South Country Co-op includes care for the environment as one of the key pillars of our company. We’ve been implementing small changes we can manage within our organization to help do our part to reduce, and recycle anything possible, and find positive alternate uses for waste.

We’ve introduced clothing recycling bins at our food centres to help give new life to old clothes and send kids to camp. In 2023, 82,220kg of clothing was donated, saving 1,808,515kg of C02 and 30 kids went to camp. Team Members and guests can bring old batteries to 25 of our locations for recycling instead of sending them to the landfill. We eliminated our plastic bags before legislation to get a jump on the mandate and raised money for the community along the way. We’ve also been diverting unsalable food waste (fruit/veg trimmings, outdated bakery items, wilted floral department items, etc) to local farms for feed and compost through a program called Loop. In 2023, 43,456kg of waste was repurposed thanks to the Loop program!

Other ways we’ve made sustainability efforts include:
• Donated 1904 Good Buy to Hunger Bags valued at $29,843 to local food banks
• Diverted over 155,400 kgs of baled cardboard from landfills
• For 2023, a donation of $4697.26 was made to the pediatric ward of MH Regional Hospital from the 13th Ave book exchange sales
• For 2023, $2.9 million dollars in local sales, an increase of 7.5% over last year, sourcing from approximately 52 local companies.
• Bassano Cardlock has a solar canopy (the first in the Cooperative Retailing System!) It’s a 69 KW solar system anticipated to produce 70,000kwh annually. An energy retailer will purchase excess power.
• Our retail Ag sites participate in the Clean Farms initiative, which includes the collection of grain bags, large tote bags, unwanted pesticides & livestock medications, totes & drums, containers up to 23L

Small changes make a big impact, and that’s what we’re striving to accomplish every day at South Country Co-op. If you can make a small change in your daily routine to help the environment, we encourage you to give it a try!