Sister Donna Brady stands next to the award presented to Bethany, which was named Institution of the Year through the Annual Mobius Environmental Awards. (Heather MacAdam photo)

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The Sisters of St. Martha were recently honoured for their recycling efforts.
Bethany won Institution of the Year through the Annual Mobius Environmental Awards, through the Resource Recovery Fund Board.
The awards lunch was held June 7 in Halifax and several Marthas and staff members from Bethany went to receive the award.
Sister Donna Brady, chair of the Martha Ecology Committee, said Nicole Haverkort of Eastern Region Solid Waste Management nominated Bethany for the award.
“She knew we had been working on this for a number of years,” Brady said. “So this year she thought it was time.”
Haverkort and her co-worker, compliance officer Michele McPhee, came to Bethany for a tour and to see the system.
Haverkort and McPhee sent a package to RRFB, including a number of photographs of their recycling and compositing system.
Brady said work on reducing Bethany’s carbon footprint began in the mid-90s.
Recycling stations for cardboard, paper, bottles and cans are set up in the furnace room at Bethany.
“It really is a marvellous set up,” she said. “They have got it so well marked. That has been going on for a long time.”
There are two new aspects of Bethany’s environmental efforts. The first is the composting, recycling and garbage stations set up in the diet kitchens on the second, third and fourth floors.
The second, Brady said, is the Marthas are doing their own compositing on Bethany property in addition to the compost that gets picked up by the municipality.
“Meats, fish and dairy – that goes to the municipality because we can’t handle that,” she said. “Vegetable scraps and all that stays here. So we have our own compost going and that gets used for our gardens and our flower beds.”
Brady said those new aspects were looked at in addition to the thing the Marthas have been doing for a number of years in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint.
The Marthas have been doing green landscaping for a number of years, Brady said.
“We’ve reduce our mowing by 50 percent and we’ve re-done all our flower beds so there’s a lot more perennials than annuals.”
Many new trees and shrubs have been planted over the past five years, Brady said.
“Those would be ones that fit with this region so it cuts down on your need for water and fertilizer and pesticides. In fact we don’t use pesticides here.”
That project took five years and the efforts are beginning to show, Brady said.
Reducing their carbon footprint and caring for the environment is central to the Marthas, Brady said.
“I think for us it’s having come to a realization that all of creation is a manifestation of the divine. If everything teaches us or shows us something about God, then our relationship with everything is very important.
“[We are interesting in] learning how to live in the space that we are in, in a way that’s life giving not only to us but to everything else around us.”
Brady said the awards luncheon was a wonderful experience. Sister Anna Beaton and staff members Wayne Farrell, head of the housekeeping department and Chuck Scott, head of the dietary department, also attended the luncheon in Halifax.
“We couldn’t do it if staff weren’t involved and we couldn’t do it if the sisters weren’t conscious and working at it.”
The luncheon was a great way to learn more about what people, organizations and municipalities are doing across the province to help the environment.
Brady said she and all the Marthas, as well as staff, were thrilled with the recognition.
“It’s the day to day stuff – it’s little. After a while you get a system in place and there’s always room for improvement but we’re doing pretty well. But you often think ‘what difference does it make?’ When you get an award that’s on a provincial level that says it does make a difference, I think it gives everyone a real boost.”