In 2009, Devin Goss did what a lot of people always wish they could do, follow their passion.
Goss is a graduate of Cochrane High School and the cofounder of BluPlanet Recycling Inc., a company that has ‘established itself in the multi-family and commercial markets as the premiere recycling service company in Calgary.’
Previous to BluPlanet, Goss said he was working as a financial planner and wasn’t happy with what he was doing.
He lived in a condo at the time that didn’t have a recycling service provider that mimicked what the City of Calgary was doing for single-family residences.
Goss and another cofounder found a gap in the market and decided to form BluPlanet.
“I think Alberta is a great environment to be an entrepreneur and I think the province as a whole is very open-minded to new ideas,” said Goss. “It can be a good province for entrepreneurs to succeed. There is access to capital and there is a lot of young professionals who can help drive innovation in this province.”
And Goss knows about succeeding as an entrepreneur, not only in Alberta, but nationally. He was the finalist representing Alberta at the 2014 Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) Young Entrepreneur Award.
The annual awards require an entrepreneur to submit a project with judges looking for ‘the impact of the proposed solution on the company’s growth.’
Goss said his project had to do with the ‘development of a collection and transfer system for compostable organics.’ He said the problem that exists in their market is that the infrastructure for that type of system doesn’t exist on a smaller scale.
“It was fun to participate and, in the end, even though we didn’t win the competition, we ended up moving forward with our project,” he said.
Sustainability as a business, along with being a good corporate citizen, are two values that have been very important to Goss and BluPlanet.
He said they have been involved in a number of community initiatives and were one of the first in Alberta to become a Certified Benefit Corporation (B-Corp), a certification for businesses that ‘maintain one of the highest standards for social and environmental sustainability in the world.’
“All of those suit our personal beliefs around business and our personal values and BluPlanet’s core function is environmentally oriented,” he said.
Following personal beliefs and values as a young entrepreneur is what Goss said is important when starting out.
“The key is to kind of understand where your passions lie and follow those pursuits to drive you towards whatever business idea you have.”
This year, Goss said BluPlanet is looking forward to potentially expanding to Cochrane, which will have their own mandate regarding multi-family unit recycling this year.
