Saanich-based businesses won four out of 14 categories during the Greater Victoria Business Awards held Saturday evening at the Fairmont Empress.
Western Interior Design Group, an interior design company based on Middleton Street in the Gorge-Tillicum area, won in the category of Business Leadership.
“Our ambition has always been to improve the standard of living for the public and for every person that uses the spaces we are working on,” said principal owner Pauline van Blokland in a video produced for the awards.
Her business partner Ann Squires Ferguson said Western Interior Design Group works with clients to “condense” that vision into a physical reality. “And then, the beauty of this business, Western Interior, is that we take this concept all the way to completion, so we are a construction management company as well,” said Ferguson.
Balance Home Cleaning based on Mcbriar Avenue near Cedar Hill Cross Road won Business of the Year with 1 to 10 Employees.
Owner Mattias Peemoeller said in a video produced for the awards that his company offers a wide range of residential and commercial cleaning services.
“Since I founded the company in 2012, our vision has remained the same – to build a reputation based on trust, exceptional quality and the most personalized service in our industry,” he said. “At Balance Home Cleaning, it is our people who make the difference.”
Lifetime Networks on Shelbourne Street won the category of non-profit of the year. A group of parents started the organization in 1998 to help their adult children with disabilities by establishing personal support networks.
“We work on developing friendships and relationships,” said Wendy-Sue Andrew, executive director, in a video produced for the awards. “We offer education programs, we offer employment programs, one-to-one supports and some outreach.”
About 100 staff members – many of them part time – serve about 300 to 400 individuals and their families, she said.
“When somebody comes to us for support, we specifically hire for that individual. It’s the person’s wishes and wants and dreams and goals…that we focus all our programming around.”
Bernhardt Contracting Ltd. won the category of Sustainable Business Practices.
The company builds homes that conform to the passive house energy standard. “It’s about using science and creative design to create buildings that are up to 90 per cent more efficient in terms of their heating energy,” said Mark Bernhardt, president of the company, in a video produced for the awards. “As a byproduct, this creates a building that is significantly more comfortable to live in and healthier,” he said. “It also costs roughly the same as a regular building.”
The company built its first passive home in 2012 in introducing the then-largely unknown concept to the Canadian home construction industry. “We did it through seminars and hosting construction tours,” he said. “The construction industry is on a road towards a sustainable future and we are happy to be a part of it.”