Businesses honoured for green efforts
Companies and organizations with an eye on reducing their impact on the environment were honoured Tuesday night at the 2015 Vancouver Island EcoStar Awards.
About 160 people filled the Inn at Laurel Point to celebrate sustainability, in what organizer Jill Doucette hopes will be a launching pad for a bigger and more encompassing awards program in the future.
“We expect it to be an even bigger success next year. We hope more people apply and attend and that we get more representation from up-Island and the Gulf Islands,” said Doucette, CEO of Synergy Enterprises. “We want to bring together more communities and cities to celebrate Vancouver Island’s sustainability.”
There were hundreds of applications for the 15 awards handed out to recognize initiatives, projects and innovations that allow both communities and ecology prosper.
Awards were given in a variety of categories including greenest businesses, stores and restaurants, as well as for climate action, transportation, food security and waste management.
Doucette said the popularity of this year’s awards may be down to the fact businesses are taking environmental action on their own terms.
“The awards are a chance to celebrate their commitment to sustainability,” she said, adding businesses being environmentally sustainable has become much more than an add-on. “Most of the applicants, those businesses and organizations, were doing it because they wanted to, that it was part of their value system instead of just a marketing tool.
“And, in general, we’ve seen that at Synergy, the businesses [we work with] are more motivated by ethics than marketing and that’s a significant change from 10 years ago.”