Waste Reduction Week in Canada is a campaign focused on the principles of the circular economy, resource efficiency and waste reduction. The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness while encouraging new innovative ideas and solutions. With the Waste Reduction Week initiative, Canadians from coast to coast discuss, share and celebrate ways that they are enhancing and protecting the environment.
From October 19th to 25th, Europro participated in the first-ever Waste Reduction Week Challenge. The challenge encouraged employees province-wide to document every environmentally conscious decision made throughout the week. Tasks included eco habits, energy saving, water waste reduction, transportation and much more.
As a collective, Europro participants logged 293 actions, collecting 60 badges for a total of 43,156 points. Through these outstanding efforts we were able to create an estimated impact of:
2,400 Kilograms of CO2 savings. This equates to powering a hot tub for 446 hours, lighting a football stadium for 1 game, keeping your refrigerator cold for 1,551 days, powering 3 homes for a month and planting 59 tree seedlings.
169 Kilograms of waste diverted. With the same impact of removing 26 bags of garbage or 5 garbage bins.
1,900 Litres of water saved. Estimated to have the same impact as filling 100 bathtubs, taking 399 five-minute showers, flushing a toilet 3,118 times, filling 249 fish tanks and filling 3 backyard swimming pools.
The participants with the top 3 highest contributions were recognized with prizes from local, sustainable retailers. Each participant was given the opportunity to select a business to support from their respective communities.
In first place, Marissa Goze from Tecumseh Mall collected 5,466 total points. Marissa selected a gift card to ShopEco, located in Tecumseh, Ontario. Recognized for its welcoming atmosphere, ShopEco is a great destination for small-batch, high-quality independent beauty brands, which are locally made.
In second place, Tristan Andre from Kitchener-Waterloo collected 4,535 total points. For his prize, Tristan selected to receive a gift card to Full Circle Foods located in downtown Kitchener. Full Circle Foods offers plant-based food options and zero-waste shopping, supplied from small-scale Ontario companies.
In third place, Laura Beecroft from Lambton Mall collected 4,142 points. Laura opted for a Lambton Mall gift card to support the numerous sustainable and health & wellness retailers located in the mall.
The Waste Reduction Week challenge encouraged our team to continue to take actions and adopt more environmentally conscious choices. By making those small changes in our daily lives, we are able to create solutions to the many environmental challenges we face including climate change, water pollution and preservation of natural resources.
Challenge Winners:
