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Our Values & Commitments

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BEYOND SERVING OUR CLIENTS, OUR MISSION INCLUDES IMPROVING THE WORLD AROUND US BY SPREADING HAPPINESS, EMPOWERING LEADERS, REGENERATING THE ENVIRONMENT, AND CELEBRATING THE HUMAN SPIRIT!

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OUR BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY

Beautiful designs, meticulous craftsmanship, responsive service, integrity — these are foundational elements of Eclipse Awards. Yet equally important is how we care for the environment and how we give back to people and the communities we belong to.

We are 25 years into a journey of producing beautiful things and creating value for our clients, while also making decisions that respect and regenerate the environment, use resources efficiently, and treat people well. We approach challenges with creativity and collaboration, and we strive for simplicity in our designs and processes.

Beyond sustainability, the hope of revitalizing communities and regenerating nature is what propels us and inspires our commitments. Have a look at some of the things we’re up to in support of those aspirations:

Zero Waste Philosophy
Providing a Plastic-free Experience
Reforestation & Regeneration = 2 Trees for Every Award
Living Wage++ Employer
Green Roofs, a Living Building, and Happy People
Green Energy and Rooftop Solar Panels
Climate Leadership
Community Partner Program
The Awesome Awards - uplifting awesome everyday people everywhere!
Community Sponsorships and Donations
Volunteerism and Community Service
1. David Suzuki Foundation - Sustainable Diversity Network
2. Wild Bird Trust
3. Strathcona BIA - Building a Green Community
4. Common Good - Local Economy Fellow

ZERO WASTE PHILOSOPHY

We approach business with a mindset of creating as much beauty and value as possible, while also conserving and minimizing our use of resources. Some might call it a zero waste approach, though we think it’s just common sense. Operationally, we reuse and repurpose packing materials, we recycle all paper and worn out electronics, we compost the organics from our lunchroom and kitchen, we monitor our water and energy usage, and avoid plastics and toxic chemicals wherever possible.

We apply zero waste thinking to our production and design processes as well, which means we take the same approach when designing and creating new styles of awards and trophies. In fact, you’ll find some of Eclipse Awards’ exclusive eco-friendly green awards featured on pages 46-47 of Canada’s National Zero Waste Council’s Design Portfolio (pdf).

PROVIDING A PLASTIC FREE EXPERIENCE

In 2023, in support of the UN’s Global Biodiversity Framework, we declared war on plastics and are actively working towards eliminating all plastics from our awards and operations, to provide you with a plastic free experience. This means we won’t supply any plastic, acrylic or lucite awards and trophies. It also means we’ve removed all plastic bags and wrappers from our operations and we’re working with our suppliers to have them remove plastics as well. In the meantime, you may see some things like styrofoam packing peanuts in some orders because we do repurpose these when we receive them ourselves.

Though all of our awards and trophies are made with sustainability in mind, we have developed a few that are particularly eco-friendly which we identify as Green+++.

Our aim to become plastic free is a work in progress, and we’re not totally there yet, but we will get there. To learn more, visit our plastic-free blog post and follow us on social media @eclipseawards where we’ll share our progress!

REFORESTATION & REGENERATION = 2 TREES FOR EVERY AWARD

Since our sustainability journey began in 2008, we’ve continually focussed on minimizing our environmental footprint. In that time we’ve realized that beyond conservation, we also have a responsibility to regenerate, renew, and regrow our natural world.

So we committed to planting 2 trees for every plaque, trophy and award that we make, and we partnered with Eden Reforestation Projects to help us. We chose Eden because they not only propagate and plant trees, they also protect them through to maturity, and in the process create meaningful employment in rural and impoverished communities.

As of March 2023, we’ve planted over 57,000 mangrove trees and created nearly 600 days of employment! That’s nearly 6 hectares of mangrove forests, which will capture roughly 738 tonnes of CO2 per year, year after year, and there are more to come!

Each mangrove tree becomes part of a new forest, helping to regenerate the environment for years to come by cultivating biodiversity, sequestering carbon, providing food (agroforestry) and habitat, cleaning the air, preventing erosion and soil degradation, while also creating employment that helps strengthen families in rural communities.

Eden_Logo_CMYK
Key points of our tree planting partnership with Eden Reforestation:

- mangrove trees are planted in Nepal, Madagascar, Haiti and Ethiopia
- planting 100 trees creates one day of employment
- one mangrove tree captures approximately 12.3 kgs of CO2 a year, or roughly 308 kgs of CO2 over a 25 year lifespan
- Mangroves “sequester carbon at a rate of 2 to 4 times greater than mature tropical forests and contain “the highest carbon density of all terrestrial ecosystems” (Fatoyinbo et al, 2017)
- one hectare of mature mangrove forest, approximately 10,000 trees, sinks approximately 123 tones of CO2 per year. One hectare is 100 meters by 100 meters, approximately the size of a football field.
- click here to learn more about the carbon sequestration of mangrove trees.

LIVING WAGE++ EMPLOYER

Eclipse Awards has been a Living Wage Employer since 2010, becoming the 8th company in BC to become certified when the program was first launched. This commitment stems from our belief that our people are the most important part of Eclipse Awards; in fact, they are Eclipse Awards. Our team works hard to ensure that we perform at the level we do, and in return we try to recognize their efforts as best we can. In 2022, Eclipse Awards became the first Living Wage++ Employer, tying all staff to the Living Wage, not just the most junior staff.

What is a Living Wage?
A Living Wage is different from the minimum wage, which is a minimum legislated by the government. A Living Wage reflects a higher standard that people need to support their families based on the actual costs of living, and is determined by an independent 3rd party that measures and calculates the true cost of living.

What does this mean to you, our customers?
Most people appreciate that we care for our team. Some worry that higher wages will drive up costs, however, we have found the opposite to be true. Sustainability starts with people, and these are some of the great things that happen when you recognize and appreciate your team with a living wage:

Happy people do beautiful work
We attract great people to our team
Staff that feel appreciated and engaged stay with us, providing consistency and continuity
We develop people’s skills over time and they become experts, we don’t have a fresh team made up of summer students every year
Our staff are dedicated to their work, which means delivering you a 5-star experience.

The value of Eclipse Awards as your partner depends on the skills and talents of our staff. Our performance shows in the quality of the awards we produce, the responsiveness of our customer service.

With our Living Wage commitment, you can be sure that we are focussed on providing you with the best value and customer experience in the awards industry!

GREEN ROOFS, A LIVING BUILDING & HAPPY PEOPLE

Over the past 20 years we’ve built over 4000 sq.ft. of green roofs and community gardens. Today, our studio is lit by natural sunlight, so we don’t even turn on the lights for 8 months of the year. Our workplace is cooled by passive wind design, which includes a large opening garage door on the 2nd floor and opening skylights to create windflow and a cool breeze during summer months. We want our workplace to be inspiring, healthy, and energy efficient to help elevate our work of uplifting and celebrating people!

Green Office

GREEN ENERGY & ROOFTOP SOLAR PANELS

Eclipse Awards has been powered by renewable green energy since 2004 - first via BC Hydro’s Green Power Certificates, then via Bullfrog Power since 2009. Over the years, we continually review our manufacturing processes and take active steps to conserve and reduce our energy use, then we secure green energy sources for the remaining electricity and natural gas that we consume. In 2019 we installed a 2.56 kW photovoltaic solar panel system on our rooftop, which generates clean solar energy to power our operations, including our laser engraver, UV printer and sandblasting equipment. Any excess power that we produce is fed back into the grid.

Click here for a real-time view of the energy produced by our rooftop solar panels and to learn more about our journey to becoming solar powered.

CLIMATE LEADERSHIP

Eclipse Awards has been ClimateSmart Certified seven times and carbon neutral since 2012. This means that we have taken an in-depth inventory of our company and we understand how greenhouse gasses (GHG) are produced by our operations, including input materials, production, heating and lighting our building, staff commuting, and shipping the awards to you. We use this knowledge and awareness to reduce and limit our emissions, which includes designing eco-friendly wooden awards and trophies with low carbon footprints. Then we plant mangrove trees that absorb carbon to cancel or offset our remaining emissions.

To encourage low carbon commuting, Eclipse Awards subsidizes staff transit passes while also providing incentives of $.40/km for staff who walk to work and $.20/km for those who choose to bike to work.

It’s not a perfect system, but we’re doing our best to head in the right direction, so that when you choose us as your partner, you can know we’re taking these things into consideration.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM

Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure of witnessing the transformational power of recognition time and time again. We’ve seen recognition bestow confidence on people, empowering them to go on to achieve amazing things because of it. Thoughtful recognition, paired with beautiful awards, is a potent combination for cultivating emerging leaders, strengthening relationships, and building stronger communities. Yet at the same time, we see a lot of great organizations hustling to make things happen in their communities without appreciating or harnessing the power of recognition, so they don’t budget for it and, consequently, miss out on tapping into one of the most effective ways of empowering champions within their organization and community.

So in response, we created our Community Partnership Program to put the power of recognition into the hands of charities and nonprofits that might not have prioritized it in their budgets. Through an application process, we partner with organizations with aligned values that we admire and respect. We commit to working together for at least 3 years, show them how to use recognition effectively, deeply subsidize any awards they used, and then demonstrate value by sharing the stories and experiences that emerge.

Our Community Partners are working hard to improve the world, and our goal is to help them empower leaders within their communities in order to accelerate their social and environmental missions.

In 2023 we are seeking community partners who are active in the areas of:

- Community volunteerism
- Oceans, rivers and streamkeepers
- Soil amendment and regeneration
- Habitat preservation and restoration
- Cultivating organic food and non-toxic food
- Uplifting teachers, educators, elders, or caregivers
- Empowering First Nations Youth

If you are interested in applying for our Community Partnership Program, please complete this application form.

Applications are open year round, though Community Partners are selected twice a year in January and July.

THE AWESOME AWARDS - uplifting awesome everyday people everywhere!

After seeing so many people doing good work, yet on the verge of burnout, Eclipse Awards launched The Awesome Awards in 2013. The Awesome Awards were created to recognize and uplift the unsung community heroes who are making the world a better place for all of us. The unique, pay-it-forward recognition program is free and everyone is eligible. You can nominate anyone from your community that you respect and admire, and since nominations never expire, your message serves as a lasting tribute for all to see.

Many awesome people are never recognized or celebrated for their efforts because there isn’t a “category” for what they do, but their good works add richness and beauty to our society. From the friendly volunteer at the community center, to the urban gardener, to the caring parent, to the little league coach, and everyone in between, these are folks that should be appreciated and uplifted. After all, if we aren’t building a society that values and celebrates the human spirit, what exactly is the point?

Awesome Award winners are chosen regularily, and the nominator receives a free Awesome Award to present to their nominee. After enjoying their award for as long as they wish, the nominee must pay it forward by presenting their award to someone they respect and admire, and so on, and so on.

The Awesome Awards are powered by love, and nominating someone is like giving them a warm hug from their community. It’s an opportunity to create uplifting positive energy, and let them know their efforts are recognized and appreciated.

Visit www.theawesomeawards.org and nominate someone awesome in your community today!

COMMUNITY SPONSORSHIPS & DONATIONS

We contribute to the sparkle and shine of our community by also supporting organizations that are uplifting, inspiring and empowering people in their communities. It’s one way that we help to give back, and also to build the community we want to see.

In 2022 we donated and discounted over $4400 in the form of customized awards, time and shared expertise; in 2021 it was over $7500.

Some of the organizations we have sponsored recently include:

Sponsorship discounts and donations are considered upon request and determined on a case by case basis. Recipients are chosen on a quarterly basis. If you are a charity or nonprofit interested in our support, apply here: https://goo.gl/forms/FMLrOX07wrazzf9j2

Volunteerism and Community Service

Eclipse Awards’ president Toby Barazzuol is an active member of the Vancouver community and serves in various volunteer leadership and service roles.

DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION

Toby was invited as a founding member of the David Suzuki Foundation’s Sustainable Diversity Network (SDN) and has been active since its formation in 2015. The SDN’s mission is to advance our understanding of sustainability and expand the environmental movement by celebrating voices and stories that are often unheard or unacknowledged.

In addition to reaching out to minority populations, the SDN helps to raise awareness of the wisdom and traditional knowledge of BC’s indigenous people.

WILD BIRD TRUST

Toby serves as a board member of the Wild Bird Trust (WBT), which is based in the Maplewood Flats of North Vancouver. The mission of the WBT is to provide wild birds with sanctuary through ecological protection and restoration, and support communities with education, culture, and reconciliation programs.

The Wild Bird Trust is adjacent to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation community, which has cultivated the site for thousands of years. Efforts are focussed on reestablishing the native biodiversity, and also sharing the cultural wisdom of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. The WBT also operates a growing native plant nursery that propagates native plants and also helps to educate of indigenous plant knowledge.

STRATHCONA BIA - BUILDING A GREEN COMMUNITY

Between 2006 and 2016, Toby served as a board member and then Chair of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association (SBIA). During that time, Toby established the organizations first sustainability committee, and was instrumental in hosting Sustainability 1.0 in 2008, Canada’s first sustainability expo for small businesses. Toby and the SBIA went on to host Sustainability 2.0 and 3.0, which aimed to share the advantages of green thinking with other local businesses. while also

Under Toby’s leadership, the SBIA tried to develop Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, sometimes referred to as Canada’s poorest postal code, as an inclusive community that celebrates creativity, diversity and sustainability. In support of that vision, the SBIA also launched a community resource exchange that allowed local businesses to share unused resources, and a composting centre to manage organic waste produced by local businesses.

COMMON GOOD - LOCAL ECONOMY FELLOW

Recognized for his sustainability leadership and community building at the Strathcona BIA, Toby was selected as one of Common Future’s Local Economy Fellows in 2012. The multi-year fellowship took Toby to various cities throughout North America to learn and share ideas with other innovators focussed on transforming their communities to promote real and shared prosperity.

Toby’s local economy work continues in various forms today, but if you ask him “How can I help cultivate the social economy?” He’ll still reply “It’s simple: start trading in the currencies of trust, generosity, respect, and love.”

Connect with Toby on Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobybarazzuol/