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Upcycled Promotional Materials
In early 2021, we announced our revitalized brand. Our new logo is a crest made up of five icons that represent the five values deemed most important by its employees and key stakeholders: respect, creativity, inclusion, resilience and teamwork. A recent upcycling project led by the Campus Services department demonstrates our commitment to creativity.
When an organization rebrands, stationery and promotional materials with the old logo are generally disposed of by the organization. Unfortunately, this can result in a lot of perfectly good materials sent directly to landfills. Although we had many materials with old brand elements on them, we were committed to ensuring this didn’t happen. We wanted our rebranding process to be as sustainable as possible.
All materials that could be reused (such as mugs, t-shirts, pens, water bottles, notebooks, etc.) were donated to dozens of social agencies across southern Alberta. Any material that could be recycled (such as paper and other stationery) was recycled according to the City of Calgary’s recycling bylaw. However, there were some materials that could neither be reused nor recycled, and yet we didn’t want to throw them away. For materials like vinyl roll-up banners, we decided to look for an alternative solution.
We worked with Ecologic Designs to upcycle over 100 roll-up banners that would have otherwise been sent to landfill. The vinyl banners were removed from the metal stands, and the metal was sent to a scrap metal recycler. The banner itself was sewn into over 700 new products! We were able to create 150 laptop sleeves and almost 600 zipper pouches that will be given to our students and wider community members. The best part about the products is each one is completely unique.
We are also working hard to ensure the new swag and promotional materials we purchase are sustainable from the start, and we aren’t over-purchasing. True sustainability is fiscally and environmentally responsible and we strive to practice these values in our daily operations.
Questions? Please contact the Sustainability Office at sustainability@bowvalleycollege.ca
