The City of Richmond has received two national Silver Leaf Awards of Merit from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) for its communication and community engagement to increase awareness and compliance with its single-use plastic ban and for its Rethink Waste Think Tank engagement campaign to generate ideas for reducing waste. 

"These engaging campaigns brought Richmond residents and businesses together to make changes that significantly reduce unnecessary waste and support a circular economy,” said Mayor Malcolm Brodie. "Council is steadfast in our commitment to being a leader in environmental sustainability and it is an honour to receive these awards."
            
Some of the notable successes stemming from the two communication and engagement campaigns include an estimated 48% reduction in single-use plastic items at the landfill that are coming from Richmond, an overall decrease in Richmond’s household garbage, extensive business awareness and compliance with the new single-use plastic ban and more than 300 ideas shared by the community on topics like repurposing and reusing household items, reducing food waste, ways to share, donate and sell gently-used household items, and tips for doing simple repairs. 

Silver Leaf is Canada’s premiere professional awards program celebrating excellence in business communication. Winning a Silver Leaf places the City of Richmond in a league with some of the best communicators in the field from across the country. This national award of distinction recognizes organizations that are setting the standard for communications excellence. The stringent judging standards for these awards involves evaluating entries based on a clear understanding of the organization’s needs, recognition of target audiences and their interests, and the strategic use of communication tactics to inform and influence audiences. The award judging also requires reporting on performance indicators to measure how communication has supported achieving goals and objectives.