Greening Trades Toolkit
As Metro Vancouver’s trades sector continues to grow, businesses are adapting to evolving regulations, changing customer expectations, and emerging technologies to remain competitive. The Greening Trades Toolkit is a starting point for trades that want to take first steps towards incorporating sustainable thinking into day-to-day operations at the workplace. Who this toolkit is for: Designed […]
Energy Savings Guide: Grocery Stores
Grocery stores remain among the most energy‑intensive commercial buildings due to around‑the‑clock refrigeration, long operating hours, HVAC load, lighting demands, and strict food‑safety requirements. Reducing energy use presents one of the largest, fastest ways to lower operating expenses while protecting product quality, improving shopper comfort, and strengthening sustainability performance. This guide summarizes practical steps grocery […]
Energy Savings Guide: Food & Beverage
Food and beverage (F&B) processing facilities are among Canada’s most energy‑intensive industrial operations, driven by continuous refrigeration, thermal processing, pumping, mixing, cleaning systems, and strict sanitation and quality requirements. Energy-intensive processes such as heating, cooling, refrigeration, and mechanical processing collectively make this sector one of the highest users of energy across the industrial landscape. In […]
Energy Savings Guide: Retail
Retail businesses face rising energy costs driven by long operating hours, lighting demands, heating and cooling requirements, and increasingly technology‑heavy stores. This guide provides practical, proven strategies to help retail operators reduce energy use without compromising customer comfort, safety, or store appearance. By focusing on lighting, HVAC, building envelope improvements, equipment efficiency, and staff engagement, […]
Circular Economy Accelerator Program Final Report
The Circular Economy Accelerator Program sought to create an inclusive circular economy in urban and rural communities within the Vancouver Island–Coast region. This final report highlights the outcomes of a two-year initiative supporting 77 existing businesses to incorporate circular economy practices into their operations and facilitate regional cluster development to divert waste, enhance circular processes, […]
Article series: Creating economic opportunities through circular deconstruction in rural communities
Overview This article series highlights how communities across Vancouver Island are building partnerships, strengthening local economies and creating new opportunities through circular economy approaches in the construction sector. Articles in the series
Port Alberni Circular Economy Workforce Development Plan
Overview Port Alberni stands at a pivotal moment in 2026. The region’s recent closure of its largest forestry mills represents both a profound economic challenge and a historic opportunity. This Workforce Development Plan translates that challenge into a concrete, phased, 10-year strategy to build a circular economy workforce that transforms Port Alberni and the Alberni-Clayoquot […]
Diversion program in qathet shows successes
This article highlights the early successes of a diversion program in the qathet region aimed at keeping construction, renovation, demolition, and other reusable materials out of the landfill. It showcases how strong community buy‑in, cross‑sector collaboration, and material exchanges between local businesses, nonprofits, and government are contributing to a growing circular economy. The story underscores […]
Business connections repurposing waste in Powell River
This article showcases how local businesses and nonprofits in Powell River are working together to repurpose materials that would otherwise end up in landfill. It highlights practical examples of the circular economy in action, from reusing industrial wood and mill materials to redistributing office and building assets back into the community. The story emphasizes the […]
Inter-Regional Circular Economy Market Assessment
Overview This synthesis report distills key findings from three regional market assessments—the qathet Regional District (qRD), Alberni‑Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD), and Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD)—to provide a consolidated view of construction, renovation, and demolition (CRD) material flows, current diversion, reuse, and processing capacity, and priority actions for advancing a circular economy. Scope and Structure […]