A high tech company in Kitchener has been recognized for its environmental initiatives. Christie Digital has been named one of Canada’s greenest employers and also one of the country’s best employers for new Canadians presented with an award by the editors of Mediacorp Canada Inc., a Toronto based publishing firm.

President and COO Gerry Remers is proud of the company’s achievements and states some of the environmental initiatives now in place. Also below are some of the environmental initiatives Christie has undertaken:

• Remers says staff has been quick to embrace environmental initiatives around the office which go hand-in-hand with the company’s attempts to be environmentally-friendly in its manufacturing
• Remers points to such things as a 13 per cent reduction in electrical consumption through the removal of one thousand fluorescent light bulbs in the office and the conversion of warehouse space to more efficient lighting technologies
• 80 per cent of the products used to create Christie projectors are recyclable and the introduction of LED lamps to replace mercury in some products
• Achieving an impressive 82 percent waste diversion rate (determined through ongoing monitoring and monthly reporting of program results).
• Introducing energy-efficient stand-by modes for many of its new projector models, and it is developing next generation solid state LED illumination technology with no consumable parts to replace
• Expanding the recycling program to include organics (food waste).  Twelve new organic/recycling/waste stations were distributed throughout the Canadian facility. Each location provides source separation for organics, paper, glass, metal, plastic, and true waste
• Successfully registering two manufacturing plants to the internationally recognized environmental standard, ISO 14001
• Introducing a natural gas conservation program to recycle heat from the manufacturing process to heat the facility during fall, winter and spring months
• An e-waste recycling program to ensure that all of its electronic waste is diverted from landfill and is recycled and disposed of properly – and even accepting batteries and compact fluorescent light bulbs from employee homes

For the Canada’s Greenest Employer award, each employer is evaluated by:

• The unique environmental initiatives and programs they have developed.
• The degree their employees are involved in these programs and whether they contribute any unique skills.
• The extent they have been successful in reducing the organization’s environmental footprint.
• The extent these initiatives have become linked to the employer’s public identity and whether they attract new people to the organization.

SOURCE: “Christie Digital is one of the greenest“, May 14, 2010, 570 News
SOURCE: “Christie Digital Captures Two Awards“, May 5, 2010, infoCommIQ
SOURCE: Flickr Image, CC-By