Did you know that the original name for the company was “Project Recycle” (1989 to 1990).  Then it morphed into Turneround Recycling (1990 to 1992)  … and eventually became Urban Impact Recycling (1992 +).

I could not find a graphic for the original logo (Project Recycle or Turneround) but here is the original Urban Impact one which is still on some of our older trucks:

In 2007 we came up with some changes that spoke to our various service offerings:

Although this look was a great transition from the old, it still was missing something for us. In some cases I was confused on what logo to use when were marketing or advertising.  So we realized that we need more clarity for ourselves and for our clients on who we are and what our look is goin on:

The 2010 the new look and rebrand:

IPersona (Javier Puig and Iain Fergeson) were hired to come up with a new logo and look for Urban Impact.  In addition the team introduced a logo mark for the business:

Logo and look were not enough, we had to take a good hard look at our tag line.  The original tagline (1992 to 2007 was Reduce, Reuse, Relax, Recycle with Urban Impact”, 2007 to 2010 Your Zero Waste Solution and now “Recycling at work” which we feel speaks to exactly what we do, every day and for every client!

The rebrand objectives were three fold:

1. Revitalize: The redesigned logo was a way to give the brand new life
2. Reposition: The new tagline of “Recycling at Work” would emerge simultaneously with the new logo to c communicate Urban’s capabilities and future vision.
3. Recognition: These efforts combined would achieve a third and overarching goal: Recognition of Urban Impact not just as a recycling company but as a recycling solution provider.

We believe that our new brand provides us with distinct positioning. Our core promise to our clients is Recycling at Work and Secure Shredding. For our shredding customers, do not worry, the transition from green does not change our ability to provide you with secure shredding services.

As a company we are extremely excited about the new change! If you have any questions or comments about our re-branding, or the tradition of service it represents, I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you!

We added a new dimension to this years tours, we asked all participaing schools to submit “the top 5 things that they as a class, and that they as individuals could do to reduce waste”.  Ferris Elementary of the Richmond School District won, their submission was amazing!   In my view several of their suggestions should be considered best practices to other schools.  There suggestions were as follows:

1. Reduce what be bring into the school, bring reuseable containers, utencils, water bottle, thermos containers
   (We also encouraged hot lunch provider to use recycleable containers- which took place this year)
2. Performed garbage audits to determine what waste comes into the school and develop a plan to try to address it
   (We classified and weighed the garbage to determine the composition and amount and have comparedf it to previous years)
3. Presented our garbage audit findings to the school and have encouraged them to continue to reduce their garbage (via assemeblies, announcements and made class presentations)
4. Reverse lunch = kids play first and then go out to play = less garbage
5. We encouraged Ikea to donate containers that allow the paper towel to dry before they are placed into the paper recycling. Each class received a metal basket and we were able to take the wet paper towel and dry it overnight so that it could be recycled in the paper recycling

Great ideas and a great example to us all! 

Thank you to all the school classes that participated.  Your energy and questions are invigorating for me, and most importantly they challenge my thinking.  I enjoyed and learned something from each tour and consider it a priviledge to have shared my passion for waste diversion with you!
Thank you to all.

Urban Impact is paying for all the classes to be bused into the facilities (Richmond M-W, New Westmisnter Th & Fr).  This year we have also raised the stakes of the tours, we are offering a $500 prize for the class that provides us with the 5 ways in which they as a class can reduce waste and 5 ways in which they can personally reduce waste.    In addition to the grand prize we give away prizes for the 3 best questions (each tour) and a cool non battery flashlight (curtesy of Science World) for the best science question asked.  It certainly seems to motivate the questions. 

I enjoy the tours, often the questions inspire some blog topics.  In addition the energy and interest of the kids is envigorating and a challenge for me!  Keeps me on my toes.

Here are a couple of the good questions:

• Does recycling reduce the power we consume?
• What does Urban Impact do reduce power consumption?
• What does Urban Impact do to achieve zero waste?
• Is it more important to reduce or recycle?
• Why did you start Urban Impact?

Fun questions to answer!

I use Twitter every day perhaps even a few times each day.  Often the most interesting comments come from a random Tweeter who mentions a green issue just once.   Some of the people or organizations I follow who are branding themselves as green, seem to be very repetitive in their messaging or quite frankly it is 20 or so core messages that rotate regularily.   Twitter’s value is that it is a conversation not a rotating message.  

Some days it seems you are having a Twitter conversation with yourself and no one else is listening, which could be the case.  But even if no one is listening, my Twitter account has a clear and concise history of these thoughts.  If I re read them it holds me accountable and reminds me of green commitments that I have made to myself, our clients and our staff.

Urban Impact began as an academic question … and someone morphed into a company.  It is amazing to me, really.  20 years ago not much recycling was happening and recycling was considered to be quite radical.  Thankfully today, the world has accepted it as a normal businesses or household practice!  Saving our used resources and making something new … truly the way it should be.

In any event, we are planning our 20th Birthday Celebration in the summer. We are looking for ways to celebrate and the theme is “20″.  So far we have a few suggestions, they include:

• Planting 20 trees (good sized ones)
• Sponsoring 20 Foster Children
• Purchasing 20 benches for public parks

Can you think of any others, if so we would love to hear your suggestions!

Road closures and restricted access to Olympics zones have turned out to be managable for our Operations Department.  We were certainly braced for the worst and it seems  that our plan of getting downtown every morning early has worked.    Drivers are leaving for the downtown core at about 4:00 AM and start servicing downtown clients from 5:00 AM onwards.    Our Operations Department refers to it as “full court press”.   

Office recycling or shredding clients of course cannot be serviced at this hour, so instead of starting earlier Urban Impact is sending down two or three trucks (where we would usually send one) to provide services.  So far so good, any clients whose offices are open during the Olympics are getting their regular services.

The next time the Olympics to Vancouver we will be prepared!

Urban Impact has been calling clients and suppliers in the affected areas to inquire about their operating hours, access issues, passes required and any other special considerations.  Although this is a bit of a generalization it seems that most clients are not alternating their work schedules.  It seems that most business are open as usual.  This is actually a bit of a surprise to us, we were hoping that some businesses would consider opening earlier to accomodate suppliers like Urban Impact.    Servicing our clients during the peak Olympics period is certainly going to be an issue.  We are allowed in the RED ZONES early (5:00 AM) but if no one is open – it is not really going to help us.

Our contignecy planning is kicking into gear. Likely our course of action will be to deploy several trucks at a time into an area and sweep it as quickly as we can.  If we succeed with this strategy we should be able to move into the affected areas, pick up quickly and efficiently as possible and then move out to the next area.

Wish us luck!

There are seveal newsprint mills in the near vacinity (WA) that seem to be having trouble.  Blue Heron is in Chapter 11 and its future is certainly up for discussion.

I belive it is certainly a sign of the times.  Less advertising = thinner papers.  Online media is certainly a reliable and easy source of news and I think the newspapers of the world certainly will face an up hill battle keeping us engaged and interested in reading print media.   Newsprint itself might be a dying grade.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.  Will Catalyst recover and be able to re open, or is it truly a shut down.

Although loosing a local mill is not positive, we still have plenty of markets to sell newsprint to.  There are viable domestic mills purchasing newsprint and certainly export purchasors as well.

Did you know that in Metro Vancouver we still throw away 1.5 million tonnes of garbage each year.  That is enough to fill BC Place Stadium each year.  Staggering!  Everyone’s efforts in recycling and diverting from landfill make a significant dent in what gets thrown away.

Did you know that recycling is an easy way to reduce your personal and corporate foot print?  Recycling your waste reduces the energy consumed in creating that product from its raw material.
Two simple and great reasons to recycle.

I have learnt many things from Sean over the years and I am so thankful to have known him, even just a little.  Sean had an extra ordinary ability to say things exactly as they were.   He chose his words carefully and thoughtfully and rarely used more words then were required to describe a situation, the problem or the solution.     I recall negotiating over an issue that effected both of our businesses, I was describing the solution that our company could provide for his company (I thought fairly clearly) and I probably used several adjectives that coated over the service we were to provide.  When I finished describing our solution, I remember Sean’s response as clearly as if he said it to me today:   ”Can you say that again, but like it is.”   And he was right.  I had not described our position in a clear an uncomplicated fashion, I had sugar coated my remarks with catch phrases and adjectives that took away from its meaning.   After that meeting, I vowed to myself to try and emulate Sean’s style of comunication.  I can truly say I admired this skill and have tried use Sean’s clear, concise and no nonsense approach in all aspects of our business.  I am certain that I have tried this, but I am not certain I have mastered it.

Sean also had an amazing ability to see the larger or big picture on issues that centered themselves around his business and the waste management industry as a whole.  He was an incredible and insightful resource on many questions about the future of waste management in the Lower Mainland and around North America.   I had the great honor of sitting on a reference panel with him for Metro Vancouver.  It was clear to me that the quality of the debate and the meeting were always greatly improved when he was able to attend.   Sadly his health did not allow for regular attendance in the last few months. 

Sean has successfully built a business that is one of the largest wood waste recycling companies in the Lower Mainland.  A business poised to grow and serve the market in an efficient, cost effective and visionary way.  Wood waste recycling might not become mandatory in the Lower Mainland for a few more years, but when it does, Urban Wood Waste will help serve as a processor of this material.  Without Sean’s vision and determination the Metro Vancouver regions waste diversion statistics would be a lot lower.    I am saddened that he won’t see the fruits of his labour.   I am saddened that I won’t see him again.  But I am honored to have known him as a competitor, business acquaintance an industry pier. 

I will miss you Sean.