Local businesses receive sustainability awards

Media contact: Abby Hade Terpstra, Membership Assistant
abby@sconnect.org, (360) 647.7093 x103
          
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             
January 17, 2011 – Bellingham, WA

Whatcom County businesses receive sustainability awards

Bellingham, WA -- Sustainable Connections awarded five Whatcom County businesses as sustainability champions at the organization’s annual All Members Meeting & Potluck on January 12.  “We are thrilled about the outstanding leadership of these businesses,” said Abby Hade Terpstra, membership assistant at Sustainable Connections.  “It is a pleasure to share their success stories and they are most deserving of this recognition.”

Drawn from the four tenets of Sustainable Connections’ mission, the award categories were leaders in promoting Strong Community, Healthy Environment, Meaningful Employment and Buying Local First as well as a Lifetime Acheivement Award for an individual who has been a leader in making positive changes in all of the areas within their business and the greater community.
 
Leader in promoting Strong Community: Community Food Co-op
The Community Food Co-op hosts and sponsors a wide variety of community celebrations, classes, offers grants and donations to area agencies, sets up Community Shopping Days each month to support local non-profits, and administers the Farm Fund – providing loans and grants that work to increase the supply of local, sustainable, and organic food by supporting and establishing projects that benefit the local farming community.

Leader in promoting Healthy Environment: North Fork Brewery
The North Fork has been a leader in choosing local first, buying green power and reducing their waste through SC’s Toward Zero Waste Program. They were also one of the first businesses to sign up for an assessment through the Community Energy Challenge and since have made continual energy efficiency improvements, replacing doors, windows, insullation and even a large solar panel array in their parking lot, which has inspired many other businesses around the county to follow suite.

Leader in promoting Meaningful Employment: Assembly Plus
Assembly Plus is a Bellingham based business that offers bulk packaging, assembly, packing and shipping for businesses. Employees of the business  shared their appreciation for their boss’s, owner Emma Wilkerson, understanding nature and say she inspires them to help their community thrive and prosper by encouraging volunteerism – in their kids’ classroom, baking goods for homeless shelters, building fences, and labeling school books.  One employee included, “she puts her employees first” in the nomination.

Leader in promoting Buying Local First: Chuckanut Builders
Chuckanut Builders was nominated by customers, sub-contractors, suppliers, and family members who are impressed by the efforts made to buy supplies locally. In fact, on their website, this business shares that in 2011 they made “632 trips to Hardware Sales, 265 trips to Bellingham Millworks and ZERO trips to the big box stores”.

Lifetime Acheivement Award: Duane Jager of ReUse Works & Appliance Depot
Duane is the executive director of ReUse Works, a non-profit that supports worker training, job creation and business development opportunities for low-income residents using discarded materials. Appliance Depot is a well-known project of ReUse Works. Duane’s unceasing commitment to his community is evident in his involvement in a myriad of events and projects, as well as his serving on committees and boards of non-profits like KCLT, Whatcom Peace & Justice Center and Sustainable Connections. 


Congratulations to all the nominees:
2020 Engineering
A-1 Builders
Bellingham Bay Builders
Bookfare Café
Ciao Thyme
Hoagland Pharmacy
Make.Shift
Mallard Ice Cream
North Cascades Institute
North Sound Energy
Osprey Hill Farm
Rainshield Roofing & Construction
The RE Store
The Fountain Bistro
Village Books 


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