Green your Business/Event

Attention all BurlingtonGreen businesses and Event Coordinators...

BurlingtonGreen wants to hear from you!  Here is your opportunity to share with the Burlington community the steps you have taken to GO GREEN. Let us know of your greening actions by contacting us here.

BurlingtonGreen is also exploring the potential for a BG Green Leaf Certifcation program where local businesses or event organizers who achieve success in achieving green results, can receive the BG green leaf of approval to display with pride at the workplace or your event promo. More to come on this in the future. 

Check out our workplace and event greening tips below and to help us "grow" the list.

GO GREEN &  GROW YOUR PROFITS  

BG's TOP TEN GREEN WORKPLACE TIPS ...

• Live as near as possible to your workplace. Ride a bicycle, walk or use public transit wherever possible.

• Support locally owned businesses for the purchase of your workplace supplies and ones who will take back packaging for reuse.

• reduce waste by outfitting your office kitchen with reusable products instead of disposables.

• don't sell or supply bottled water at your meetings. Provide jugs of water with reusable cups.

• use fibre based (paper) dishware and wooden utensils for larger staff gatherings or picnics if you can't use reusable supplies as they can go into the Halton green cart.  Be sure to check with the Halton Region (www.halton.ca) if you are planning on using biodegradable containers as they currently do not accept them & you will likely have difficulty disposing of them locally.

• outfit your business with biodegradable waste bags, eco-friendly cleaning products and wherever you can, replace regular light bulbs with CFL (compact fluorescent bulbs) and keep lights off unless you really need them.

• set all printer default settings to 2 sided format, recycle ink cartridges and have a "take it back" depot for staff to deposit their used ink cartridges, batteries, broken cell phones and more.

• save our trees! Conserve paper by setting all office printer default settings to 2-sided format; using the highest % of recycled content or FSC paper stock; and use scrap paper for notes and "to do" lists

• make sure you locate recycle & organic waste bins wherever your garbage bins are located in the workplace.

• make being green a fun challenge for your workplace! Why not invite your staff to wear green one day a week, pack litterless lunches with locally grown food, carpool or use public transit to get to work, limit energy use for the day and celebrate the green challenge day with a green prize such as planting a tree in the community!
  
  Check out David Suzuki's Green Your Workplace toolkit and share it with your coworkers too!
  The Recycling Council of Ontario is a helpful resource and includes more waste reduction tips to help you GO GREEN!

GREENING YOUR EVENT- A DOZEN WAYS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

1. Include a "green email blog" to gather green action ideas during your event planning phase;

2. Advertise your event electronically as much as possible and when you need to use hardcopy materials, use recycled or FSC stock with vegetable based ink for your event posters and signs;

3. Try to host your event in a central location and promote public transit, carpools, walking or biking to your event destination;

4. Remind your event attendees that your are a green event host and encourage them to BYOC (Bring your own containers) and leave no trace by encouraging green practices throughout the day. Include a "green zone" at your venue where attendees can visit and swap greening tips to spread the word;

5. Try to use reusable materials for all your event supplies (name tags, reuse volunteer t-shirts, refillable &/or biodegradable pens, bluetooth card exchange to exchange contact info digitally to replace paper-based business cards);

6. Purchase offsets for your event venue energy use to ensure a clean, green gathering!

7. Refreshments: try to provide reusable cups/dishes or fibre-based containers at your event and avoid using individual condiment, sugar, salt, creamers and provide in bulk instead;

8. Don't sell or supply bottled water at your event and serve organic, fair-trade coffee and tea;

9. Support local businesses for your event supply needs and local farmers for your food supply;

10. Include "green teams" at your event to collect and sort all waste to divert all your recyclables and organics from the landfill;

11. Eliminate or reduce paper take home materials by maximizing digital options such as email, websites, videos and eco-friendly USB give-aways;

12. Include a green component in your event regardless of the event theme/purpose by inviting a 'green" speaker, product, exhibit as part of the day's activity.

Note: if you would like BurlingtonGreen to speak at your event or set up a display, please contact us.

We have heard your requests and are responding with action! The BurlingtonGreen Eco-Youth Network is now offering a three step service to help you ensure your next event is as GREEN as it can be. The good news is not only will you be doing your part to help minimize the impact on the environment with your event activities, but 100% of your financial donation will directly support the important work of the youth program now and into the future!

Here's how it works:

1. Contact us (complete & submit comment form below) to let us know more about your event including the name of the event, expected number of people,venue location and other details you may have to offer such as if food will be served etc.

2. A BurlingtonGreen Representative will contact you to discuss service opportunities, next steps and donation requirements.

3. Our Youth team can offer the following greening efforts to help make your event an eco-success:

Pre-event planning to recommend a variety of greening actions such as food & serving supply considerations. energy use, eco-friendly promotional options, transit ideas and more.

During the event, youth volunteers adorning their BG t-shirts can welcome your guests, provide eco-gifts for your guests that you have selected, organize all food waste collection and sorting to ensure minimal amounts go to landfill and assist with event clean-up needs.

Following the event, BurlingtonGreen will prepare an "event audit" report summarizing your green actions and present you with a BurlingtonGreen Eco-event certificate that you can proudly display.

Help Youth help you help the planet!

What's a Carbon  Offset? What should I know before I buy them?

Visit the David Suzuki Foundation website here for a user-friendly, comprehensive review of this topic.