Calgary, AB,
21
April
2017
|
08:19
America/Denver

City of Calgary wins Canada's Greenest Employers Award

In recognition of Earth Day, The City of Calgary is pleased to announce that it has been named among Canada’s Greenest Employers of 2017. This is the second consecutive year that The City has been recognized. The awards were announced nationally today by the awards organization, Mediacorp Canada.

“It’s an honour being recognized two years in a row,” says Christopher Collier, Director, Environmental & Safety Management (ESM). “What’s great about this award is that it recognizes the great work, both the seen and unseen, in advancing environmental responsibility and stewardship. The City of Calgary continues to be a national leader.”

In its award application, The City of Calgary highlighted several environmental initiatives and achievements that are part of its corporate performance: 

Highlights of environmental management programs within City operations:

  • Building Accreditations – The City was Canada’s first major municipality to adopt (2004) a sustainable building policy requiring all new or renovated City workplaces to be LEED-certified. To date, The City and community partners have built or renovated over 30 LEED-certified buildings.
  • Corporate Waste Diversion Program – This comprehensive program addresses waste material produced from 1) City employees’ daily activities in the work places; 2) City construction and demolition (C&D) projects; and, 3) the public’s activities on City-owned properties. The largest percentage of waste generated was from City C&D projects, with 99 per cent of waste recycled.
  • Multi-Family Recycling – With the implementation of Multi-Family recycling in February 2016, 82 per cent of multi-family residents now have a recycling program in their building. This is an increase from 39 per cent before the program implementation.
  • ReTree YYC – In 2016, ReTree YYC planted approximately 9,400 trees and more than 94,000 trees were pruned for preservation. The ReTree YYC program was established to help Calgary’s urban forest recover from the September 2014 snowstorm.
  • Green procurement policy for products and services purchased – Recognizes that the purchase decisions of our employees can make a difference in the pursuit of improving environmental, ethical and economic performance. In 2016, 30 contracts with sustainable environmental and ethical evaluation criteria were completed by The City.
  • “30 in 30” water conservation plan – The City continues to implement its water conservation strategy to ensure Calgary has an adequate water supply. The "30 in 30" plan covers numerous conservation measures to reduce water consumption by 30 per cent over the next 30 years.

Highlights of partnerships with community organizations:

  • Green Calgary – Provide workshops and educational programming to support Calgarians in living a more sustainable life.
  • Bike Recycling – Bicycles Calgarians no longer use are donated to the Bikes for Kids Program and Bicycles for Humanity.
  • Community Cleanups – Partnership with local community associations. Last year, a record one million kg of waste and nearly 200,000 kg of organics were collected.
  • Lost Spaces – Grassroots organization dedicated to fostering collaborative and engaging public conversation about design and the environment.
  • Pathway and River Cleanup – Annual volunteer event held since 1967.
  • The City works with new Calgarians, new Canadians and English as an Additional Language learners to build understanding of waste and recycling programs.

Another key initiative in 2017 is continued work on Flood Mitigation and Climate Resilience.

-30-