Businesses around the world are embracing a “Zero Waste Ethic”. Many businesses are on the path towards Zero Waste.  Zero Waste Business Recognition and Certification programs are not only a method of validating achievements in environmental sustainability but promoting beacons of positive change.

In 2011, the Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA) organized a Certification Committee to evaluate how to develop certification programs for Zero Waste Communities, Businesses, Facilities, Events, Service Providers, Training Programs and Professionals. In February 2012, ZWIA adopted a Zero Waste Business Recognition Program to establish international standards for recognizing those businesses that divert 90% of their discarded materials from landfills and incinerators.  Zero Waste Canada was approved as the National Affiliate for the ZWIA Zero Waste Business Recognition Program in Canada.

This week, Zero Waste Canada interviews John Down, owner of Christopher Norman Chocolates. Zero Waste Canada will be following this business as the facility works towards being recognized as Zero Waste business.

I have been recycling since 1974. Our community at the time set up a small recycling depot for newspapers, cardboard, glass, and tins. At a young age, my mother was concerned about the environment and the impact that environmental issues had played on people’s lives. She was a public health nurse.

I moved from Vancouver to Toronto in 1985 and lived on the East Side, where, only a few blocks away there was a large-scale garbage incinerator. I could not believe that such an operation would exist in Canada. Our community formed a small group with the help of a few city officials, whose efforts resulted in the shut down of the incinerator and a call for a wide spread recycling program.

Waste has always bothered me. I was brought up never to leave a light on in a room unless I was in it, not to mention, leaving a window or door open to, “heat the great outdoors” as my mother would say!

My first trip to New York City was in 1980. Two things made a big impression on me other than the great city itself, with tremendous museums, art galleries, opera and concert halls, architecture, culture and cultures. One of the impressions was the long lines piled high on the sidewalks of the New York Times Sunday Edition being thrown out. Keep in mind, that at the time, each newspaper was about half the size of the City of Vancouver’s phone directory! The other thing that shocked me was that not only was there no recycling but that a lot of city’s garbage was floated on barges out to sea and dumped.

The garbage issues were not enough of a deterrent though. I ended up moving to New York City, met my partner and lived there for twenty-five years. I am happy to say NYC has an extensive recycling program now and no longer dumps trash at sea. What happens to all that recycling? Well, like many things there, you really do not know!

During that time, I was exhibiting my paintings, Joe was an agent for opera singers and by a funny set of circumstances we founded a chocolate company, which took off internationally. We incorporated our environmental concerns and practices into our “corporate culture”. We were socially responsible entrepreneurs. We participated in community outreach, especially after 9/11, had intern programs with various schools, did fund raising and the like. We instilled in our employees the importance of zero waste and not just because our ingredients, packaging and everything that went into making our products was so expensive we had no room for waste, but also because waste is not right.

So now, here we are on the Sunshine Coast for two years and loving the change from city life and some of the issues that American society is grappling with. We have gone from a four thousand square foot space with ten employees, including a store front a block away from the New York Stock Exchange and shipping our products internationally, to ninety two square meters on the entry level to our house located in Halfmoon Bay on the Sunshine Coast overlooking the ocean!

We had quite the dog and pony show in New York. We set trends by making exquisite chocolates and chocolate products with unique styles, flavor combinations and packaging that, at the time, was unusual for the chocolate industry. We sourced as much as we could locally, except our chocolate which came from Valrhona in France. Scaling down significantly, I am now only making a series of ten chocolate bars more traditional in flavour but with the quality Christopher Norman Chocolates is known for! I do, however, make some chocolates occasionally, but only for fund raising events and some left over for friends.

With creating only chocolate bars it makes it very easy to comply with Zero Waste Canada criteria. I do not work with the myriad of ingredients, packaging, and shipping logistics that we used to, not to mention the chocolates’ temperature control on the East Coast during summer!

We have only three tempering kettles, one each for dark, white, and milk chocolate. I am the only one making the chocolate bars, and I work very fast and efficiently producing absolutely zero waste with the product, except for the few shaving that fall to the floor and end up in the compost with the floor sweepings. Any reject bars are used in store tastings and promotions.

I keep a small inventory of ingredients as well as finished product. Once the bars are released from the molds they are wrapped in paper-lined foil, placed in a vellum sleeve, then labeled and dated. Unfortunately at the moment, paper lined foil is not recyclable, but it is necessary as the chocolate cannot come into contact with the foil. The foil works with the design element that has long been established. All other components are recyclable, with the recycle symbol printed on the retail display case they are packed in.

For shipping we reuse any materials we can such as newsprint, cardboard boxes. We ask that our suppliers not send us things bubble wrapped, but invariably we get some that we also reuse. I have just ordered our first shipping boxes, up to now we have been able to ship with left over boxes from our move out here!

Our local stores we deliver in brown paper gift bags that I have received things in and have used the same few over and over again. We are still required by our bigger accounts to use invoice and packing slip pouches, and tape is an issue.

We were also known by our “operating room” cleanliness, especially by the Department of Agriculture, which we were licensed under in the New York State. There was a tremendous amount to keep track of. Everything coming in had to be labeled and dated then stored in the appropriate location always-rotating stock including packaging. We had upright recycling cans for papers, glass metal and rigid plastics were collected as one, and cardboard was bundled for recycling.

Now, here in Canada, we have virtually no waste and thank you to Barbara we can now recycle our latex gloves and hairnets.

An older friend told me when I was young that “organization was the key to success”. That too has stuck with me! In production, waste has to be eliminated in every aspect; otherwise it is very hard to compete, especially when the product is very labor intensive.

No I can proudly say! Except there was a couple of occasions in NYC. Twice we had a water pipe burst in the building we were in during the winter. Some product was destroyed and had to be thrown out. Another time was with all the post 9/11 construction going on our block. The building next door was not doing construction to code on a weekend, and, as a result, our HVAC system sucked in all this black dust that the filters could not handle. The dust was vented through out our facility causing $70k of damage. We had to close for a week to clean up and the entire fall product that was just about ready to ship to various catalogs had to be destroyed. We were fully insured, except as we found out, good luck collecting from Travelers Insurance in the US.

Yes, there are many considerations when it comes to packaging. Today, we as manufacturers, have the option of going “green;” although, one has to be mindful of costs associated with the various types of packaging choices. At Christopher Norman Chocolates, I designed all of our packaging. Our products were packaged and shipped in house. Once we went off shore for our packaging needs, but it did not sit well with ethics other than the price difference!

Historically luxury brands and products have been known for their excessive packaging and brand identity. You have to stand out in the crowd, but you can do so without being excessive. The consumer is also at fault by its demand for excess packaging to help feeling good about their luxury purchase! The large shopping bags over the shoulder come to mind….

It is everyone’s responsibility to help undo the wasteful practices we have all inherited, learned and contributed to. Zero waste is a common sense approach to living and we must all work to achieve as much as common sense as possible!