BizBiz Reduces Waste, Connects Resources With Buyers

Connector November 2020

The online platform, BizBiz BC, was launched in June 2020. This platform aims to connect businesses’ waste, surplus materials, or underutilized resource ‘haves’ and ‘wants’ with willing buyers using single click financial transactions. Parties looking for particular materials can browse the site for free. The program is run by Vancouver-based Light House Sustainability Society, a social enterprise that works to create regenerative built environments that restore ecological and human health by helping clients understand what sustainability means for their organization or business.

BizBiz BC uses the BizBiz Share technology, developed in Québec, where it has successfully operated for five years. BizBiz Share represents a uniquely Canadian story, emerging as an idea in the Alberta oil sands, then developing to serve the metals, chemicals, and construction sectors in the Montréal region. Now, it will also support Light House‘s CircularSen$e programs in BC. The organization’s focus is on advancing the region’s circular economy through industrial symbiosis, an online resource marketplace, and deconstruction tools and education programs. 

“In response to the new business realities brought about by the pandemic, we were looking for ways to bring an online business-to-business resource marketplace into BC to supplement our existing in-person resource-matching workshops. After we found out about BizBiz we saw the potential to adopt the platform; offering one more chance to reuse or share,” comments Hilal Savas, Circular Economy Specialist with Light House. “Payment and transportation were barriers, but we addressed those to make it more accessible for buyers and sellers. There is insurance coverage as well.”

Beginning with Metro Vancouver, the plan is to expand the resource exchange network into rural BC, and then across Canada. The platform is focused on BC to begin with, but also has some members from Alberta (members of that province’s NISP® Canada network), including the All West Bio-Industrial Park in Edmonton. There are currently more than 600 resources listed (from equipment, material, tools, warehouse space, office share, agricultural waste, and discontinued food items). It is free for users to sign up for platform access.  If a successful deal is made, the seller pays a transaction fee.  These fees will be used to build more industrial symbiosis opportunities, and to further progress resource matches.

“We see some amazing connections created through the platform, such as using demolition wood made into movie sets and trade show booths, the use of food waste as inputs for the natural ingredients used in cosmetic manufacturing. We also see other forms of upcycling – including discontinued tea leaves made into a new ice cream flavour, and mis-shaped chocolate chips used in donuts,” adds Hilal.

As a next step in their growth they are launching BizBiz Construction, a platform option specifically targeted at construction and demolition waste.  The aim is to repurpose these materials into valuable salvage and secondary raw materials.

Find out more or contact them today: https://bc.bizbizshare.com/, Hilal@light-house.org