rban Impact Seeks Nominations for 2009 Charity Program
December 2nd, 2008Nominations are now being accepted for Urban Impact’s 2009 charity program. Urban Impact is looking for 10-20 Lower Mainland charities to join this very successful program that has provided more than 70 charities with free recycling and office paper shredding services since the program began in 2003.
About the Urban Impact Charity Program
Each year Urban Impact commits 1% of annual pre-tax profit to assist Lower Mainland charities by providing free recycling services as an in-kind contribution. This helps charities reduce waste disposal and lower their operating expenses, allowing them to reduce administration costs and allocate more funds directly towards charitable efforts.
2008 Recipients
In 2008, Urban Impact donated an in-kind value of $20,000 to Lower Mainland charities including:
Ronald MacDonald House
Little Mountain Baseball
Playhouse Theatre Centre of BC
Canadian Cancer Society
Aunt Leah’s Independent Lifeskill Society
Burns Bog – Community Giving
Boys and Girls Club Central
Boys and Girls Club Langley
Boys and Girls Club North Vancouver
Boys and Girls Club Fraserview
Boys and Girls Club Kimount
Come Share Society
Wish Drop in Society
Lakeview Preschool
Nomination Process
Nominations are being accepted from now until February 1. For more information, or to nominate a charity, please emailinfo@urbanimpact.com.
Urban Impact featured on CBC News
December 1st, 2008See the Full story…
Nicole Stefenelli: Finding Her Mentoring Feet
November 1st, 2008By Jennifer Croll
SharedVISION Magazine, November 2008
As a university student, Nicole Stefenelli wasn’t sure how to react when friends encouraged her to follow her passion for recycling. “They said, ‘Nicole, you need to do something about this.’ And I actually didn’t know what that meant.” But she soon figured it out. Today, she’s the founder and president of Urban Impact Recycling.
Started as a university project in 1989, Urban Impact has grown into a Lower Mainland success story. Nicole confesses she’s surprised by how far the company has come. “When I started, one of my best friends said, ‘How many businesses do you need to make a go of it?’ And I said, ‘Oh, 25?’”
Nearly 20 years later, Urban Impact has 4,500 pickup locations. Amid all this eco-friendly success, Nicole’s desire to give back prompted her to introduce Urban Impact’s charitable giving program, which provides free recycling services to charities. The company has also recently taken on the task of going carbon-neutral.
Seeking to strengthen her entrepreneurial chops, Nicole approached the FWE in 2003. “I was just so lucky because the fit, the match, was ideal,” she says of the mentor assigned to her. Still a mentee, Nicole’s unofficial mentoring duties, plus a turn assisting Christina Anthony in organizing the FWE’s e-series entrepreneurial training sessions, suggest that she’s up for the challenge.
In the meantime, Nicole has some sage advice for women entrepreneurs. “Whatever you choose, make sure you absolutely love it, because you will work harder than you’ve probably ever worked,” she says. “But if you do love it and you do feel the passion every time you go to work, it’s easy.”
SharedVISION is an independent monthly magazine for those interested in sustainability, integrative health, and personal growth. They promote solutions for living more lightly on the Earth, providing provocative, entertaining information about organics, eco-products, health, and home, and profiling those who are making a difference.
Driven toLive Your Dream: “We’re Energized by Our Green Commitment.”
June 23rd, 2008Maclean’s Magazine , June 23, 2008
L’Actualité and Canadian Business Magazines, July 2008
While Nicole Stefenelli doesn’t consider herself a visionary, there are many people who would say she is. The idea she had in 1989 to start a recycling business couldn’t have been better timed.
Today, Urban Impact Recycling, which started with one employee and one vehicle, is a multi-million dollar business with 4,500 pick-up points in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, 50 employees, 30 fully automated vehicles and a 3,700 square metre warehouse in North Richmond.
“On a trip to Europe as a student in the late 1980’s, I was impressed with their green movement. Back in Vancouver, I started a demo project just to prove that commercial recycling was viable. I was then challenged to take it operational. A lot of hard work and discipline has gone into making this a successful business. But my passion for environmental protection has never dwindled and my partner and I agree there’s nothing we’d rather be doing than running Urban Impact Recycling.
Recycling was non-existent in the Vancouver area in the 1980’s. Blue boxes weren’t introduced here until 1991. The demo project I started while in university was really an academic pursuit. When I graduated, and decided to turn it into a business, little did I imagine that recycling would become as central to our lives as it is today.
It took time for people to embrace the recycling idea, but the business gradually expanded and then started to grow quickly about seven or eight years ago as more and more Vancouver area businesses began to seek ways to reduce the amount of waste they produce.
My partner and husband, Rod Nichols, joined me in the venture in 1992. We were always passionate about the environmental cause and found we had a knack for customer service, but we soon learned that it took more than that to run a business. We had to generate adequate cash flow, and financial results that we could leverage for growth. We learned the business side at what I call the ‘School of Hard Knocks’.
The relationship we developed with BDC was crucial to us. They were much more than a short-term lender, and had a unique approach. Of course they looked at the numbers, but they also banked on Rod and me. That was completely refreshing and we were empowered by their belief in us. We have been partners with BDC since 2000. They’ve helped us grow and expand.
Today, with an increasing worldwide demand for recycled materials, we have buyers from around the globe. To meet their demand, our main marketing thrust is aimed at getting more local businesses on board as recyclers. We also offer shredding services, an area that is experiencing healthy growth right now.
We compete in a very tight job market by providing our employees with an interesting place to work. We offer them profit-sharing opportunities and the chance to get involved in social responsibility initiatives such as tree planting to offset our carbon emissions. These projects really seem to engage staff members and that is very rewarding for us.
We’re planning a move to new premises that we’re modifying to suit our needs. Vancouver is undergoing a boom right now and with this new facility, we will be well positioned to tap into this explosive growth.”
If, like Nicole Stefenelli and Rod Nichols, you are looking for ways to turn an innovative idea into a successful business, go to www.bdc.ca
URBAN IMPACT RECYLING
Specializing in: Office recycling, shredding, cleanup, waste audits
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Works with clients in: Canada, South America, Asia
Owners: Nicole Stefenelli and Rod Nichols
Number of employees: 50
Year founded: 1989
Web site: www.urbanimpact.com
Nicole Stefenelli shares some Urban Solutions with the Christy Clark show on CKNW.
March 26th, 2008Urban Impact’s founder talks about protecting against fraud and identity theft, the GVRD’s new recycling rules, and more.
Listen to broadcast…
