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You are here: Home > About Us > Vancity's culture > Sustainability

Sustainability

At Vancity, sustainability isn't just a word. It's part of everything we do. You too? Then we should talk.

Vancity is Carbon Neutral!

In 2006, Vancity set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2010. We are very proud to report that we’ve reached our goal – two years ahead of schedule. As of December 31, 2007, Vancity Credit Union is officially a carbon-neutral organization.

We have achieved this goal by reducing our emissions and contributing to our environmental sustainability as an organization by:

Saving energy
Taking alternative transportation
Reducing waste
Partnering in the Carbon Offset Program
Offering products and services

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Saving energy

Since the early '90s, the Vancity Group has reduced our energy consumption by 50 per cent per employee, saving the credit union $2 million. We did this through changing our behaviour, educating ourselves about energy consumption and improving facilities with lighting retrofits, building envelope improvements and upgrading our heating, cooling and ventilation (HVAC) systems.

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Alternative transportation

All of our employees are encouraged to find ways to get to work other than driving alone in a vehicle. Close to 60 per cent of Vancity employees find environmentally friendly ways to get to the office. Incentives include:

• head offices that are steps away from major transit (Vancity Centre is literally built over the SkyTrain tracks for maximum convenience)
• participation in TransLink's discount monthly pass program
• offering carpooling incentives
• a guaranteed ride home program
• providing showers and bike racks to encourage employees to bike to work
• supplying a pool of bikes and Smart cars for employee loan
• giving a discount loan for the purchase of low emission vehicles for employees who drive as part of their job

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Reducing waste

As a financial institution, paper comprises the majority of our waste. To reduce our impact on the waste we produce we:

• are shifting the way we communicate with our members from paper-based communications to online communications
• introduced robust corporate recycling programs
• set our printers to automatically print on both sides of the page
• seek to purchase only 100 per cent post-consumer recycled paper
• reduced the physical size of our waste bins
• reward staff who are ‘caught' using reusable mugs and lunch containers

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Carbon Offset Program

We created the Vancity Carbon Offset Program to invest in Canadian solutions to climate change, to build local knowledge about reducing emissions and to create local sources of high-quality carbon offsets that we can use to reach our goal to be Carbon Neutral by 2010. The program was developed under the in partnership with The David Suzuki Foundation, The Natural Step, The Pembina Institute, and Ecotrust Canada.

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Products and services

We also offer members sustainable options, like helping members finance a hybrid vehicle with our Clean Air Auto Loan, urging members to consider Circadian Mutual Funds and offering them the enviroFund Visa card.

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