Eco logic awards 2020

Two CN&CO partners announced as finalists in the 2020 Eco-Logic Awards

At CN&CO we strongly believe that we all have an opportunity and responsibility to help make the world a better place. Scrolling through our blog you may have picked this up in the intros to some of our popular weekly and monthly blog series.

On 12 August 2020, the finalists for the 2020 Eco-Logic Awards were announced. We were excited to see that two CN&CO partners had been nominated. The winners will be announced virtually on 21 September.

Love Our Trails, which Blake Dyason founded, has been nominated for the Eco-Angel award.

“It’s really cool to be recognised as an Eco Angel or Warrior, but for me my journey is far bigger the just the awards,” he says.

“I started my eco journey almost 10 years ago; it really started with a simple beach clean-up and no one joined me except my house mate. Once I started picking up litter, I couldn’t unsee it. This prompted me to started asking lots of questions and I have become increasingly conscious about what I buy, use and its impact.”

Blake believes that “everyone can be and should be an eco-warrior, it’s not a cool thing to do, it’s a vital thing to do. Our actions today will impact the kids of tomorrow and I choose to build a better future and hope you do too.” 

The other finalist that we have close links to is Imagined Earth.

Launched in 2015, Imagined Earth is a forward-thinking, green tech and recycling business that allows you to earn money and rewards for recycling your packaging waste through reverse vending machines (RVMs).

Our Joshua Nuttall, an associate of CN&CO, works closely with the team.

The awards have 12 categories:

  1. The Biodiversity Award
  2. The Climate Change Award
  3. The Eco-Innovation Award
  4. The Recycling and Waste Management Award
  5. The Eco-Build Award
  6. The Water Conservation Award
  7. The Green Economy Award
  8. The Municipalities Award
  9. The Eco-Community Award
  10. The Eco-Youth Award
  11. The Eco-Angel Award
  12. The Eco-Warrior Award

The Eco-Logic Awards identify individuals, organisations and communities that positively contribute towards a sustainable world – and we encourage consumers to support them by purchasing their products and services.

Here’s a quick insight in to Love Our Trails and Imagined Earth:

Love Our Trails

Love Our Trails was founded in 2015 with a trail clean-up on Table Mountain’s iconic Platteklip Gorge trail. Blake Dyason initiated the clean-up after noticing the amount of litter scattered across the trails, as well as graffiti, during a hike with a visiting friend. He left the trail feeling embarrassed and frustrated that people would disrespect nature in such a way. Blake invited the trail running and hiking community to join him in an effort to clean the trail for Mandela Day on the 18th July 2015 – a day South Africans volunteer 67 minutes to giving back in honour of Nelson Mandela.

Over 100 volunteers joined the first Love Our Trails clean-up that day, picking up an incredible 55 big bags of litter!

“There is an increasing demand for outdoor activities and adventure sports, and as this is grows around the world, so does the impact on our environment,” says Blake. “We have a responsibility to protect these spaces, to become custodians of nature.”

Love our Trails is building a trail community of like-minded, nature-loving people, with a culture that shares the values of protecting and giving back  to our environment and fellow trail users.

“We are committed to our ethos of protecting our environment for future generations.”

Imagined Earth

Launched in 2015, Imagined Earth is a forward-thinking green tech and recycling business that allows you to earn money and rewards for your recycling your packaging waste through reverse vending machines (RVMs).

“We are living in an era of convenience and circular thinking. Imagined Earth, in partnership with business, provides a highly effective recovery tool that empowers people to live sustainably in these modern times,” says Justin Needham of Imagined Earth.

RVMs allow shoppers and recyclers to “return and earn”.

Utilising advanced recognition technology to identify the waste being deposited, these RVMs are programmed to accept commonly used, recyclable products, independent of where these products have been purchased.

Whilst, from a global perspective, the concept of Reverse Vending is not new,  Imagined Earth is the first company to introduce RVM  technology in South Africa. 

RVMs work much like regular vending machines except that they accept (empty) containers and dispense rewards. These “green machines” identify products by their barcodes and reward shoppers directly, either to their phone via SMS or into their digital wallet on the Imagined Earth app.

Currently Imagined Earth users are able to purchase airtime with accumulated rewards, Imagined Earth is also working with several other loyalty partners to announce further rewards programmes in the coming months and to help motivate more customers to engage in positive action around waste reduction.

“Recycling is one of the easiest ways every person and business can effectively reduce impact on the environment,” says Justin. “Technology is one of the best tools at our disposal in the fight against plastic pollution. The advantages of technology can extend beyond the needs of today to help preserve the future.”

Imagined Earth is a South African based company and proud partner for Africa for INCOM TOMRA and TOMRA. INCOM TOMRA Recycling Technology is a Chinese-Norwegian joint venture. While based in China, INCOM TOMRA are devoted to promoting smart recycling and the circular economy globally.

Get recycling (and rewarded) today by downloading the Imagined Earth App via your favourite app store (IOS and Google Play.)

Good luck to all the other Eco-Logic Award finalists.

You can read more about the full awards here.

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