By Jennifer Chernishenko, Administrative Assistant at Integrated Sustainability
Here at Integrated Sustainability we like to work using sustainable practices wherever we can. With that spirit in mind, we decided to bring in some new friends to help us out – vermiworms!
May 29 was “Learn About Composting Day” and we celebrated with a presentation on interesting composting facts: did you know that more than half of the waste in Calgary landfills could be composted? Or that the City’s goal is to send 80% less waste per person to the landfills by 2020 than was sent in 2007? The second part was making our own vermiworm composter.
We started by preparing the bin, drilling holes for aeration and dampening newspaper strips for bedding.
Then our worms were delivered, courtesy of Mike Dorion of Living Soil Solutions, and we carefully put them into their new home.
Food was put in, the lid was put on, and our worms were left to settle in.
“Being a sustainable company is really important to us, which means trying to mitigate our environmental footprint in any way possible. Currently, the City of Calgary does not provide composting services within the downtown area, so we decided – being an engineering firm – why not just make a compost ourselves?! Although the compost will initially only divert about 1.5 pounds of food per week from the landfill, we feel even a small amount can make a big difference,” stated Oksana Kielbasinski, Director, Sustainability & Risk. “We are excited to have these little friends as part of our Integrated family.”
Calgary composting facts found at: http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/WRS/Pages/Recycling-information/Residential-services/Organics-recycling/Why-Green-Cart.aspx.
