Aviva Community Legacy Award to U of Ottawa's Polycycle Celebrates Canada's 150th

TORONTO, Dec. 5, 2017 /CNW/ - To celebrate Canada's 150^th anniversary, Aviva has granted a special award of $150,000 this year to celebrate a project that impacts climate change and the environment.

The winner of the Canada 150 special Community Legacy category award in the Aviva Community Fund competition is Polycycle from Enactus at the University of Ottawa.

Enactus is made up of students, educators and executives at the University of Ottawa who are "eager to leave the comforts of the classroom and the board room" to create projects that apply their knowledge to real world problems based on a 'triple bottom line' principle to create benefits that are social, environmental and financial.

Enactus created Polycycle to attack the problem of discarded plastics littering streets, leaching chemicals into our waters, impacting on wildlife and the environment and taking millions of years to decompose.

Its project proposal not only addresses the issue of plastic waste itself, but generates revenues, creates job opportunities, promotes awareness of environmental issues and integrates technology. It uses specialized plastic recycling machines to create products through injection moulding, which are, in turn sold to generate revenues for the project.

Polycycle will also promote environmental stewardship through marketing and awareness campaigns that will be centred around the selling of products and collection of plastic waste. The $150,000 Aviva funding will help expand this program to communities across Canada.

"Congratulations to the Polycycle team and to everyone at Enactus at the University of Ottawa for their initiative and foresight in developing a truly meaningful program," said Debora Hendrickson, Senior Vice President, Aviva Canada. "Polycycle's program offered Aviva a great opportunity to aware a special grant this year to celebrate Canada's 150^th birthday and to help direct us toward a more sustainable future."

Aviva received a number of remarkable entries into the special category to celebrate Canada's 150^th. Polycycle was originally the runner-up. It received the award after the winner selected, Indigenous Climate Action (ICA), declined the grant.

The ICA cited the fact that Aviva plc currently holds 0.05% of the issued share capital of Kinder Morgan in its passive funds. It also cited an Aviva plc passive position on TransCanada.

"We deeply appreciate the ICA's concerns and have reached out to ICA officials to determine how we can work with them to address their concerns," Hendrickson said. "In the meantime, we applaud the outstanding work the ICA has done on climate change and its commitment to these important issues, a commitment Aviva shares. We firmly believe that our engagement with investee companies on environmental, social and governance topics can result in positive changes for companies and for society as a whole."

About Aviva Canada

Aviva Canada is one of the leading property and casualty insurance groups in the country, providing home, automobile, leisure/lifestyle and business insurance to 2.9 million customers. A subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, Aviva Canada has more than 4,000 employees focused on creating a bright and sustainable future for our customers and our communities.

Aviva Canada invests in positive change through the Aviva Community Fund, Canada's longest running online community funding competition, which has awarded $8.5 million to over 280 charities and community groups nationwide since its inception in 2009. Aviva Canada was the first insurer to become a national corporate partner of the Canadian Red Cross' Ready When the Time Comes program, to be there for Canadians when disaster strikes. With a strong commitment to prevention and protection, the organization has partnered with the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, and launched the Plan & Protect app, to help Canadians prepare for unforeseen weather events and natural disasters. In 2016, it received The Burns & Wilcox Award for Philanthropy & Community Service. At Aviva Canada, protecting the people and things you love, supporting the causes you care about most and strengthening your local community is just good thinking.

For more information visit Aviva Canada's Corporate Responsibility page, or blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

SOURCE Aviva Canada Inc.