Emterra Group named one of the 10 top companies in a prestigious 2013 Canadian Private Sector Growth Prize program

Emterra Group named one of the 10 top companies in a prestigious 2013 Canadian Private Sector Growth Prize program

December 18, 2013

December 18, 2013 - Emmie Leung, Founder and CEO of Emterra Group made headlines in the last few weeks when the Canadian Waste Sector (CWS) named her Canadian 2013 Executive of the Year in the large private business category. But the accolades didn’t stop there.  In the same week, Leung and Emterra Group received a second national honour in the inaugural Private Business Growth Prize sponsored by The Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Grant Thornton LLP. In the past week, CorporateKnights.com named Emmie one of the “Top women in sustainability.

Grant Thornton and the Chamber of Commerce introduced the Private Business Growth Prize to recognize and celebrate privately held Canadian businesses with revenues of $5 million or more that create growth “beyond the top or bottom line.” Emterra was short listed as one of the top 10 privately held companies in Canada. 

In a special section published in the Globe and Mail, Peggy Cunningham, dean of the faculty of management at Dalhousie University and a member of the competition jury, said: “The founders (of the 10 short listed companies) all had crystal clear goals and a vision for where they wanted to take their organization, and yet there were no “I’s” in these submissions – the closeness of the people in the management teams who worked together through thick and thin, was amazing to me.” 

The candidates for the prize were measured against eight metrics including a culture of innovation; development of products and services; expansion into new domestic or international markets; development of people and culture; improving internal processes; improving stakeholder relations; improvements in financial measure or governance; and leadership.

Emterra Group, a waste and recycling solutions company, has operations in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, as well as the State of Michigan. Leung, an immigrant from China, started the company 37 years ago, when, as a one-person operation, she did everything from slinging recyclables into the back of a van, to driving the forklift truck. 

Today, the company encompasses a network of 21 material recovery facilities and other waste management operations, more than 550 waste and recycling collection vehicles and over 1,000 employees.  Emterra markets more than 500,000 tonnes of recyclables annually selling about 70 per cent to North American markets.

The company comprises four divisions:

  • Emterra Environmental providing waste collection and disposal and recycling resource management (collection, processing and commodities marketing)
  • Emterra Environment USA which provides similar services in the State of Michigan
  • Emterra Tire Recycling in Brampton, Ontario which collects and recycles used, unsaleable tires, and
  • Canadian Liquids Processors Limited in Hamilton, Ontario which provides confidential and secure liquids disposal and product destruction, and closes the recycling loop by producing industrial-grade ethanol from liquid waste.

Contact:  Paulina Leung | Emterra Environmental  | P: 905.336.9084, # 130|  C: 416.939.7916  | E: paulina.leung@emterra.ca