CURRENT ACTIONS & INITIATIVES

HIGH EFFICIENCY, HIGH PRODUCTION DISHWASHER BRINGING MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS & REDUCTIONS We have been now using our new Canadian Manufactured high capacity dishwasher for 2 months and the results so far have been very impressive. Our overall quality and the cleanliness have been very much improved. Our ability to wash very large capacity of items has also greatly improved. What is also very amazing has been the great reduction in water consumption & dishwasher chemicalS. So far we are seeing a reduction of approximately 30-40%!

ENERGY REDUCTION PROGRAM EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS!

After 2 months of restructuring our natural gas use in our building, we are excited to see that we exceeded our goal of a 50% reduction! The results after 2 months are showing us to be on track for a 62% reduction!

FULL RECYCLING PROGRAM LAUNCHED

We are excited to have just implimented a full recycling program for all of our internal metal cans & containers, hard plastics, and glass bottles. This seemed to be a challenging program for us considering our team of Associates that ranges from 20-50 depending on the season, and a 16,000 square foot facility. Although it seemed it would be a daunting task, it proved to be much simpler than we thought. The completion of this initiative has been the latest in many recent reductions we have made to our companies footprint. Currently we are also recycling all of our green waste through composting, plastic bag packaging, scrap metal, carboard, wooden pallets & of course paper. We are aspiring to make this program efficient enough so that we can assist other businesses that share our building with their recyclable wastes as well...stay tuned.

HVAC CONSUMPTION REDUCED BY 50%!

We have successfully completed restructuring of our office & store HVAC (heating/cooling) system. This initiative will reduce our HVAC'S natural gas consumption by 50%!.

THE GREEN MACHINE

Since the composting workshop we held this past April, we have drastically reduced all of the outgoing food waste from our building by nearly 100%. Sun-Mar's Green Machine (pictured above) is effective and easy to use, making it our composter of choice. For more info on the Green Machine, click here.

SPRINTER TRUCK

We added a new sprinter truck to our fleet of bio-deisel delivery trucks. The sprinter trucks box was custom designed to our specifications. This was done to help maximize the trucks ability to take on higher capacities of deliveries. This greatly reduces wasted kilometers on the road. The sprinter truck is also one of the most efficient & clean gas delivery trucks available. After two months in service, the results have been very promising.

WATER HEATING EFFICIENCY

In the following weeks Lonsdale will be planning the upgrade of our water heating units with a higher efficiency system. Our objective is to reduce our gas usage for our overall cleaning operations.

FULL RECYCLING PROGRAM COMING SOON

We will be implementing a full recycling program. This will allow us to recycle metal, glass, and hard plastic that is either generated in, or brought into, our facility. Full recycling will also build on our already successful soft plastic and paper recycling programs.

ENERGY AUDIT Worked with BC Hydro Power Smart to conduct a full audit of our hydro and gas usage. In the upcoming months we will be using the recommendations of the Power Smart team to make significant improvements to our facility.

COMPOSTING FOLLOW-UP Following the composting workshop we ran last month, the majority of our management staff has begun composting. Nobody can believe just how easy (and odorless!) the whole process is, not to mention just how much less garbage they are producing.

COMPOSTING WORKSHOP Brought in Master Composter Pat Wass of West Coast Cob and Compost Creations in Sooke to run an internal workshop on composting. The workshop was a fun learning experience for all, and we got a lot of information to put into use for our upcoming compost program.

PLASTIC RECYCLING Implemented plastic recycling system to eliminate all plastic from our garbage. This includes all plastic used in packaging our products, as well as all plastic coming into our operations from outside sources. In total, this will keep nearly 40,000 plastic bags out of our landfills.

SOLID WASTE REDUCTION We have set a goal of reducing the amount of solid waste making it into our garbage by a minimum of 50% by January 1, 2009. This will be achieved both through limiting the amount of disposable material used in our operations, as well as implementing comprehensive recycling programs for all unavoidable waste.

ECO-ACTION NEWS LAUNCHED IN WEBSITE Lonsdale Events introduces a new Green News page! One of the intentions of this page is to assist us in documenting our green journey and to share it with others. Although our renting business model is a naturally green one(re-use & reduce). We have our work ahead of us in order to catch up to other progressive practices of green focused companies. Check back often and watch with us as we strive to get green.

FLEET POWERED BY BIO DIESEL We have begun testing bio diesel fuel on two of our trucks, with plans to transition our entire delivery fleet to run on bio diesel to be completed soon. For more information on bio diesel fuel click here.

GREEN TEAM FORMED Formed a cross-functional team focused on designing eco responsibility programs, and implementing them throughout Lonsdale Events.

PACKAGING WASTE REDUCED Significantly decreased packaging waste by resizing glass rack packaging to fit product better and switching to plastic made from at least 30% post-consumer recycled waste.

Our Accomplishments so far

TRUCK FLEET: all diesel delivery trucks switched to bio-diesel & new high efficient Sprinter truck added to fleet

RECYCLING: A company wide program has been implmented that is allowing us to recycle our hard plastics, soft plastics, cans, paper, cardboard, green waste-composting, wood pallets, and scrap metal

COMPOSTING: a company wide composting program was lauched for our Associates to reduce our green waste...& eventually to feed our flower beds.

NATURAL GAS USE REDUCTIONS: Various investments & initiaves were made to greatly reduce our consumption of natural gas. This is showing signs of an over reduction of 62%

Did you know...

ALL OUR CUTLERY IS DRIED WITH CORN COBS: Sounds crazy, but its true! Once our cutlery has completed its thorough washing cycle, it is then dried using a unique cutlery drying machine. Not only does this machine further sanitize the cutlery, provide efficiency and reduce waste; it also utilized crushed corn cobs as the drying element.