Captains Neil and Crystal Wilkinson receive an environmental leadership award on behalf of Prince George Community Church

Prince George Community Church, B.C., has won the local Chamber of Commerce's environmental leadership award for 2012. This is the first time The Salvation Army has received this award—one of 10 business excellence awards that the chamber gives to local businesses every year—confirming that the Army is now a major player in the green movement in the city.

This award reflects a number of “greening” efforts made by The Salvation Army in Prince George this year, under the leadership of Captains Neil and Crystal Wilkinson. Most significantly, the corps opened a new recycling warehouse in April 2012. While the previous two thrift store locations had been recycling on a smaller scale for many years, the new warehouse allowed the corps to expand and improve their recycling operations to better meet the needs of the community.

While the warehouse continues to accept donations of gently used items that can be sold in the local thrift store, it also accepts all end-of-life items. This includes textiles, footwear, electronics, mixed paper and metals. Since April, the new recycling centre has diverted more than 1.5 million pounds of textiles from the landfill. The revenue generated provides financial support to the corps' community ministries, which include the city's primary food bank, bread line and more.