Environmental Awards Program

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Since 1996, through the Environmental Awards Program, the City has recognized the outstanding contributions of individuals, groups, organizations, institutions, and businesses to advancing environmental sustainability and protecting and enhancing the natural environment in Burnaby.  

Awards may be presented in six categories (a maximum of one Environmental Award and two Environmental Stars per category):

• Business Stewardship
• Communications
• Community Stewardship
• Green Choices
• Planning and Development
• Youth

There are two levels of awards:

• Environmental Award, for recognition of environmental achievements of a larger scale, such as long-term commitments to an organization or cause, leadership of other individuals, and projects of a significant size and relatively complex scope that have a broader community impact, and
• Environmental Star, for recognition of environmental achievements of a smaller or more individual scale that may nevertheless serve to catalyze larger initiatives and inspire others.

The City of Burnaby is pleased to acknowledge the following individuals, community groups, institutions, and businesses who have made significant contributions to the sustainability of Burnaby’s environment:

2019 Environmental Awards

Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery, in the category of Business Stewardship, for their outstanding achievements integrating environmental sustainability into their business and business operations.

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  • Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery, more commonly known as SPUD, is an online grocery store that connects shoppers to locally grown and organic food with a home delivery service. SPUD is a well-established business brand that originated in Metro Vancouver with many customers throughout Burnaby. In 2018 they opened a new 74,000 square foot warehouse in Burnaby to serve as their new main distribution centre and their head office was relocated to the same location at the beginning of this year.

    SPUD’s business and operations are guided by principles and practices of environmental sustainability that support the goals of Burnaby’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy in the areas of Breathe, Prosper, Nourish, Conserve and Manage.

    One of SPUD’s goals is to reduce the amount of kilometres food travels from farm to fork. Their home delivery service uses optimized routes and helps customers avoid individual car trips to a grocery store. Customers are also provided with the number of kilometres their item has travelled to reach the SPUD warehouse, which allows for a more informed and environmentally conscious decision when shopping online and greater understanding of sustainable food systems. Purchasing from nearby farms and food producers is also a priority for SPUD, which supports the local economy by connecting local farmers and businesses to nearby customers. SPUD reports that they presently support 464 local producers and 58 local farms and that sustainable routing of their delivery vehicles saved over 429,000 kg of greenhouse gas emissions last year, equivalent to taking 91 cars off of the road for 1 year.

    SPUD’s inventory and ordering technologies are also optimized to minimize the risk of food expiring and creating more waste. Combined with their practice of donating food that is near to expiration, it is reported that SPUD has the lowest food waste of any grocery store in Canada at 0.5% and diverted over 558,000 kg of food from landfills in the last year.

    SPUD uses reusable bins and freezer jackets to deliver food and keep it cool and also tries to avoid single use packaging where possible. SPUD also offers to collect any packaging from their customers for proper recycling.

    The new Burnaby distribution centre is part of a new business initiative that will use their technologies and systems to optimize food warehousing, order preparation and home delivery for SPUD and for other retailers in Metro Vancouver. Consolidating more orders onto fewer vehicles will help to reduce the total kilometres travelled and reduce trips customers make to grocery stores.

Joanne Borle, in the category of Green Choices, for outstanding leadership of her housing co-op’s recycling and environmental sustainability committee. 

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  • Joanne Borle is a resident of Pine Ridge Housing Co-Operative in the Forest Grove area of Burnaby. She co-founded the recycling and sustainability committee for this housing co-op over 25 years ago and is still a member of the committee to this day. Joanne’s involvement with this committee’s activities and programs support the goals of the Environmental Sustainability Strategy in the areas of Conserve and Manage.

    In her 25 years with the committee, Joanne has worked tirelessly to educate her neighbours about many different environmental issues, from the use of bear proof food scrap bins to recycling and proper sorting of materials for landfill and composting. Recently, Joanne led a fund raising event with the Developmental Disabilities Association that focused on spring cleaning and repurposing used items, including textiles, rather than disposing these items to the garbage. At her direction, new co-op members receive up to date information about their responsibilities to recycle and food scrap and about City programs that help residents recycle or dispose of large items such as appliances or furniture. Her neighbours note that at times in the past when Joanne has been the only member of the committee she always carried on due to her deep belief in environmental sustainability and the stewardship role that we all share.

Oxford Properties, in the category of Planning and Development, for Riverbend Business Park and notable achievements in site environmental remediation, innovative flood protection and enhancement of waterways, stormwater management, and green buildings.  

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  • Oxford Properties acquired lands in the Big Bend in 2011 with the intent of developing a high quality business park in accordance with the Big Bend community plan. At that time, the lands contained a non-operational landfill and former heavy industrial uses that extended to the edge of nearly all of the Fraser River and a smaller waterway, Sturgeon Slough.

    As of 2019, several phases of the new Riverbend Business Park are now complete and the remaining phases are underway. The development program for the business park, including removal of the landfill and site remediation, innovative flood protection and streamside restoration, stormwater management and green buildings, support the Environmental Sustainability Strategy in the areas of Green, Flow, Build, Breathe, and Prosper.

    Making the lands suitable for development first required the removal of landfill materials from the former paper board mill and the remediation of soils contaminated with many industrial chemicals and materials. Over a four year period, materials removed and those left in place were managed in accordance with provincial regulations and compliance permits to create a suitable development site and reduce the long term pollution risk to nearby waterways. The removed materials were disposed of at another nearly full landfill and fees paid by Oxford were used to finance the proper closure of that landfill, including mitigation systems that provided benefit to a nearby stream.

    Development of the lands provided a significant opportunity to enhance and restore the Fraser River and Sturgeon Slough streamside areas with native shrubs and trees in accordance with City policies and regulations. However, the development of the lands also required construction of a flood protection dike, which typically is incompatible with streamside protection and restoration. Working with City staff and the Province, Oxford’s consultants developed an alternative dike design that set the flood protection works back from the Fraser River and Sturgeon Slough, which allowed existing streamside vegetation to be retained and the restoration of former industrial hardscape next to the Fraser River to natural condition. The design was accepted by provincial regulators and met the City’s policies for streamside protection and enhancement. The approach will result in the protection and restoration of more than 1,000 metres of shoreline and streamside area adjacent to the Fraser River and Sturgeon Slough.

    With regards to the buildings onsite, a combination of green and hard infrastructure is used to treat runoff from parking lots before it is discharged to the Fraser River. The buildings constructed to date have achieved LEED certification and use a variety of green building technologies to reduce energy use and potable water consumption.

2019 Environmental Stars

Hemlock Printers, in the category of Business Stewardship, for their outstanding commitment to environmental sustainability in their business and business operations.

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  • Hemlock Printers is a commercial printing company with long standing roots in Burnaby. In 2007, they received an Environmental Award for business stewardship from the City of Burnaby. Since that time, they have continued to innovate and implement many new programs for environmental sustainability that support the Environmental Sustainability Strategy in the areas of Green, Breathe, Move, Build, Prosper, and Manage. Recognition with an Environmental Star in 2019 is for their new achievements since 2007.

    Hemlock Printers has engaged third party organizations to identify, measure and reduce carbon emissions for their manufacturing facilities and offices in Burnaby and to purchase carbon credits. These purchases support many different programs around the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Through this initiative, Hemlock’s Burnaby facilities and offices are carbon neutral. For over a decade, their customers have also had the option for their print job to be carbon neutral by paying an extra fee to purchase carbon credits. Hemlock reports that in 2018, participating customers offset over 1.8 million kg of carbon dioxide, equivalent to offsetting greenhouse gas emissions from over 382 passenger cars for 1 year.

    Hemlock supports renewable energy in Burnaby by recently joining FortisBC’s Renewable Natural Gas Leaders Program, which is for businesses interested in carbon neutral energy options. They have also reduced their energy use by converting all of their overhead lighting in their Burnaby manufacturing facility with LED lighting.

    With regards to sustainable transportation, Hemlock recently installed 3 charging stations for electric vehicles at their Burnaby facilities and provides a financial incentive to sales and management team employees to invest in hybrid or fully electric vehicles.

    For the past 3 years, Hemlock has been a case study for an undergraduate class at Simon Fraser University that studies how to incorporate sustainability into a business development strategy. In 2019, Hemlock created a new sustainability coordinator position and hired a recent graduate of SFU whom they had met through their case study participation. This position will be responsible for integrating environmental sustainability programs across all aspects of the business.

BC Bee Supply, in the category of Business Stewardship, for their support of urban beekeeping in our community.

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  • BC Bee Supply is a store in Burnaby Heights that provides equipment, education and related services for backyard and commercial beekeepers in Burnaby and across Metro Vancouver. The store has been in operation for 2 years. The owners of the store are experienced backyard beekeepers that live in Burnaby and keep beehives in their residential yard in accordance with Burnaby’s Zoning Bylaw.

    BC Bee Supply and backyard beekeeping supports the Environmental Sustainability Strategy in the areas of Green, Prosper, Nourish, and Manage.

    2019 is the 10th anniversary of the amendments made to Burnaby’s Zoning Bylaw to allow for urban beekeeping in single family residential zones (conditional on meeting certain criteria). The amendments were made in response to growing public acceptance of apiculture (beekeeping) in urban environments and the many benefits of having honeybees in our community, whether for pollination and biodiversity, locally produced honey or for education and awareness. Since the amendments, the Burnaby Beekeepers Association was formed and they report that urban beekeeping in residential zones of Burnaby and interest in beekeeping in general is growing. BC Bee Supply and their owners are playing an important role in supporting this growth and educating the public about bees and pollinators. In addition to supplying equipment, the store regularly offers beginner courses so that new beekeepeers learn proper methods for responsible beekeeping.

Fernando Lessa, in the category of Communications, for creating the Urban Salmon Project and supporting the environmental education and stewardship efforts of the city and Burnaby’s streamkeepers.

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  • Fernando Lessa arrived in BC’s lower mainland from Brazil in 2016 with education and professional experiences in biology, photography and storytelling. In his brief time here he created the Urban Salmon Project, which first involved capturing images of salmon in their habitat using underwater photography and has now culminated in a new image book, ‘Urban Salmon, a photographic journey into the Metro Vancouver watershed’.

    To learn about salmon and where to find them, Burnaby’s Streamkeepers were among the first people Fernando contacted and some of the first images he captured were of salmon in Burnaby waterways such as the Brunette River, Stone Creek and Byrne Creek. Many of these images are contained within his new book. Fernando has also graciously donated many of these images to some of the Streamkeeper groups and to City staff for use at stewardship events to support public education, awareness and stewardship. Staff has observed firsthand how the images help strengthen the public’s connection to the environment and our local waterways.

    Fernando Lessa’s Urban Salmon Project supports the Environmental Sustainability Strategy in the areas of Green, Flow and Manage.

Roger Dyer, in the category of Community Stewardship, for his long standing involvement in the stewardship of Stoney Creek as a member of the Stoney Creek Environment Committee.  

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  • Roger Dyer has volunteered with the Stoney Creek Environment Committee (the local streamkeeper group) for 15 years and over that time has been involved with many stewardship activities and programs. Two activities where Roger’s enthusiasm and expertise have been focused are monitoring of fish within the watershed and invertebrate surveys. Fish monitoring involves not only counting salmon that return to spawn in the fall but also fish trapping throughout the year to record salmon fry that emerge from gravels in the spring and the distribution of fish throughout the watershed. Invertebrate sampling measures the diversity of ‘bug’ species in the creek, which is a proxy for water quality and overall health. This data is provided to Fisheries and Oceans Canada and they note that Roger’s record keeping and professionalism is exemplary. His dedication to these duties has resulted in a consistent and accurate historical record for Stoney Creek, which is critical to management and stewardship.

    Roger Dyer’s stewardship of Stoney Creek and the work of the Stoney Creek Environment Committee support the ESS in the areas of Green, Flow and Manage.

Embark Sustainability, in the category of Green Choices, for creating the Food Rescue Program to enhance local food security and reduce food waste at Simon Fraser University.

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  • Embark Sustainability is a student-led not for profit organization based out of Simon Fraser University. In collaboration with Nesters Market, they created the Food Rescue Program, a food recovery initiative that reduces food waste and the associated greenhouse gas emissions while supporting local food security. The Food Rescue Program supports the Environmental Sustainability Strategy in the areas of Nourish, Conserve and Manage.

    The way the program works is that student volunteers collect healthy and edible but imperfect produce from Nesters Market that do not meet supermarket selling criteria and would otherwise go to waste. The produce is then redistributed on the Simon Fraser University campus two days per week at a produce stand in Blusson Hall. Rarely is any produce leftover, but if there is it is redistributed to SFU Student Society’s Women’s Centre lounge or university offices. Since the program began in 2016, over 7,000 kilograms of food has been redistributed and 7,379 people have visited the food stall. Produce is available for free or by a modest donation.

    This program raises awareness of food waste as an environmental issue and is part of an Embark initiative to create dialogue on food systems and sustainable and equitable food distribution and production.

University Highlands Elementary Green Team, in the category of Youth, for their efforts to create environmental awareness and affect positive change at their school and in their community.

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  • The teachers and administration staff at University Highlands Elementary School formed a Green Team in 2017 to create positive environmental change within the school and to explore with the students how actions can influence their local and global communities. The Green Team is still in place today and their initiatives to date support the Environmental Sustainability Strategy in the areas of Conserve and Manage.

    Their first initiative was re-imagining the school’s waste and recycling systems and learning about waste reduction through ‘litter-less’ lunches. The Green Team collaborated with Simon Fraser University to create a system of signage and bins to sort recycling, compostable and land fill materials in alignment with SFU’s zero waste programs and then engaged student volunteers to monitor the stations at lunch hour to help students use the bins properly. A related initiative involved engaging students and parents to consider food purchases that reduce single use packaging and encourage buying in bulk and using reusable containers.

    More recently, the Grade 4 and 5 students this year are building on the past work of the Green Team by focusing on the recycling of markers, plastic bags and batteries. The students have created classroom presentations for their fellow students to encourage positive actions in these areas.

Burnaby Youth Sustainability Network, in the category of Youth, for their efforts to deliver many environmental awareness initiatives this year, including the Do It Green 2019 conference that focused on pollution from micro-plastics.

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  • The Burnaby Youth Sustainability Network (BYSN) is a youth-led organization that strives to create networks among Burnaby high school students for education and awareness of environmental issues and sustainability. The BYSN is made of a new group of student leaders each year and supports the Environmental Sustainability Strategy primarily in the area of Manage, but also in other areas depending on what initiatives the BYSN undertakes that year.

    For the school year of 2018 / 19, the BYSN hosted monthly workshops at different Burnaby schools that explored many environmental issues, included the impacts of palm oil and its prevalence in many ordinary products, gardening and local food production and the potential impacts of microfibers and plastics on the environment. Much of their resources this year went into planning and organizing the bi-annual Do It Green Conference. The theme this year was micro-plastics and the students invited keynote speakers and workshop leaders to the conference, which was held in early April and attended by over 200 Burnaby high school students.

Past Recipients

View a complete list of past recipients.