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News & Announcements1/26/2011 | BLJC demonstrates commitment to sustainability Recent initiatives are reinforcing BLJC’s leadership in sustainability, as commemorated in Creative Transition Resources (CRT) Inc.’s Trailblazer Report. This recently launched report celebrates organizations and individuals that prioritize sustainability, energy and value building. “BLJC is proving themselves to be a leader in terms of real estate and facility management,” CRT Inc. chief strategist for sustainable transformation Yasmin Glanville tells BLJC Insights. She cites a number of factors for this, including performance evaluation, making adjustments, responsiveness, and the ethics and expertise of BLJC’s leaders. Glanville also notes that BLJC motivates and engages team members and clients to save energy. An example of this is a friendly competition amongst facility management (FM) teams across Canada. Launched in the last fiscal year, it served to enhance communication, teamwork and the ability to provide energy-efficiency solutions to clients. “This project involved a lot of freedom and creativity and I really enjoyed hearing about the innovative ideas that other groups and individuals brought forward,” says Bernie Katzberg, the winning FM in the western region. “There were no bad ideas and everyone was encouraged to participate and could participate at every level,” he says. Lowell Crane, the eastern region winner, says it’s “nice to have some recognition at the end of the day that you’ve done your best (to meet client expectations).” One of BLJC’s five core corporate values, sustainability is championed in the company’s move to full green power at seven offices in Canada. The move, effective Dec. 1, marks the start of a two-year partnership with Colorado-based Renewable Choice Energy Inc. to offset 100 per cent of the BLJC offices’ energy usage by purchasing renewable energy credits. Renewable Choice Energy business development director John Powers says the initiative makes BLJC a leader amongst North American green power builders, developers and consultants. He says it has a “huge environmental impact” with BLJC purchasing credits to offset the 670,440 kilowatt hours of energy from conventional power sources used by the offices annually. The credits, which support existing wind farms and help to fund new developments, have a carbon impact equivalent to planting more than 3,000 mature trees or not driving an average car for more than 757,700 miles over a year. BLJC director of sustainability Michael Wymant says the company “is committed to reducing our carbon footprint and helping to push the market towards a responsible carbon-based economy.” To start off 2011, BLJC’s Markham office initiated a challenging pilot program to reduce to zero the amount of garbage sent to landfills by its 350 employees. Components include new waste removal strategies, a geographic reallocation of waste bins and education. Aftab Hussain, office services supervisor, says the project “shows we’re serious” about leadership in sustainability and “encourage a redesign of the resource lifecycle.” Team members are getting used to the first step of the process, which is the replacement of individual garbage and recycling bins at desks with large enviro-bins that separate disposables into various recycling and waste streams. The initiative is building awareness and shifting behaviours. Accounting co-ordinator III Linda Marshall says she’s more conscientious of producing waste. The goal is to dispose only biodegradable and recyclable waste, and Hussain says he can already see an increase in organic and cardboard waste. |
