Edmonton Convention Centre
For more than a decade, sustainability has been a focus at the Edmonton Convention Centre (ECC).
The 150,000 square foot convention centre hosts over 500 events and serves 250,000 meals in an average year. The complex nestled in Edmonton’s river valley is a city-owned not-for-profit — a model that helps drive its environmental goals, according to the centre’s sustainability manager.
“It allows us ...
SPUD.ca
Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery (SPUD) sources and delivers local groceries to their customer’s doorsteps. Since expanding to Alberta in 2005, the company has modelled how a social enterprise can “change the world, one bite at a time”.
Part of SPUD’s commitment to sustainability has been to model how food waste can be minimized in innovative ways. Pre-ordered online purchases mean no in-store displays ...
Southland Transportation
Reaching as far back as the 1980’s, Southland began exploring alternatives to the use diesel in their school buses. Resourcefulness is one of their core values and they embrace initiatives and innovative ways to get things done. Their fleet of school buses boasts over 500 propane powered vehicles and have become the largest privately-owned propane fleet in Canada and the third largest in North America. The change to propane ...
Nutrien
At facilities near Edmonton, Nutrien (formerly Agrium) is taking an innovative approach to reclamation and the beneficial use of phosphogypsum (PG), a gypsum by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry. What may be the first-ever forest planted on a PG stack, the project is inspiring other industrial landowners to consider different approaches to reclamation.
By establishing woody crops—primarily willow, hybrid poplar and white spruce–on 325 hectares of PG ...
Syncrude Canada Ltd & the Fort McKay First Nation
When a large corporation in Alberta’s oil sands teams with a neighbouring First Nations community to repurpose reclaimed land, it’s a good thing. But when a threatened species of wood buffalo flourish, creating a genetically pure line of animal that is culturally significant to this and future generations of the First Nations people of Ft. McKay, it’s a great thing.
In 1993, 30 wood bison from Elk ...
Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Located on the shores of one of the world’s most picturesque lakes, the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is tasked with minimizing its impact on the environment it inhabits. Through innovative practices and employee engagement, the hotel rises above and beyond expectations, becoming a role model for the hotel industry around the globe.
Some of the initiatives at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise include: an extensive recycling ...
ATCO
In 2016, the ATCO Electric Global Business Unit announced energization of one of Western Canada’s largest off-grid solar project, located at the Saddle Hills Telecommunication Site northwest of Grande Prairie. This ground-breaking system is capable of generating 75 kilowatts and storing 250-kilowatt hours of energy and will provide 100 percent of the power required at the isolated and unmanned site, which is an integral part of ATCO’s telecommunications ...
Agrium
Phosphogypsum (PG) is a gypsum byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer industry and is produced at a rate of five tons of PG per ton of phosphate fertilizer. Over 48 million tons of gypsum covering approximately 325 ha are stacked near Agrium facilities northeast of Edmonton. Traditionally, gypsum stacks are regarded as a waste byproduct and reclamation involves contouring the piles, covering with soil and seeding to a grass ...
Mattamy Homes
Mattamy Homes, North America’s largest privately-owned homebuilder, was chosen as one of five homebuilders by Owens Corning to participate in the ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative (ecoEII). Mattamy designed five Net Zero Energy Homes (NZEH) for the program, the first completed in November 2015 in Calgary’s Cityscape community. Each home is designed to produce as much energy as it consumes over a year. Mattamy constructed two research homes to test the NZE ...
NOVA Chemicals
In 2013, NOVA Chemicals announced it would create an environmental legacy project to commemorate a significant milestone for the company. The outcome is the NOVA Chemicals Community Nature Trail – opened in Fall 2015 – an 89-hectare (220-acre) area that reflects the province’s Water for Life strategy and wetland policies. The area near their Joffre Site petrochemical facilities demonstrates how wildlife habitat, agricultural, industrial and recreational land uses can exist ...