The award honors WallGoldfinger's wood waste diversion program where waste plywood, medium density fiberboard (MDF) and veneer scraps are set aside for partners around the state to upcycle into usabl e products and student projects. Those partners include non-profit ReSOURCE of Burlington, Vt., and Green Mountain Drums and the Vermont Woodworking School, both of Cambridge, Vt.

 

ReSOURCE, an organization that provides environmental services, poverty relief, and education and job skills training, operates a building materials store in Burlington. Raw materials from WallGoldfinger go to the store and are used by staff, volunteers and trainees to produce what the non-profit calls Waste-Not-Products sold in the store.

 

The program consequently has a three-fold benefit of reducing waste, helping provide materials for job skills training and supporting ReSOURCE through product sales.

 

Green Mountain Drums used plywood pieces from WallGoldfinger to build prototype molds for a new, high-end marching drum. And the Vermont Woodworking School makes wood waste from WallGoldfinger available to students, who otherwise have to buy the materials.

 

Bunkers, or skids, used to bring plywood to WallGoldfinger also set aside for reuse by supplier Atlantic Plywood.

 

Started in late 2013 under former Shipping/Receiving and Maintenance Supervisor John Crowne and ongoing today under current supervisor Adam Salls, the program in 2014 and 2015 diverted more than 23,000 pounds of wood products from the landfill to these businesses and organizations. So far this year, nearly 4,000 pounds have already been diverted from the landfill.

 

WallGoldfinger also has a scrap metal recycling program and recycles the typical papers, glass, plastics, etc. WallGoldfinger is a Vermont Green Business, is Forest Stewardship Council® certified, won a Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence in Pollution Prevention in 2000 for work in cutting pollution from its finishing systems. The WallGoldfinger factory is heated with biomass woodchips during the cold weather months, uses high efficiency lighting and equipment runs with high efficiency motors to reduce electricity use. Non-toxic materials are also used whenever possible, such as adhesives used in the woodworking processes.

 

The governor praised WallGoldfinger's efforts as "innovative" and offered praise for any efforts that combated the losing battle against climate change. Markowitz called WallGoldfinger an environmental leader who is inspiring its peers to learn new ways of doing business that help the environment.

 

Accepting the award on WallGoldfinger's behalf was Chief Executive Officer John Wall.

 

"It's not a ton of extra effort to set aside waste materials, but the benefits measure in the tons. If they're not already, other businesses could make a similar impact," John noted. "We're very thankful to the governor's office and the Agency of Natural Resources for recognizing both the impact of our program and its potential on a statewide level. We do hope others can follow this example and pair their 'waste' with organizations in need."