Ranking: 31

Industry: Beverages

Mission: A beverage company that introduces reusability with a new hybrid, combining purified water in a reusable bottle. They are forging a path to end single-use plastics with their easy to refill, 100% recyclable, BPA-free aluminum bottle and convenient, affordable water. Diverting the use of millions of plastic bottles to change how the world consumes water. 

What 3 words best describe your company culture?

Passionate, Driven, Optimistic

What quote best exemplifies your company?

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” — Peter Drucker

How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?

The bottled water industry is recognized as the single largest contributor to the single-use plastic crisis. Whereas many companies have tried to institute sustainable solutions for bottled water, each solution seems to carry problems of its own. Water canteens like Hydro Flasks are refillable, but they have a steep price tag that not everyone can afford. Other solutions like Boxed or Canned Water are all single-use; a half-baked solution to this global crisis.

PathWater is the first and only solution that tackles all of the above. They come pre-filled with purified drinking water, making them a great on-the-go savior for someone looking for bottled water in-store. They’re made to be refilled for years to come, and they’re affordable — less than $3 — making sustainability an option for everyone.

Although PathWater’s core mission revolves around sustainability, the team is not one to shy away from taking a stand on a variety of other societal issues. PathWater frequently initiates campaigns to benefit spheres including public health and environmental preservation.

What is your company’s vision for the future?

Experts say that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Here at PathWater, we aim to rewrite that narrative and prove that we CAN have a future that is independent of single-use plastic. At the end of the day, our mission really boils down to incentivizing sustainability: helping people recognize the simplicity of making a positive impact. We are working to phase out single-use plastic bottles everywhere we can — airports, corporate campuses, retailers, restaurants, etc.

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Ranking: 74

Industry: Real Estate Development

Mission: An urban home builder combating the negative impacts of climate change and resource scarcity via in-city homebuilding. They build sustainable and resilient communities from the inside out, focusing on transforming the market to consider resource efficiency when homes are bought and sold. Their projects have mitigated over 32 million metric tons of Greenhouse Gases to date. 

What 3 words best describe your company culture?

Authentic, Purposeful, Courageous

What quote best exemplifies your company?

“To resolve the dichotomy of the civilized [world] and the wild [environment], we must first resolve to be whole.” ― Gary Snyder

How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?

Green Canopy was born out of a deep desire to address climate change. Yet, over the last decade, our theory of change has evolved to embrace a systems approach to change; we understand everything is connected. As urban infill developers, we recognize the critical role we play in shaping the urban environment. Our work is focused on making a positive impact by reducing urban sprawl, decreasing vehicle miles traveled, increasing neighborhood resilience and inclusivity, creating healthy, sustainable and affordable homes, and protecting our surrounding wildlands. The evolution of Green Canopy is captured best within our mission statement, we build homes, relationships, and businesses that help regenerate communities and environments.

What is your company’s vision for the future?

Our vision is to revolutionize the construction industry to drive down the cost to build, while providing sustainable, healthy, and affordable living spaces. We believe this will provide an economic boost to our economy, while also meeting the challenges of the housing crisis and future sustainability requirements. Furthermore, we believe in a future where Net Zero Energy homes are the norm, that these homes are affordable, our wildlands are preserved, our communities are vibrant and resilient, and impact investors earn profits.

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Ranking: 111

Industry: Publishing

Mission: An activist, solutions-oriented publishing company specializing in books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society. They print on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, operate a carbon neutral facility, and print exclusively in North America. Have published over 600 books to build a new society.

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Ranking: 90

Industry: Environmental Services

Mission: Waste management consultants that provide, install, and service waste and recycling reduction equipment. They go beyond providing receptacles by personalizing their approach to each business they serve, helping them to reduce, recycle, and eliminate waste altogether. Their recommendations ultimately result in cost reductions and “Green-Green Solutions”. 

What quote best exemplifies your company?

“We focus on profits second and serving customers first. We’ve always believed if you serve the customer, the profits will follow.”

What is your company’s vision for the future?

By 2050, Advanced will guide businesses and individuals in understanding how and why we create waste, designing and sharing solutions along the way to eliminate waste, in favor of diversion, reuse, and recycling.

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Ranking: 89

Industry: Textiles

Mission: A clothing collection and recycling company with a mission to keep clothes out of landfills. They collect textiles and clothes for reuse, recycling and upcycling to help local communities, nonprofits, and the planet. In the past year, they collected 25 million pounds of clothes, diverting 320 million pounds of carbon emissions.

What quote best exemplifies your company?

“Clothes Aren’t Trash.”

How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?

Keeping more than 20 million pounds of clothing out of the trash each year. Supporting hundreds of small businesses and charities along the way!

What is your company’s vision for the future?

We look forward to a future where used clothing is the first place people shop.

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Ranking: 103

Industry: Dog Products

Mission: A pet supply manufacturer specializing in the creation and design of safe, responsibly made, and eco-friendly pet beds and toys. They turn plastic bottles into PlanetFill® polyfiber and have saved 10 million bottles from landfills to date. Digital reach of over 2 million animal lovers and retailers in 40 countries. 

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Ranking: 7

Industry: Food Production

Mission: An ice cream manufacturer that uses high-quality ingredients from family farmers who do not treat their cows with synthetic hormones. They have additionally established a foundation that supports grassroots businesses that help their communities. Seeking to meet human needs and eliminate injustices while producing nearly 1 million pints of ice cream per day. 

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Ranking: 88

Industry: Personal Care

Mission: A provider of all-natural beauty and personal care products offered in sustainable packaging on a per-item or subscription basis. Their products come in aluminum bottles that can be sent back and refilled time after time, offering an alternative to single-use containers. Have so far kept over 100,000 plastic bottles out of landfills. 

What 3 words best describe your company culture?

Sustainable, Empowering, Collaborative

What quote best exemplifies your company?

“Progress, not perfection. We are constantly learning and working to improve our products, our packaging, our customer experience, and our company.”

How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?

Plaine Products is on a mission to eliminate single-use plastic from the bathroom. Offering a line of toxin-free personal care products, Plaine Products come in aluminum bottles that can be sent back and refilled time after time. The first of its kind and founded in 2017, Plaine Products has already diverted more than 200,000 plastic bottles from landfills. Based in Cincinnati, OH, all of the products are vegan, non-GMO, cruelty-free, biodegradable, color-safe and free of parabens, sulfates and toxins, good for the body and the planet. Founded by two sisters, Plaine Products is proud to be reducing waste and helping stop the spread of single-use plastics.

What is your company’s vision for the future?

At Plaine Products we are leading the way towards a new circular economy where producers take responsibility for their packaging and the safety of their ingredients, where there is less waste and pollution, and the true cost of the products is not passed on to the next generation.

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Ranking: 92

Industry: Music Licensing/Production

Mission: A music agency representing a highly curated roster of diverse and rare artists, bands, record labels and vintage recordings for music licensing. They scour the planet to deliver the perfect song for any project, and foster community on the home front. Give back 10% of all sales to community organizations.

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Ranking: 80

Industry: Banking

Mission: Leading in business ethics, innovative thinking, and community development. They focus exclusively on partnerships with organizations that drive social, economic, and environmental change, and invest back to the members and into the communities they serve. 100% of their investments contribute to affordable or sustainable communities in Canada. 

What 3 words best describe your company culture?

Collaborative, Innovative, Inclusive

What quote best exemplifies your company?

“Climate change and housing affordability are two of the most critical challenges facing our communities, and we believe the financial industry can and should play a key role in enabling and shaping ambitious solutions.” — Jay-Ann Gilfoy, President & CEO, Vancity Community Investment Bank

How is your product or service having a positive social and/or environmental impact?

At VCIB, we’re on a mission to finance a sustainable tomorrow and we do so by exclusively working with organiations that drive social, environmental, and economic change. You can see the difference we make by looking at our lender portfolios. Our real estate lending team has partnered with affordable housing developers like Options for Homes, providing financing that supports their model of offering down payment assistance to low and middle-income families.

Our clean energy finance team helps get more low carbon projects off the ground by focusing on small and mid-size projects underserved by traditional lenders. VCIB’s focus on financing affordable housing helps to foster inclusive, resilient communities and economic prosperity in urban areas. As detailed in VCIB’s 2020 mid-year impact report, there were 9 real estate projects that directly benefitted the community financed in the first half of 2020. These projects preserved 623 units of affordable housing and spanned a wide range of affordability projects, including:

• 124 shelter beds
• 97 units of housing for low-income seniors
• 61 units of student housing
• 77 units of co-operative housing
• 31 units of affordable rental housing
• 233 affordable condo units and townhouses for sale

To date, VCIB has financed more than 30 social purpose real estate projects that drive social change in communities, allowing for over 1,300 units of new or preserved affordable housing and 400,000+ square feet of non-profit, cultural, and community spaces.

In addition to providing financing for social purpose real estate, VCIB is a leader in financing renewable energy projects, geoexchange heating and cooling systems, energy efficiency retrofits, and green buildings, electric vehicle infrastructure, microgrids, and transmission and distribution upgrade, and energy recovery. To date, VCIB’s team has financed over 1,650 projects, including 350 LED, 550 solar, and 750 geo-exchange projects across Canada, helping to avoid more than 18,000 tonnes of CO2.

What is your company’s vision for the future?

Born from Vancity Credit Union’s community-first finance model, VCIB is building on 70 years of banking experience to support organizations and enterprises that share a commitment to positively impact the communities where they live and work. VCIB’s vision is to finance a sustainable tomorrow. The organization’s mission is to use the tools of finance to drive immediate and lasting social and environmental change in their communities. As VCIB grows and expands its offerings it will continue to abide by its eight core values, which are:

1. Integrity – Do what’s right. Sleep well at night.
2. Humility – We are conscious of being part of something more.
3. Respect for Place – Invest in here and here will get there.
4. Leadership – The courage to dream. The dedication to make it real.
5. Transparency – We are an open book – a good, open book.
6. Respect for People – Every person, and their dreams, matter.
7. Partnership – Together we will.
8. Stewardship – Cherish, protect, and pass it forward.

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