Environmental Awards Program

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Background

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.

Environmental Awards Program

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:

2017 Environmental Awards

Burnaby Board of Trade, in the category of Business Stewardship, for their outstanding and ongoing efforts to help Burnaby businesses be more environmentally sustainable.

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  • The Burnaby Board of Trade is a member-based business association that has taken a leadership role in promoting environmental sustainability to businesses in Burnaby. Their flagship environmental program is the Pledge for a Sustainable Community, which is an online resource that helps businesses reduce their environmental footprint. The pledge program has received wide spread recognition locally and abroad. To expand the reach of the pledge program, new programs from the Burnaby Board of Trade include a partnership with a local financial institution to create a community grant program to support sustainability programming and business resources for its members. The Burnaby Board of Trade has also partnered with a locally based social enterprise to make their greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction certification program more accessible to members. The result has been that an increasing number of Burnaby based businesses have become certified and reduced their environmental footprint.

    Learn more about the Pledge for a Sustainable Community Program »

Kimberley Wong, in the category of Green Choices, for her outstanding efforts in her community to create a shared garden space for growing food.

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  • Kimberley Wong is a resident and President of the Strata Council at Kensington Gardens, a 124 unit complex in North Burnaby. Under Ms. Wong’s leadership, the residents of this complex were able to convert an underused outdoor space into a community garden space. The garden helps make the community more environmentally sustainable. The garden gives the residents a choice to grow fresh food for their own use. Lawn clippings and leaves that would otherwise have to be hauled away as green waste are reused to amend the soil. Ms. Wong’s leadership and persistence helped this project succeed. The garden now consists of many garden boxes and has helped create more social interaction among the residents.

British Columbia Institute of Technology, Factor Four Initiative, in the category of Planning and Development, for outstanding contributions to sustainability and the built environment.

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  • The Factor Four Initiative is led by the School of Construction and the Environment at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. The initiative uses the buildings and services of an area on the campus as a living laboratory to explore environmental sustainability and the built environment, and specifically whether a fourfold (75%) reduction in materials and energy use can be achieved without comprising service levels such as building occupant health and comfort and educational program delivery.

    Since the initiative began in 2009, more than 20 successful projects have been completed in areas such as renewable energy, zero waste and ecological restoration, along with case studies, research papers and educational videos. Over that time, the initiative has engaged students, faculty and professionals across multiple disciplines.

    Learn more about the Factor Four Initiative »

Sonya Kung, student at Ecole Alpha Secondary School, in the category of Youth, for her outstanding leadership and environmental achievements.

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  • Sonya Kung is a student at Ecole Alpha Secondary School and serves as the president of her school’s Enviro Club and the Burnaby Youth Sustainability Network (BYSN). In these roles, Ms. Kung helps lead a variety of environmental sustainability programs and initiatives for youth in Burnaby, including waste reduction and food scraps recycling, gardening, energy conservation and awareness, and salmon preservation in streams. She also founded an environmental workshop series now hosted by elementary schools throughout the Burnaby School District that aims to inspire youth to create greener communities. As president of the BYSN, Ms. Kung organized a summer clothing swap to reduce textile waste and helped organize the recently completed Do It Green youth conference.

2017 Environmental Stars

Reid’s Automotive Recycling, in the category of Business Stewardship, for their outstanding achievements to reduce the environmental footprint of their business operations.

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  • Reid’s Automotive Recycling Ltd. is a Burnaby-based business that recycles the parts from non-repairable vehicles in accordance with industry standards and codes of practice. Many of the parts are reused when repairing other automobiles. Reid’s Automotive has also made significant achievements toward making their business operations more environmentally sustainable. In 2014, they began working with a private sector consultant to measure their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and develop strategies to reduce their environmental footprint. They have since made capital investments in their building’s envelope to make it more energy efficient thereby reducing natural gas consumption. They also expanded their recycling programs and helped some employees reduce their emissions from commuting by promoting car-pooling and other low carbon commuting options. These investments and programs have documented a significant reduction in their annual GHG emissions.

Simon Fraser University, in the category of Communications, for outstanding community engagement as part of the SFU 20 Year Sustainability Vision and Goals planning process.

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  • For their 50th anniversary, Simon Fraser University (SFU) launched a comprehensive community engagement process to map out and envision what a ‘sustainable SFU’ would look like in twenty years. Led by the SFU Sustainability Office, the entire SFU community of students, faculty, senior leadership, and alumni were invited to provide their input. The result was the participation of over 4,000 SFU community members to create a 20 year sustainability vision and goals for the institution. The engagement process used various methods and materials to engage the community, including an online reporting initiative to track SFU’s sustainability achievements, sustainability achievement information sheets, community surveys and open houses, and support for individuals to host small group discussions around environmental sustainability.

Randy and Wendy Snyder, members of Stoney Creek Environment Committee, in the category of Community Stewardship, for their significant contributions to the Stoney Creek Environment Committee’s stewardship programs.

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  • Randy and Wendy Snyder have been active with the Stoney Creek Environment Committee (SCEC), a local environmental stewardship group, for over 10 years. Wendy organizes and leads many invasive plant pulls and restoration planting activities in the watershed. She also leads a monthly bird walk and authors a blog about SCEC activities. In addition to these activities, they also helped the SCEC rebrand their promotional and outreach materials with a new logo and graphics. Their joint volunteer efforts have benefitted the community of Burnaby and have contributed to the stewardship of Stoney Creek.

    Learn more about the Stoney Creek Environment Committee »

Mireta Strandberg-Salmon, in the category of Youth, for her outstanding efforts to eliminate bottled water consumption at Moscrop Secondary School.

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  • Mireta Strandberg-Salmon is a student at Moscrop Secondary School. In the spring of 2016, she began a project with a goal to eliminate the sale of bottled water at her school in order to reduce the impacts of waste and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the production, distribution and disposal of plastic water bottles. To achieve this goal, Mireta undertook many different initiatives to educate and raise the awareness level of her fellow students, teachers and school district staff. With the support of the school’s administration, Mireta’s efforts have resulted in bottled water being removed from four of the five vending machines in the school. An initiative is underway to have bottled water removed from the fifth vending machine and to have a new water container filling station and fountain installed in the building.

Deer Lake Student Streamkeepers, in the category of Youth, for their stewardship of Deer Lake Brook.

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  • Deer Lake Student Streamkeepers are comprised of a group of students from Burnaby Central Secondary School who have taken a keen interest in stream stewardship and Deer Lake watershed, within which their school is located. In September 2015, the group formed a club and decided to focus their efforts on studying the ecology of Deer Lake Brook and tributaries. After some initial successes, the students reached out to City of Burnaby staff and the Streamkeepers Program for guidance. Since then, this group of students have received training from the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation and undertaken regular field visits to measure the water quality of Deer Lake Brook. These students have exhibited leadership and enthusiasm toward stewardship of this ecologically significant waterway in Burnaby.

Past Recipients

View a complete list of past recipients.