The Ministry of the Environment would like to recognize these companies for their continued effort and outstanding commitment to environmental excellence.
They are committed to improving the environment, promoting sustainability and reducing waste, by improving their processes and increasing their efficiencies.
Learn more about what made these organizations Ontario’s Environmental Leaders.
Leader profiles:
- Cargill Ltd.
- Exhibition Place
- Fielding Chemical Technologies Ltd.
- General Motors of Canada Ltd.
- Nalco Canada Ltd.
- Ontario Power Generation Niagara Plant Group
- PowerStream Inc.
- Rohm and Haas
- Steelcase Canada Ltd.
- Teknion
- Trillium Health Centre
- Warren's Waterless Printing
Cargill Ltd.
Cargill is a food processor and manufacturer with facilities world-wide. Every year, the company refines operations to help reduce its overall environmental footprint.
Cargill’s business operations include a world-class meat packaging facility in Toronto producing quality products for the company’s grocery retail partners.
Recent accomplishments at Cargill’s Case Ready Toronto facility include:
- 22 per cent reduction in natural gas consumption
- 49 per cent reduction in waste water biological oxygen demand (BOD)
- 44 per cent reduction in waste water total suspended solids (TSS)
- 31 per cent reduction in water consumption.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
Exhibition Place
As Toronto’s largest entertainment venue, Exhibition Place is promoting sustainable development and environmental initiatives to 5.2 million visitors a year. It has received a number of environmental awards. Projects include the construction of the first urban wind turbine in Canada, LED streetlights and a plan to achieve energy self-sufficiency and 80 per cent waste diversion by 2010.
Recent accomplishments include:
- 79 per cent waste diversion.
- 35 per cent reduction in total electricity consumption.
- New LEED-certified Allstream Centre opened which includes stormwater utilization for greywater applications.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
Fielding Chemical Technologies Ltd.
Fielding Chemical Technologies is a leader in the field of sustainable chemical manufacturing. Through a comprehensive waste management system, Fielding has helped hundreds of companies in the automotive, chemical and pharmaceutical sectors save money and honour their commitments to environmental stewardship.
Recent accomplishments include:
- 25 per cent reduction in VOC emissions
- Converted and sold 265,000 litres of hazardous waste solvent as product, plus 608,000 litres destined for sale as alternative fuel
- 10 per cent reduction in waste water biological oxygen demand (BOD)
- 8 per cent reduction in waste water generation
- 4 per cent reduction in water consumption
- 40 per cent non-hazardous waste diversion.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
General Motors of Canada Ltd.
At General Motors Canada, improved global environmental quality is a priority that everyone at the company shares. All Ontario manufacturing facilities have achieved ISO14001 certification and voluntarily reduced Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) emissions by 50 per cent per vehicle in its Oshawa car assembly plant as a result of a $600 million state-of-the-art new paint shop investment.
Recent accomplishments include:
- 90 per cent reduction in VOC emissions at the Oshawa Autoplex
- 75 per cent reduction in non-recycled waste at the Autoplex
- 50 per cent reduction in energy consumption at the Autoplex
- 99 per cent waste diversion at the St. Catharines Powertrain, Glendale Ave. plant
- 19 per cent reduction in energy consumption at the Glendale Ave. plant
- 99 per cent waste diversion at the St. Catharines Powertrain, Ontario St. plant
- 50 per cent reduction in energy consumption at the Ontario St. plant
- 96 per cent waste diversion at the Windsor Transmission Plant
- 46 per cent reduction in energy consumption at the Windsor Transmission Plant
- 93 per cent waste diversion at the Woodstock Parts Distribution Centre.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
Nalco Canada Ltd.
Nalco is a water treatment and process improvement company delivering significant environmental, social and economic performance benefits to its customers. These include a 30 per cent reduction in hazardous waste generation and the total elimination of discharges to water of alkyl phenol and its ethoxlyates.
Recent accomplishments include:
- 28 per cent reduction in hazardous waste generation
- 31 per cent reduction in non-hazardous waste generation
- 40 per cent reduction in electricity consumption
- 38 per cent reduction in natural gas consumption.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
Ontario Power Generation Niagara Plant Group
The Niagara Plant Group operates hydroelectric generating stations on the Niagara River and at DeCew Falls in St. Catharines. These stations have a total capacity of 2,338 megawatts and a full-time staff complement of 231 people.
They have committed to nine innovative pollution reduction initiatives to reduce their environmental footprint and go beyond-compliance over the next five years.
Recent accomplishments include:
- Recycling almost 800,000 litres of old 25 cycle transformer oil at Sir Adam Beck (SAB) 1 Generating Station (GS) and Niagara Transformer Station back into useable transformer oil.
- Habitat restoration at DeCew Falls GS including 13,710 tree seedlings or direct seeds planted.
- Energy efficiency improvements at SAB 1 GS (Generator G7) resulting in an additional 182 GWh of electricity generated.
- Conducting spill risk assessments at all 7 Niagara Plant Group sites.
- Conducting the first Canadian trial of an environmentally friendly replacement for sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) for zebra / quagga mussel control at DeCew Falls 2 GS.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
PowerStream Inc.
PowerStream is the second largest municipally-owned electricity distribution company in Ontario. After delivering a comprehensive suite of conservation programs to more than 320,000 customers in its service territory over the past few years, PowerStream’s commitment to the environment has expanded to include several sustainable initiatives, including the construction of a LEED gold certified head office and implementation of an employee vanpool program.
Among its future environmental commitments, PowerStream has pledged to increase the amount of power saved by customers though a demand management program, and to remove 40 per cent of in-service transformers that contain low levels of PCBs. PowerStream has also committed to reducing emissions from both its fleet and employee vehicles.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
Rohm and Haas
The first chemical company to join Ontario’s Environmental Leaders Program, Rohm and Haas works on developing safer technology for chemical manufacture, removing waste streams from the production process and minimizing or eliminating the use of hazardous materials. The Rohm and Haas’ West Hill plant produces Acrylic-Emulsion coatings.
Recent accomplishments include the elimination of 2-Ethylhexanol emissions, and a 15 per cent reduction in energy usage.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
Steelcase Canada Ltd.
Steelcase is a leading designer and manufacturer of office furniture products used to create high-performance work environments. Some of its environmental commitments include reusing water in its part-washing process to reduce water consumption and minimizing supplier packaging through extensive use of returnable containers. It also has an extensive cut-to-size program to minimize process wastes.
As the first member of the Ontario's Environmental Leaders program, Steelcase achieved reductions in Volatile Organic Compound emissions and reductions in greenhouse gases through energy efficiency measures. Steelcase has also committed to replacing PVC components in its products with a more recyclable plastic alternative.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
Teknion
Teknion is a Toronto manufacturer and marketer of mid to high-end office systems and furniture products.
Recent accomplishments include:
- 29 per cent reduction in particulate matter emissions
- Increase in waste diversion rate from 40 per cent to 57 per cent
- 18 per cent reduction in natural gas usage
- 20 per cent reduction in electricity usage.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
Trillium Health Centre
Trillium Health Centre is a two-site health facility serving over one million residents in the Greater Toronto Area. It has redefined the boundaries of community health care delivery by making great strides in solid waste reduction, hazardous substance management, biomedical waste management, emissions reduction, energy conservation and water quality management.
Recent accomplishments include the 100 per cent elimination of mercury containing equipment, and an increase in the percentage of non-hazardous waste diverted from landfill. It also held community mercury thermometer trade-in days at each of the Mississauga and West Toronto facilities.
Back to top • Back to Award homepage
Warren's Waterless Printing
Warren's Waterless Printing is a family-owned business dedicated to providing a greener alternative to conventional offset printing. As Canada's only dedicated waterless printer, Warren's Waterless Printing is able to provide an environmentally-responsible printing solution from conception to final product. Their waterless printing eliminates the need for water, helping to conserve an estimated 200,000 litres of water annually.
Warren's Waterless Printing has committed to reduce the use of a VOC-containing cleaning compound and to reduce natural gas and electricity usage by, respectively, 10 per cent and 20 per cent.
