City of Vaughan

Skillz Sports Lab Inc. has made the decision to commit to contributing business practices and activities that respond to the Sustainable Development Goals as issued by the United Nations. The following is a list of the 17 goals outlined by the UN, and how we plan to commit to practices that best meet those goals.

We have flexibility in our fees for families who require financial support. Children are provided training scaled to income.

We commit to making donations to Vaughan’s local Food Banks by offering a donation of a non-perishable food item in lieu of admission to tournaments. All food collected this way is donated to Vaughan’s local Food Banks.

We provide nutrition and injury prevention training for our staff and customers. We also provide a pickle ball program for seniors to keep their physical health up. We follow the city mandates for best practices to maintain good health.

We provide educational programs for health and sports training. We provide special needs training for our staff to work with the neuro divergent. We commit to contribute to sustainability education through postings on our social media channels.

We have employees of both genders and are committed to gender equality in all our hiring practices. We support women with training and oppportu8nities to play on boys teams. Most of our team sports have both male and female players.

We not only offer free, clean drinking water for our staff and members but also provide water through a filtered system throughout our premises. Regularly scheduled inspections of our change rooms and washroom facilities ensure continuous cleanliness and hygiene throughout.

We have committed to transition to energy-efficient lighting throughout our facility. We are open to any new energy-efficient program the city may initiate and share news on affordable and clean energy when we learn about it.

We have a hiring practice that prioritizes refugees and other new Canadians. We have similar mandates for students and women in roles of coaches. We pay well above the minimum wage for all hourly positions.

As part of our commitment to integrated solutions, we have data collection through our Facebook platform as well as other social media platforms to inform our customers and create a community.

We are dedicated to diminishing inequalities by fostering inclusivity for individuals with disabilities. We have training and behavioural programs for the neuro divergent and have one such student on staff part-time. This approach underscores our commitment to inclusivity and ensuring that our community activities are accessible to everyone. We are also committed to visiting community centres to learn more in the future.

We provide school services with after-school programs with basketball training. When the weather permits, we have outdoor activities such as fitness exercises and badminton in our green space. We are open to any new sustainable program the city may initiate in the future.

We actively promote responsible consumption and production through our sustainable practices of responsible recycling and safe chemical and e-waste disposal. We also minimize our use of paper by transitioning to digital alternatives. We limit our use of plastic by encouraging the use of recyclable and reuseable water bottles. We also donate such bottles to local churches.

We commit to promoting climate action for groups and organizations that align with our educational programs on our social media and website presences online. Furthermore, we pledge our support to climate action groups and NGOs such as the UNFCCC and its Youth Climate Report programs. Through our social media subscriptions, website links, and information postings, we aim to keep the community well-informed about local and global climate initiatives.

We are dedicated to reducing the impact of plastic waste from our community on rivers, lakes, and oceans. Our ultimate goal is to transition exclusively to sustainably produced alternatives. When shopping for fish for our on-site lunches, we always choose locally available fish.

As we have stated in previous goals of this sustainability mandate, we are committed to recycling and have set the objective of using only environmentally-friendly materials whenever possible. To reduce our paper consumption, we are actively planning to transition to a 100% digital approach. We also plan to participate in community-wide plastic pickup events with local youth in our parks when such events are planned.

To ensure the safety of our members, our premises is equipped with security measures, including video monitoring system on our basketball courts. We plan to expand this to include cameras outside our facilities as well in the future. We also reduce crime by walking our female customers to their cars and have a policy of keeping no cash on the premises. For our tournaments, we encourage organizers of events to bring their own security teams.

We are dedicated to partnering with groups, organizations, and suppliers who share our commitment to sustainable business practices. To date, we have maintained and commit to grow, our sustainability scores with these partners: Canada Basketball, Canadian Tire, Kids Sports Canada, and the Trevor Barton Foundation.

Through these collaborations, we aim to advance our commitment to adhering to all of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, reinforcing our dedication to sustainability and making a positive impact in various aspects of our community and beyond.