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2026 Winners

Congratulations to the Excellence in Retail Sustainability winners on their incredible commitment to superior customer service, progressive business solutions, and operational leadership.

Innovative Sustainable Product and Packaging Design

LithoURB

Cascades

LithoURB

Cascades

LithoURB is Cascades’ innovative 100% recycled brown paperboard, redefining premium packaging by offering a sustainable alternative to virgin SBS. Made entirely in Canada, it delivers exceptional print quality, durability, and converting performance while supporting circularity goals. Combining lithographic excellence, corrugating and folding carton capability, lithoURB helps brands achieve premium packaging aesthetics without compromising sustainability.

“6-to-1” Packaging Innovation Project

Danone Canada

“6-to-1” Packaging Innovation Project

Danone Canada

Danone Canada’s “6-to-1” packaging innovation project is a large-scale sustainable redesign initiative that replaces polystyrene (#6 plastic) yogurt cups with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and recycled PET (rPET) cups for its Oikos products manufactured at the company’s main production facility in Boucherville, Quebec where it produces more than a third of all yogurts sold in Canada. The project represents a North American first for thermoformed PET/rPET yogurt cups in its segment and is part of Danone’s broader Danone Impact Journey sustainability strategy. By transitioning to a resin that is significantly better recycled and enabling the incorporation of recycled content, Danone Canada aims to use its scale to innovate sustainably and lead the way for the food industry with initiatives that improve packaging circularity, reduce reliance on virgin plastic and support Canada’s recycling ecosystem.

Recycled Content Adoption

Motomaster Oil Pan — Transitioning to Canadian Manufacturing with Post-Consumer Recycled Content

Canadian Tire Corporation

Motomaster Oil Pan — Transitioning to Canadian Manufacturing with Post-Consumer Recycled Content

Canadian Tire Corporation

Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) partnered with EFS Plastics and EXI-Plast Custom Moulding on a Motomaster automotive oil pan. The objectives were to onshore manufacturing in Canada, and to integrate post-consumer recycled resin. The initiative demonstrates how high levels of recycled content can be integrated into a durable, functional automotive product without compromising performance, customer experience, or commercial viability. Based on comparable 2023 sales, the initiative has the potential to avoid up to 33 tonnes of plastic with similar launch-season sales.

Ahead of the Curve: Bringing 30% Recycled Content to Canada's Waste Bag Category

Reynolds Consumer Products Canada Inc.

Ahead of the Curve: Bringing 30% Recycled Content to Canada's Waste Bag Category

Reynolds Consumer Products Canada Inc.

Reynolds Consumer Products Canada successfully converted its national Hefty waste bag portfolio to 30% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic, years ahead of proposed Canadian recycled content mandates. Through extensive testing, supplier qualification, and cross-functional collaboration, the team maintained the strength, durability, and performance consumers expect while scaling PCR across our full portfolio (more than 20 SKUs). The initiative demonstrates a practical, commercially viable pathway for accelerating circularity in everyday household products while helping prepare the Canadian market for future regulatory requirements.

Reuse, Refill and Take-Back Program

Scaling Circularity Through Furniture Sell-back and Resale

IKEA Canada Limited Partnership

Scaling Circularity Through Furniture Sell-back and Resale

IKEA Canada Limited Partnership

The IKEA Canada Sell-back Program is a national, customer-facing circular initiative that enables IKEA Family members to return gently used IKEA furniture in exchange for store credit. The program extends product life by reintegrating items into the IKEA Canada As-is marketplace, offering an accessible alternative to disposal while making affordable, pre-owned furniture available to new customers. Over the past two years, the program has given more than 30,000 furniture items a second life, engaged more than 32,000 customers, and returned over $1.9 million in store credit. By integrating resale into existing retail operations, the program demonstrates how a customer-facing take-back model can support reuse, reduce waste, and make pre-owned furniture more accessible.

Back-of-Store Circularity and Operational Waste Diversion or Reduction

From Crust to Customer Value

Ben & Florentine

From Crust to Customer Value

Ben & Florentine

By reimagining an overlooked food ingredient, Ben & Florentine transformed edible bread heel slices into Churro-Style Bites—a new menu offering that prevents food waste while creating value for franchisees and guests. Now implemented across the restaurant network, the initiative demonstrates how operational innovation can advance circularity, improve resource efficiency, and deliver measurable business and environmental benefits.

Data, Transparency and Traceability Innovation

End-to-End Transparency

Henkel Canada Corporation

End-to-End Transparency

Henkel Canada Corporation

End-to-End Transparency is Henkel Adhesive Technologies’ initiative to make sustainability data transparent, actionable, and decision-relevant across the product life cycle. By combining the HEART platform, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), and the Sustainability Portfolio Assessment, the initiative has established a robust sustainability data and portfolio steering framework covering climate, circularity, safety/responsible chemistry, and nature. Supported by independent verification and documented proof requirements, it integrates sustainability into innovation, portfolio management, customer engagement, and reporting, enabling informed decisions, greater transparency, regulatory readiness, and reduced environmental impacts across the value chain.

Energy and Facilities Decarbonization Impact

Rising to the Climate Challenge: Baking a Lower-Carbon Future

Bimbo Canada

Rising to the Climate Challenge: Baking a Lower-Carbon Future

Bimbo Canada

Bimbo Canada is transforming decarbonization commitments into measurable operational results through a nationwide energy management and electrification strategy. More than 100 projects have reduced energy consumption, eliminated market-based electricity emissions, and made Bimbo Canada the owner of more ENERGY STAR® Certified industrial facilities than any company in Canada. By combining proven efficiency measures with innovative technologies such as electric boilers, electric shunting, and real-time AI-driven energy analytics, Bimbo Canada is creating a practical roadmap to net zero.

Refrigeration Decarbonization Across Our Store Network

Sobeys Inc.

Refrigeration Decarbonization Across Our Store Network

Sobeys Inc.

Refrigeration is one of the largest sources of operational greenhouse gas emissions in food retail and a cornerstone of Sobeys’ Climate Action Plan. Since 2019, Sobeys has reduced emissions from refrigeration leaks by 37.83%, including an 8.29% year-over-year reduction in 2025, through refrigeration modernization, lower-global-warming-potential (GWP) refrigerants and improved system design. Sobeys is embedding lower-emission refrigeration technologies into new stores and major renovations while demonstrating innovative solutions that can be scaled across its operations.

Low-Carbon Logistics and Fleet Transition

Distribution Fleet Electrification & Charging Infrastructure.

Tim Hortons

Distribution Fleet Electrification & Charging Infrastructure.

Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons is electrifying its corporate distribution fleet, pairing 7 heavy-duty battery-electric trucks and 2 electric shunt trucks, operating across three Canadian provinces, with company-owned depot charging infrastructure at select distribution centres, reducing emissions from the daily movement of goods to approximately 3,400 restaurants through Tim Hortons’ corporate distribution network.

PRO Excellence: Most Improved Recycling Performance and Transparency

From System Transformation to Measurable Performance Improvement: Québec’s Modernized EPR Curbside Recycling System

Éco Entreprises Québec

From System Transformation to Measurable Performance Improvement: Québec’s Modernized EPR Curbside Recycling System

Éco Entreprises Québec

Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ) is Québec’s designated Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) for curbside recycling. Following a year of organizational transformation in 2024, ÉEQ assumed full operational responsibility for the modernized system on January 1, 2025. The transformation established a province-wide framework for governance, collection, sorting, resident education, and performance reporting. In its first year, the system provided uninterrupted service to 99% of Québec’s population, recovered 791,000 tonnes of recyclable materials, strengthened public understanding of the new recycling rules, and established the first standardized provincial performance framework, introducing a new level of transparency, accountability, and performance across the recycling value chain.

Supply Chain Impact

Responsible Sourcing & Supply Chain Sustainability

Restaurant Brands International (RBI)

Responsible Sourcing & Supply Chain Sustainability

Restaurant Brands International (RBI)

RBI is one of the world’s largest quick service restaurant companies — nearly $47 billion in annual system-wide sales and over 33,000 restaurants in 120+ countries, anchored in Canada by Tim Hortons. Because more than 98% of RBI’s emissions sit in its supply chain, responsible sourcing is central to its climate strategy. RBI’s program applies independent certification and verification to its coffee, palm oil, and fibre-based packaging sourcing, and extends supply-chain traceability and producer engagement to beef — its highest-impact commodity — all underpinned by an independently assured GHG inventory.

Community Impact

"WITH and FOR": A 360° Indigenous Reconciliation Strategy

L'Oréal Canada

"WITH and FOR": A 360° Indigenous Reconciliation Strategy

L'Oréal Canada

Guided by the core principle of genuine partnership, this pioneering initiative establishes a systemic, three-year roadmap to deliver lasting socio-environmental progress alongside Indigenous communities. The strategy tackles critical inequalities by deploying mobile dermatological healthcare to remote northern reserves, sponsoring executive education, and executing large-scale forest restoration in wildfire-devastated territories. By bridging vital gaps in healthcare, leadership, and ecology, this program sets a transformative new standard for authentic corporate-Indigenous allyship.

Contact

RCC Sponsorship team at rccsponsorship@retailcouncil.org
RCC Events team at events@retailcouncil.org

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