5:30 to 7:30 pm

You must register – and their last even sold out, so do it soon !

Register here

Details:

Trash Talk: Innovative Approaches to Garbage and Recycling for Business

There’s been a lot of talk of waste management and zero waste in the region, as Metro Vancouver updates the Solid Waste Plan that guides how the region deals with its garbage. Although we have one of the highest diversion rates in the country – diverting 55% of the garbage we produce to recycling or composting – this is a far cry from the target of 70% by 2015 and 100% (Zero Waste) eventually…

Small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs) contribute significantly to the region’s overall trash burden, and yet waste diversion systems and services are not typically well-suited to the needs and realities of smaller businesses. SME businesses need to get creative and collaborate to reduce waste and the greenhouse gas emissions from waste decomposition. This event will focus on how businesses can collaborate to work towards the 5 R’s waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle, recover and manage residuals.

Join Us!

This event will introduce you to innovative ways to reduce, exchange and divert your business’ waste. A short panel will be followed by dialogue on how small businesses can collaborate to reduce waste and how LoCo can support them.

Louise Schwarz of Recycling Alternative (RA), will share the results of RA’s Zero Waste Pilot. The pilot has worked with a hotel, a restaurant and an office building since May 2009 to divert 100% of waste from our region’s landfills. RA has offered businesses the systems and training to divert recyclables, compostables and electronics from their waste streams. Come and hear the learning from this exciting project by RA, a leader in the waste management industry and in green business practices.

Toby Barrazzuol, Eclipse Awards and Chair of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association’s (SBIA) Sustainability Committee, presents the work of the SBIA’s Materials Exchange Network. The Network connects SBIA businesses to reuse materials, reduce waste, reduce costs, and recycle materials. Come and hear about their early successes and plans for expansion.

Appetizers will be provided. Cash bar.

There’s a lot of really great, hard data here, packed into a concise presentation.  If you’re a small business owner,  you don’t always have access to this kind of research.

This presentation by Kierstin De West of Conscientious Innovation (Ci) contains tons of relevant, recent data about what consumers think about when they think about sustainability and ‘buying local’.

Kierstin is making her presentation available under a Creative Commons license, so you can use the material as long as you give them credit.

She presented some of her company’s recent research findings at  launch of LoCo BC.

Kierstin’s full presentation is here in three different forms:

Screencast, audio Podcast, and a PDF copy of her presentation.  Tip: You’ll find the data graphs a lot easier to read in the PDF .

If you want more details, or to get some custom research for your company, contact her at Conscientious Innovation.  They also have a number of follow up studies in the field right now.

Screencast: The cultural shift to sustainability and the importance of local

Podcast: Here’s the audio only podcast of Kiestin’s presentation:

Runs:  20:26
ISBN: 978-1-926758-05-3

If you’d rather get it on iTunes, here’s the direct link.

PDF: Here’s a copy of Kierstin’s presentation in PDF format

Video, Podcast and PDF are licensed under Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada

Kierstin played a video by League of Gentlemen at the presentation. As it turns out, the wrong clip ran at the time, but through the magic of the internet,  you can see the one she meant to show here.  It is hilarious.

Amy Robinson presented an overview of LoCo BC, a new business network working to create a diverse, vibrant local economy by strengthening small and mid-sized businesses, connecting and having fun in the process.

As well as Amy’s presentation, Kierstin De West of Conscientious Innovation (Ci) presented info on her company’s latest research intelligence in the area of local and sustainability, and just why it’s such a hot-button right now.  And I was there to talk about digital media and how best to use it as part of business plan.  Kierstin’s presentation is here,  and I’ll post my presentations in a couple of days.

Since I was there as a guest speaker, I’ve put together a screen-cast of Amy’s  presentation here.

Further down the page you can just grab the audio version, or the PDF (or all three !)

Here’s the screencast of  Amy’s presentation, which will give you a good picture of what LoCo BC is all about, and you should email her after you’ve watched/listened to it  because I’m sure you’ll want to get involved…

Podcast: If you’d rather just listen to the podcast, it’s here:

Runs:  15:45
ISBN: 978-1-926758-04-6

If you’d rather get it on iTunes, here’s the direct link.

PDF: And here’s a copy of Amy’s presentation in PDF format.

Podcast and video licensed under Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada