The Burnaby Board of Trade Gets Climate Smart Certified and Commits to GHG Reduction Plan
August 12, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Burnaby Board of Trade Gets Climate Smart Certified and Commits to GHG Reduction Plan
Burnaby, BC The Burnaby Board of Trade (BBOT) recently became Climate Smart Certified. CS certification is a program that gives businesses tools and strategies to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. After doing an inventory of business activities that create GHG emissions, the BBOT identified two main areas of GHG impact: employee and business travel and paper consumption.
As a part of the BBOT’s strategy to reduce its GHG emissions the BBOT has committed to the following reduction strategies:
- Reduce employee single occupancy commutes to work by 5% from August 2014 to August 2015 by taking 70 fewer car rides.
- Implement a policy to take transit to all downtown meetings
- Implement a policy to carpool to all events
- To create a chart that is publicly displayed to show our efforts as a group towards reaching our targets
- Challenge all participants and attendees to bike or take transit to a BBOT event
- Provide transit maps for all event outreach
- Choose two Burnaby Bike to Work days in the coming year where we invite our members to join us in biking to work
- Purchase 30% to 50% recycled paper for in house use
- Work with third party vendors to increase recycled content of paper and to reduce redundancies in mailing lists
- Create a Paper Reduction campaign for 2015 to challenge BBOT businesses and Pledge for a Sustainable Community members to reduce their paper consumption
To view the BBOT’s full Pledge for a Sustainable Community, please visit: http://bbotpledge.ca/portfolio/burnaby-board-of-trade/
Paul Holden, CEO and President of the Burnaby Board of Trade says, “We see it as a part of our leadership role to help our members become more sustainable and to celebrate their successes in our community. A part of that leadership was making sure that our own house was in order and they we understood our impacts and implemented strategies to reduce them. Going through the Climate Smart program gave us the tools to do this.”
BBOT-2014 Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report EL081114
In May 2013 the BBOT launched a one-of-a kind program, the Pledge for a Sustainable Community.The Pledge is an online resource which provides tips and resources across 5 categories (Water, Waste, Travel, Transportation, Purchasing) to help businesses become more sustainable. Businesses are invited to ‘take a pledge’ in which they publicly share what actions they are committing to undertake. Select businesses are highlighted through Success Stories. To date 115 businesses have taken the Pledge.
In January 2014 the BBOT partnered with Vancity to offer BBOT members a $500 bursary to achieve Climate Smart certification. The bursary is available until December 2014.
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BACKGROUNDER
The Burnaby Board of Trade (BBOT) is Burnaby’s pre-eminent business association and is a key part of the City’s economic development strategy. Working closely with the municipality, the BBOT supports the growth of business both locally and internationally, and fosters a sustainable business environment through networking, education, advocacy and development. Through our vision and leadership, we facilitate a collaborative community model involving business, not-for-profits, academia, citizens and all levels of government.
Contact:
Tessa Vanderkop
Marketing Manager
Burnaby Board of Trade
(604) 412-0100 ext. 107
