Eco Efficiency Excellence Award Winner for 2020

BC Wildlife Park selected as the 2020 Eco Efficiency Excellence Award Winner

BC Wildlife Park had their Eco Efficiency Assessment completed in Summer 2020 and since then, their management team has taken the top recommendations and systematically tackled them to improve their sustainability performance.

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Jorrit Koedooder - BC Wildlife Park

“The BC Wildlife Park connects people to BC’s wildlife and wild places in order to encourage a sustainable society within a healthy, natural environment. With this philosophy in mind, we pride ourselves on continuing to take ownership of the environmental impact that the Park has, by continuing to make immediate, positive changes that improve environmental stewardship and reduce our carbon footprint. Upon working with GreenStep Solutions and listening to their suggestions, we’ve implemented their recommendations alongside our existing plans to improve our environmental efficiency. The BC Wildlife Park is honoured to be at the forefront of environmental stewardship and the recipient of the 2020 Eco Efficiency Excellence Award. We look forward to continuing to make strides in reducing our carbon footprint by educating ourselves and implementing innovative ways to becoming more sustainable.”

- Jorrit Koedooder, Facilities Supervisor, BC Wildlife Park

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New LED Lighting

Entrance to BC Wildlife Park

BC Wildlife Park

Eco Efficiency Excellency Details

• Future and in progress initiatives include ensuring that the BC Wildlife Park is accessible to all of our patrons. This accessibility upgrade also includes completely renovating exterior washrooms for maximum environment efficiency, compete with LEF lighting, low flow toilets, waterless urinal, and hot water tanks.

• Removed single use paper maps, eliminating more than 120,000 paper products from annual production and replaced them with 10 large permanent park maps, alongside a downloaded able map from our website for visitor convenience.

• Further to the commitment of eliminating single use products, the BC Wildlife Park will no longer carry single use water bottles by fall of 2021. Instead 4 water refill stations throughout the park grounds will be installed.

• Knowing that single use plastics are harmful to the environment, all of their to go cups, utensils, and containers are all corn based and biodegradable.

• Given the results of BC Wildlife Park’s waste audit, improving source separation was a top priority identified in the Eco Efficiency Report. Shortly after presenting the findings, the BC Wildlife Park team purchased additional bins to create recycling stations, placing them at entrances and along the parks pathways.

• The park is now set up for success, with the ability to source separate recycling from garbage, which will improve their diversion rate and reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfill.

• The second recommendation was to replace their older fluorescent lighting with LED fixtures and lamps. The BC Wildlife Park team has received quotes on these upgrades, while they also began replacing a portion of the fluorescent lighting on their own in recent months.

• Lastly, GreenStep Solutions identified and discussed equipment which was operating inefficiently at the time of their visit (ice build up on condensers, AHU). Therefore, the BC Wildlife Park has since had contractors in to repair the equipment.

Sustainability in Kelowna's Official Community Plan

The City of Kelowna has entered the final refinement phase of updating its Official Community Plan (OCP). The 2040 Official Community Plan will then be adopted as a guiding document to ensure Kelowna can continue to be prosperous, vibrant and resilient in years to come.

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Sustainability in 2040 Official Community Plan (OCP)

Sustainable Transportation Network

• Transportation infrastructure will be funded, designed, constructed and maintained to meet the needs of users and according to the following priority, recognizing that Urban Centre streets play an important role in supporting a range of transportation modes beyond cars:

  • i. Active Transportation (Walking and Biking)

  • ii. Transit

  • iii. Shared Mobility

  • iv. Movement of Goods & Services

  • v. High‐Occupancy Vehicles (HOVs)

  • vi. Single‐Occupancy Vehicles (SOVs)

• Ensure Active Transportation Corridors are designed for cyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities in accordance with the objectives of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan.

• Prioritize bicycle parking and end‐of‐trip facilities through site planning and design of new development to ensure biking is an attractive and convenient transportation option

• Continue to support pilot programs and partnerships to improve access to emerging on‐demand mobility options that reduce greenhouse gases and enhance sustainable transportation options.

• Integrate electric vehicle charging stations in off‐street parking plans for new multi‐family, institutional and commercial developments.

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Protect and restore our environment

The citizens of Kelowna have crafted a bold vision called Imagine Kelowna which outlines what kind of city they want to live in. Imagine Kelowna envisions a city where the protection of our land, water and air resources is strengthened and the health of Okanagan Lake is preserved. Other actions stated in Imagine Kelowna,

• Reduce the community’s greenhouse gas emissions,

• Become a more resilient community in the face of a changing climate.

• Focusing future growth in compact neighbourhoods with more energy-efficient buildings and provision of a variety of transportation options that produce few greenhouse gas emissions

Here are some objectives and policies stated in the OCP

• To manage and protect water resources

  • Objective 12.9. Adapt to a changing water supply.

  • Objective 13.3. Design stormwater infrastructure to mitigate flooding and pollution to our neighbourhoods, streams and Okanagan Lake.

  • Objective 13.4. Provide a secure supply of water.

  • Objective 13.5. Protect the supply of high‐quality drinking water.

  • Objective 14.3. Preserve Okanagan Lake for its environmental, traditional, cultural, spiritual, and recreational

• To contribute to the improvement of community health, safety, and social wellbeing

  • Objective 9.1. Incorporate equity into planning decisions and resource allocation in our community.

  • Objective 9.2. Strengthen the relationship with the Syilx/Okanagan people through initiatives and processes to advance and support reconciliation in Kelowna.

  • Objective 9.3. Develop diverse partnerships to advance complex social planning issues and increase community wellbeing.

  • Objective 10.1. Acquire new parks to enhance livability throughout the city.

  • Objective 14.1. Promote strategies that reduce local air pollution and people’s exposure to air pollutants

• To support a regional food system that is healthy, resilient and sustainable

  • Objectives 4.9, 5.8, 6.5 and 7.5. Strengthen the local food system to increase food security, equitable access to healthy food and social connections.

  • Objective 8.3. Strengthen the local food system to increase food security and social connections.

• To minimize regional greenhouse gas emissions and respond to the impacts of climate change

  • Objective 12.1. Design the community to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

  • Objective 12.4. and 12.5 Improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions of new buildings and existing buildings

  • Objective 12.6. Transition toward 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050.

  • Objective 12.7. Support the transition to emerging low‐ emission transportation technologies.

  • Objective 12.8. Support the community to prepare for and become resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Tourism Kamloops | Luv'n the Loops Passport Wins Marketing Innovation Award

Tourism Kamloops received top honours in Marketing Innovation for the 2020/21 Luv’n the Loops Passport at the BC Economic Development Association’s annual conference and awards ceremony.

The BC Economic Development Association Awards distinguish top performance in marketing innovation, community project, and recovery and resilience across the province. The awards recognize organizations for their efforts in creating positive change in urban and rural communities. In 2021, the awards committee received a record-breaking number of applications.

The Luv’n the Loops Passport is an innovative partnership with Kamloops This Week Digital and is free to use. The campaign highlights and supports small business and strives to reinvigorate Kamloops’ visitor economy by providing incentives that residents could engage with independently. To date, over 1,100 Kamloops-area residents have participated in the passport program to receive discounts at over 36 local businesses.

Seasonal prize packages encourage participants to visit several participating businesses in a certain period. The prizes include local experiences and showcase seasonal highlights.

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How to Participate

To participate, visit luvntheloops.com, create an account, visit participating locations, scan the QR code to access the discount or incentive, then receive a digital passport stamp to complete the transaction. Collect 10 or more stamps to be eligible for April’s prize package as well as the grand prize package at the end of June.

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As a Biosphere Committed Member

Tourism Kamloops is a Biosphere Committed company in the Biosphere Commitment Program since 2019. Since then, Tourism Kamloops has been making headway towards sustainability, while also act as a regional Biosphere champion in supporting Biosphere companies in the Kamloops area. For more information on Tourism Kamloops, visit tourismkamloops.com.

UNWTO Releases Inclusive Recovery Guide for Women in Tourism

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As the sector enters the second year of an unprecedented crisis, the impact this has had on women in tourism has been made clear. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the pandemic, and the unprecedented drop in international tourist arrivals, risks rolling back progress made towards achieving gender equality and efforts to empower women and girls

-UNWTO

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Tourism is a Proven Driver of Equality and Opportunity

UNWTO data shows that women make up the majority of the tourism workforce (54%). However it was identified that women are often concentrated in low-skilled or informal work. Due to that concentration is means that women in tourism are feeling the economic shock caused by the pandemic crisis more acutely and quicker than their male counterparts.

UNWTO is marking International Women’s Day 2021 with the release of our Inclusive Recovery Guide for women in tourism, compiled in collaboration with UN Women.

Read more

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