Businesses Get Climate Smart: 505-Junk
About this story
- Organization
Climate Smart Business - Region
Metro Vancouver and Capital Regional District, BC - Area of impact
Environment - Type of investment
Loan, grant and scholarships
505-Junk is a recycling company specializing in junk removal for residential, construction and commercial clients in the Greater Vancouver region. Co-owners Barry Hartman and Scott Foran, have always been committed to running their business in an environmentally progressive way. All the materials they pick up are sorted to prioritize upcycling or re-use. Items beyond re-use are sent to local recycling companies. With this approach, 505-Junk is minimizing waste which also results in greenhouse gas (GhG) reductions for their customers.
But how many GhGs are they helping their customers reduce? Barry and Scott wanted to learn to calculate these avoided carbon emissions and communicate this positive impact to their customers. To do this, they turned to Climate Smart.
VIDEO | Meet other Climate Smart businesses:
This video profiles several Climate Smart alumni businesses, who have cut costs and cut carbon.
Featuring: PNE, Continental Roofing, Digitech, Mills Office Productivity, Shift Delivery, Procurify, 505-Junk, Recycling Alternative and Vancity.
Climate Smart provides training, tools and technical assistance to businesses and organizations that want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Participants learn how to calculate their carbon footprint and then identify greenhouse gas reduction opportunities. The program also helps them estimate cost savings and explore ways to communicate the impact to customers, suppliers, employees, and other stakeholders.
“Beyond the customer communications opportunities—which was our initial interest—Climate Smart helped us analyze our business to identify changes that could increase efficiencies for us,” says Barry. “By investing in more efficient trucks and route optimization, we’ve increased our margins and freed up time to expand our business. All this while reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Scholarships for Vancity business members:
Vancity offers business members $1000 scholarships to support Climate Smart Training. Training includes:
- 12 hours of classroom training (three half-day training sessions) for one - two employees
- Web-based carbon management software for calculating the business’s footprint
- Peer-based learning with other businesses in your sessions
- One-on-one technical support with a Climate Smart client advisor
To find out more about scholarships or to register for a Climate Smart program, contact: greenbusiness@vancity.com or contact our partner, Climate Smart:
www.climatesmartbusiness.com | info@climatesmartbusiness.com
T: 604-CLIMATE (254-6283) | Toll-free 1-888-688-6283
Recognizing the value of this training for entrepreneurs, Vancity funded development of Climate Smart in 2007 and continues to support the program. Michelle Bonner, Climate Smart’s vice-president and training manager, says that more than 800 small-to-medium size enterprises have completed the Climate Smart Business program to date. That equates to in excess of 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions measured—the same as having about 259,000 cars on the road for a year. On average, Climate Smart-certified businesses reduce their annual GHG emissions by 14% within two years of participating in the program. To date, a sample of 41 Climate Smart businesses have collectively reduced annual operational costs by more than $1 million dollars.
“I find it so encouraging when we bring together these groups,” Michelle says. “The peer learning and exchanges are really inspiring. One company wanted to move away from printing catalogues but didn’t know where to start. Another company had already done that, so they shared what they learned. The education and impact reaches beyond the companies that are in the room.”
Vancity’s Green Business Manager, Maureen Cureton, is one of Climate Smart’s team of training experts.
“Through this partnership, we’re pleased to have helped hundreds of businesses to make strategic and operational changes to benefit their organization while reducing their carbon footprint,” says Maureen. “To quote Barry: ‘It doesn’t get any better than that!’”
