Four people leaning against two green compost bins. There is a Compost Winnipeg truck behind them

Compost Winnipeg and Christopher at their match meeting

 

Every year Spark presents the Spark Outstanding Pro Bono Award at the Volunteer Manitoba Volunteer Awards Gala. We look forward to this day every year because it gives us a chance to recognize some of our volunteers and the impact their pro bono work has on the community, as well as celebrate volunteerism in Manitoba.

 

From now until awards night, we are celebrating the nominees for the Spark Outstanding Pro Bono Award, and their contributions to their community through a series of volunteer profiles. 

 

Today we are profiling winner Chris Carther-Krone, an IT expert for his work with Compost Winnipeg

 

A social enterprise of long-time CCEDNet member Green Action Centre, Compost Winnipeg has been actively working towards a goal of “100% organic waste diversion from the landfill” through their (almost) city wide residential and commercial compost pick up program.

 

Since launching in 2016, the enterprise has seen tremendous growth, starting from one pickup truck to a current fleet of 5. Resulting in the diversion over 70,000 kgs of organic waste from the landfill every month. 

 

This growth led them to Spark and their request for IT assistance. Specifically, they were interested in a thorough review of their computer security, including going through all of the points of information intake and all the potential storage and security risks for customer information. 

 

Chris Carther-Krone was the perfect volunteer for the project. An IT systems manager, he came to Spark in 2015 wanting to give back to the community. Since then he has successfully completed one project, and was eager to do another.  

 

Chris was enthusiastic about working with the Compost Winnipeg team. He spent several meetings going through his process, educating staff on potential pain points and giving them possible solutions. 

 

At the end, the organization reported that “Chris offered simple and effective solutions” to help safeguard against data breaches, however he also inspired the organization to do more, which included creating an IT policy and reorganizing their drive for a smoother workflow.

 

Congratulations on your award!

 

For more volunteer profiles check out Danielle Harvey-Wilson, Sheila Young, Kelly Thibodeau, Margo Powell, Evgeniya Lapanov, Melanie Houde, Amanda Minuk and David Gut, Sumegha Gupta, and Tracy Groenewegen!