Group Pursuits
Whether groups are looking to leave a positive mark on Waterloo Region, or looking for spaces that are working to lessen their environmental footprint, venues in Waterloo Region provide opportunities to incorporate Corporate Social Responsibility and green initiatives into meetings and events.
The Hacienda Sarria’s Market Garden is a 1.5-acre teaching garden that grows over 10,000 pounds of produce each year. It was formed as a community partnership with The Working Centre – a local non-profit organization that began in response to poverty and unemployment in downtown Kitchener. Get your hands dirty – literally! – while volunteering to help in the production of fresh, local food and environmental stewardship.
The Waterloo Region Museum has received the Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating. The museum incorporated recycled building materials, locally sourced and manufactured materials, and many green features, such as rainwater reclamation, into its design. Among its CSR initiatives, the Waterloo Region Museum offers its venue at a low cost for non-profit organizations.
Delta Waterloo takes the used soaps and shampoos from their guest rooms and donates them to a Mennonite Church located in Wellesley, ON. Here, they are processed and then shipped to global aid agencies for distribution to people affected by poverty and humanitarian crises.
The Delta Waterloo also aims to divert everything away from the landfill. Along with traditional recycling, compost bins are used in the servery of their banquet facilities. Organic material from their restaurant is taken to a facility outside of Arthur, ON, to be turned into soil. Even items such as sternos used on buffet tables are collected separately and recycled.
The Walper Hotel has made a conscious decision to shop local, and support local artisans and environmental initiatives. They use locally-sourced room soaps (Buck Naked Soap Company, Cambridge) and coffee (Smile Tiger Coffee, Kitchener), and have switched to mini shampoo bottles for bigger dispenser units to reduce plastic waste going to the landfill.
Bingemans offers four electrical car charging stations in their parking lots. CSR initiatives include donating thousands of passes to their waterpark and FunworX to local schools and charities yearly. Bingemans was also a participant in a pilot project called Food Not Waste, which diverted unused food from food establishments to people in need in the community.
For more unique team building experiences in Waterloo Region, visit www.explorewaterlooregion.com/directory/team-building