Business: Decor honoured for going green

Posted By Ashleigh Viveiros

Posted 4 months ago

By Ashleigh Viveiros

And the first-ever Community Led Emissions Reduction program Green Award goes to . . . Morden's Decor Cabinets.

The cabinet manufacturer received the award from CLER co-ordinator Kelly Stock on Monday.

Although Decor has had a range of environmentally-friendly initiatives underway for a number of years now, they took things up a notch last year by creating GreenCor - a committee of nine employees whose job it is to come up with new ways Decor can reduce its environmental footprint.

Some of Decor's green projects include:

- removing paper cups from the premises in favour of reusable cups (eliminating the need for an estimated 1,000 paper cups per day since January)

- printing on both sides of paper whenever possible (saving about 500 pages a week)

- taking saw dust from the door plant and making it available for animal bedding

- sending the solid wood scraps from the plant to Pembina Valley Containers to be turned into heating pucks

- recycling about 80 per cent of all the cardboard that comes through the company

- setting up recycling stations for batteries, plastic, aluminum, and paper throughout the production plant and offices

- slowly replacing high wattage lighting with more efficient bulbs and fixtures

- reclaiming solvents, allowing them to reuse about 125 -205L barrels a year

- implementing a "no idle" program for its long-haul trucks

- auctioning off defective or obsolete products to staff, rather than carting them off to the landfill

- getting employees involved with monthly contests encouraging them to share their green living stories

- starting a company composting program, which has three small worm farms (with more on the way) set-up to recycle food scraps and shredded paper.

In addition to overseeing some of these initiatives, the GreenCor committee is always looking for new green ideas, Penner said.

"It'd be nice to know what other companies out there are doing," he said, noting committee members will be paying attention to future Green Award winners for inspiration.

Nominees needed

Decor was one of three area businesses or individuals nominated for the Green Award.

The company's extensive list of green practices practically made it a shoe-in for the award, Stock said.

"It's amazing - I had no idea they were doing all this," she said. "A green team is just an amazing idea - businesses of any size should have one."

"I think that every business that has an environmental footprint should have a responsibility to lessen that footprint," Stock added.

More Green Awards will be handed out in the coming weeks, Stock said.

Thus far, all the nominations have come from the Morden area, and Stock would love to see people and businesses in Winkler or Miami recognized for their green goodworks, as well.

To make a nomination, contact Stock via e-mail at kellystockmstw@gmail.com, or give her a call at 822-6223.

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