could meet and discuss current initiatives, legislation, potential program ideas and who had the ability to implement change. We needed to communicate clearly, frequently, and in the appropriate format internally and externally. We need to look at what physical space we allocated to programs, what tools we provided to make execution or participation easy. Consistency in our communication was imperative as was the constant connection to the brand eco easy.

We needed to understand the complexities of what we were trying to accomplish and to stay focused on what we could change and how we could motivate change through education and also by connecting environmental sustainability with financial sustainability. We needed to be open to working with partners, consultants, government, NGOs, and ENGOs to build viable programs.

Strategy

Committee

In early 2009, a cross-functional team was formally established. This team, aptly named the Eco Easy Committee, was scheduled to meet quarterly and it consisted of representation from all departments within the Canadian organization. The committee was to be chaired by the VP or Merchandising and the Manager of Environmental Services to ensure products and services were equally represented. One of the first tasks of the group was to determine what environment represented to Staples. We determined our focus would be as follows:

Environmentally preferable products
Easy Recycling
Energy Efficiency
Education and Awareness.

This would be our key message and all initiatives would fall under one of the four main categories.

Internal/Store Communications

After our first eco easy meeting it was clear that many were working on great initiatives but few were aware, even within the same office. If people within the same building were not aware then the store managers and associates definitely did not know what environment meant to Staples. This created a great communications challenge. How do you engage over 15,000 people?

First task was to create a dedicated place on our intranet where all documents pertaining to environment would be housed, all documents had to be branded eco easy and have the same look and feel so they would be easily recognizable.

Second task was to create a high level overview of what moves us to be responsible, what programs we have in place, and what we are investigating. This overview was originally released as Staples Environment Fact Sheet, but was re-named mid year to Eco Easy at a Glance.

Third was to use existing communication channels to reach our associates; we made a commitment to include content whenever possible and to ensure we had prominent features during times like earth hour, earth day, etc. We integrated content into quarterly stake meetings as well as our annual conference.

Internal communications is a pivotal piece and one that requires a constant commitment, if we are to keep the message alive and our associates engaged in the belief that we can make a difference. External Communications Very similar to internal, we needed a dedicated page on the Staples internet site staples.ca/environment. Eco Easy at a Glance was designed to be used both internally and externally.

Partnerships

We realized that there are many who have preceded us on similar journeys and that to be successful we could learn from others. We shared experiences with business partners, joined retail groups, attended stewardship conferences, and liaised with our counterparts in the US.

Earth cycle planning (ecp)

In the fall of 2008 we had engaged a consulting company to assist with our waste management program, particularly MoE compliance in Ontario. In 2009 we expanded that relationship to make earth cycle planning (ecp) our national environmental consultant. The role of ecp was to manage our existing portfolio, report quarterly, investigate additional diversion opportunities, assist with internal communications, we a point of contact for store managers, assist with sourcing process, look for opportunities to engage associates. They became a member of the extended Staples family and were considered a critical participant in the cross functional meetings.

Tools

When we looked at the space dedicated to recycling in stores it was not always consistent or highly visible. There were small fixtures in various places in the store and while they were adjacent to the product for re-sale it did not make a visible statement to customers or associates about our commitments. One of the items we felt was important was to design and launch our own recycling fixture both for the sales floor and for the lunchrooms in our stores.

The fixtures for the sales floor had to be mobile, easy to clean, easy to use and highly visible. Merchandising, Fixture Group, Signage, Facility Services worked together to create a fixture that was included in our promotional planner, was clearly signed and again made it obvious to all the we were committed to recycling. We launched the fixture at our annual conference last April and began to roll out as of April 22nd 2009. Programs We need to understand our program capabilities and build roll out plans once we had the necessary tools to execute set in place.

Result

Eco Easy Committee

Our committee has now grown to over 20 members, many of who asked if they could join because they were excited about the progress we were making. This is not meeting for the sake of meeting but rather a group of fiercely passionate individuals who are eager to roll up their sleeves and build our programs.

Internal/Store Communications

A dedicated portlet for Environment was launched in April 2009 all content was updated and branded eco easy and was available in French and English. Eco Easy at a Glance is updated quarterly and is used as an internal and external tool. There have been two videos produced and multiple articles in our newsletter, and inclusion in multiple podcasts. Internal awareness has never been greater. We had an event in our office to celebrate earth day 2009 including an internal video and a powerful presentation by WWF. A similar event was held in 2010 with table top presentations by our partners to educate associates on what we are doing and on what they can do personally.

External Communications

There have been multiple press releases, inclusion in two flyers, and radio spots focused on the environment. The biggest success has been our Million Cartridge Challenge. We put the call out to Canadians to help us divert 1 million ink/toner cartridges by Earth Day 2009 and it was an overwhelming success. We collected over 1.3 million cartridges and raised the bar to 2 Million by Earth Day 2010–a goal we also met and exceeded.

Partnerships

We consider ecp an extended member of the Staples family; they attend all eco easy committee meetings, special events, and help us understand the national landscape as it pertains to waste and recycling. Through their assistance we launched lunchroom room recycling in Ontario locations in 2009 (where end markets existed); launched e-cycling in Ontario and for the first time could produce a quarterly diversion report.

Tools

The fixtures were released to all stores between April and June 2009, to date we have had multiple customer requests to sell these fixtures. They are bright, well signed and easy to use. We launched with a detailed information kit that addressed questions at the local level.

Including a fixture for the lunchroom was a risk but we took it and many associates were very appreciative of our efforts albeit concerned about how to execute. Again with this fixture we launched quick reference guides to help stores understand how the fixtures worked and program rollout plans. We installed both the lunchroom and sales floor fixtures in our home office in mid 2009. We also looked at signage placement on the fixtures corporately and at retail and use these space to communicate key environmental messages.

Programs

1. Easy Recycling
All existing programs (ink/toner, cell, re-chargeable battery, mixed paper) were re-released via our newly designed intranet space in conjunction with the rollout of the new fixtures. We found that aside from ink/toner, no program was truly being executed nationally.

As a result, in 2009 we added 23 collection sites for re-chargeable battery and cell phone recycling, 16 additional sites for paper recycling. We collected over 7700lbs of batteries in 2009 which is a 38% increase from the year prior. In 2009 we added electronics recycling in 92 locations, making the total number of sites collecting e-waste 164. These sites collect 2132 metric tones of e-waste in 2009.

In 2009 we added cans/plastic/glass recycling in 107 locations; organic programs were put in place in 79 locations and are expanding to another 70 plus sites in 2010. In 2009 we implemented organics, cans/glass/plastic recycling at our Head Office.

2. Energy Conservation
We re-lamped over 80 locations with lower wattage light bulbs resulting in a reduction of over 4 million kilowatts and we worked with our contractors to ensure the end of life bulbs were properly recycled. 80 plus stores are being done in 2010 as well and we rolled out signage to make people aware that simply changing light bulbs can make a difference. We began to look at our HID stores and determined that fluorescent lighting would be a more responsible choice so we retrofitted our first location in 2009 in Markham, Ontario. This store is on track to reduce its kilowatt consumption by over 100,000kw. We have since completed 5 sites.

3. Environmentally Preferable products
STAPLES is committed to eliminating PVC from their own brand. As a result PVC was removed from new product specifications and has been eliminated from all North American shipments as of December 2009 with remaining markets to follow in 2010. We have asked our suppliers to remove PVC from their products. We transitioned our Head office to environmentally preferable janitorial and cafeteria supplies in 2009 and are rolling out the janitorial program to retail.

Overall Results

We now have numbers for all programs that we operate. The goal was to make eco easy recognizable and understandable. We have achieved recognition of the brand as more than just products. Our managers know where to look for environmental information and we have successfully integrated our commitments into the everyday language of Staples.

We have created awareness for our customers and through our website have given them the ability to see what we do and why we do it. Understanding that is a work in progress. I am very proud of how far we have come in a one year period however true understanding, engagement and participation require a constant commitment and the ability to adapt and be flexible in an area that is constantly evolving.

Did we make it easy, I believe we have, can we continue to make it easier, absolutely and I would be happy to share our story as it unfolds.

Professional Services

Waste To Wonder – Changing Perceptions Of Waste

Challenge

The primary driving force behind the Waste to Wonder initiative was to reduce the huge quantity of re-usable office equipment ending up in landfills and to maximize the charitable benefit of these items through redistribution.

What are the key issues? Mountains of office equipment end up in landfill sites or are needlessly recycled each year. At the same time, thousands of charities are struggling to afford equipment for their workplaces and are spending money that could be better utilized on their core activities and programs. Waste to Wonder wants to change the perception of waste by showing companies that social value, brand value and share value are becoming more predominant in the world of communication and that taking a more socially responsible stand against waste is a key component to success in this area.

Who are the main stakeholders? Our stakeholders are wide ranging as they include our blue-chip and government customer base as well as hundreds of local and international charities and good cause organizations. Our biggest stakeholder is the planet as we help divert thousands of tonnes of equipment away from landfill.

Strategy

The primary driving force behind the Waste to Wonder initiative was to reduce the huge quantity of re-usable office equipment ending up in landfills and to maximize the charitable benefit of these items through redistribution.

What are the key issues? Mountains of office equipment end up in landfill sites or are needlessly recycled each year. At the same time, thousands of charities are struggling to afford equipment for their workplaces and are spending money that could be better utilized on their core activities and programs. Waste to Wonder wants to change the perception of waste by showing companies that social value, brand value and share value are becoming more predominant in the world of communication and that taking a more socially responsible stand against waste is a key component to success in this area.

Who are the main stakeholders? Our stakeholders are wide ranging as they include our blue-chip and government customer base as well as hundreds of local and international charities and good cause organizations. Our biggest stakeholder is the planet as we help divert thousands of tonnes of equipment away from landfill.

Result

The results of Waste to Wonder speak for themselves. Items which were redundant and no longer of use to businesses have been diverted from being waste and reused to benefit projects all around the world. Since 2005, 18 shipments have been sent to 11 countries and supported an estimated 12,000 children annually. The most recent shipment was sent to Haiti to equip an anti-earthquake training centre which will train 4500 tradesmen over the next 5 years on safer building techniques. Our ethos is to minimize waste and maximize charitable benefit. Companies are under increasing pressure to dispose of their redundant equipment in an ethical and environmentally appropriate manner. Our EMP solution ensures that this is achieved to the highest levels and helps ensure corporate responsibility is considered a critical part of how companies conduct themselves in the marketplace. Most businesses genuinely want to do the right thing, as long as the process is relatively simple and the costs are reasonable. Our EMP solution provides them with a cost effective solution which not only supports their environmental aspirations and is aligned with their company policy, but also helps them support good causes in a far more effective way than ever before.

Did this initiative drive innovation that would not have happened otherwise? Yes, massively! We have had feedback from a number of customers which suggests that not only are we solving a waste problem for them but they are experiencing a surge of positive action from their employees. We have had cases of customers’ staff engaging in their own charitable fundraising activities in order to ensure the success of the BIG Bright Future projects. Customers have even sent staff to places as remote as Cameroon and Ghana to see the results first hand.

Contact Info

Website: Waste to Wonder Ontario

E-Mail: [email protected]

Phone: 905-629-4334

Government

Enabling Business To Deliver Sustainable Prosperity Through Results Based Legislation

Challenge

Effective waste management and recycling programs can be costly for business and taxpayers alike. Innovative solutions are needed to enable business to deliver sustainable prosperity

Strategy

British Columbia (BC), Canada, is helping to protect our environment and human health by diverting recyclable materials from landfills and encouraging safe disposal of potentially hazardous products.

The British Columbia government’s approach to industry-led product stewardship enables producers and consumers to assume life-cycle responsibility for a diverse range of products and packaging. Producers and consumers assume this responsibility within a results-based framework characterized by user pay, a level playing field for business, transparency and accountability, stakeholder engagement and a focus on results rather than process.

The results-based structure of the provincial Recycling Regulation empowers business to focus on developing return-collection and management/recycling systems that maximize efficiencies, while respecting a pollution prevention hierarchy.

At present there are industry stewardship programs under the BC Recycling Regulation for electronics, paint, lubricating oil, beverage containers, tires, pharmaceuticals, domestic pesticides, gasoline, solvents and flammable liquids. BC is also considering a new industry product stewardship program for packaging and printed materials. Producers of prescribed products are required to either have an approved product stewardship plan or, as an alternative, comply with prescriptive regulatory requirements. A product stewardship plan defines how producers will collect and manage their products, and should include program objectives, targets and meaningful performance measures.

A ‘producer’ is the person who is

1. the manufacturer of the product and sells it under the manufacturer’s own brand, or
2. if the manufacturer is not located in the province it is the brand-owner, or
3. the first importer of the product into British Columbia for distribution or resale.

The Recycling Regulation defines core requirements for all programs. To ensure accountability for results, producers, or their appointed agency, are required to submit an annual report on the performance of stewardship programs to the Ministry of Environment, and to post their annual reports on the internet

Result

Environmental Results

The BC Recycling Regulation facilitates management of over 120,000 tonnes of solid materials annually with glass, tires and plastic accounting for about 90% of this material. Further, each year over 50 million litres of used oil, solvents, flammables, pesticides and gasoline are collected and responsibly managed under the regulation.

Applying the US EPA ‘Waste Reduction Mode l’ (WARM), industry product stewardship programs operating under the BC Recycling Regulation result in an annual reduction of some 267,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E) and 5.3 million gigajoules of energy relative to land filling. Aluminum cans and tires account for about 82% of these reductions.

Economic and Employment Impacts
A 2008 study by Gardner Pinfold Consulting Economists evaluated economic aspects of eight Recycling Regulation product stewardship programs. Employment generated directly by industry by meeting its stewardship responsibilities is estimated at 1,600 positions in direct employment and a further 500 created indirectly for a combined total of some 2,100 full time equivalent jobs.

The province’s beverage container deposit-refund system accounts for almost three quarters of employment with the stewardship programs for tires, electronics and used oil making up the other main contributors to employment.

More information on the BC Recycling Regulation and the province’s industry products stewardship programs is available online, visit http://www.recycling.gov.bc.ca

Manufacturing

TerraSkin

Challenge

Reduce the carbon footprint of Burt’s Bees by providing improved, sustainable packaging.

Strategy

Reduce soap packaging by 50 % to eliminate Burt’s previous double-layer wrapping system by converting packaging to tree-free,TerraSkin. TerraSkin’s natural barrier properties and excellent print quality allow Burt’s Bees to eliminate their previous double-layer wrapping system and improve print quality.

Terra Skin is a water and tear resistant stock that prints with veggie inks and is Cradle to Cradle Certified- making it a sustainable choice.

Result

The amount of packaging used was reduced by half. TerraSkin proved to be an excellent medium, with better performance in both barrier properties (increasing shelf life )and print quality. Impeccable print quality provides better graphics and higher visual appeal.

50% Reduction of Materials – From 2g to 1g. 1 layer of TerraSkin replaces 2 layers of traditional paper (one wax for barrier, one regular for printing) and provides superior barrier properties for product. Weight reduction leads to less energy use for transit.

The soap wrapper recently won the Silver Award in the PAC (Packaging Association of Canada) Sustainable Packaging Leadership Awards.