A Fort Rouge business is rebuilding the gardens in front of its offices in hopes of helping deserving families obtain  their own homes.

IBEX Payroll Services is spearheading its annual Clean Your Green initiative with the goal of raising $8,000 for Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg.

The cleanup was launched in 2006 with the simple goal of beautifying the public gardens in front of IBEX’s building at 421 Mulvey Ave. E., south of the Osborne underpass.

"The company’s CEO noticed the gardens out front were looking pretty worse for wear, so they went out and cleaned up on company time for something fun for the staff to do together," said Spencer Yarnell, an IBEX employee and lead organizer of this year’s campaign.

In 2007, the IBEX decided to do the cleanup again, and turned it into a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.

"We decided to get other companies and individuals to pledge money towards the cleanup, and that money would be donated to Habitat for Humanity. That’s how the idea of cleaning up for money developed," Yarnell said.

In 2008, instead of limiting themselves to the single garden in front of their business, IBEX employees cleaned up all four corners of Osborne Street in front of their business, and raised $20,000 for Habitat for Humanity in the process.

Yarnell said the company decided to continue the cleanup initiative every second year, and while they did do a cleanup in 2009, it wasn’t part of a fundraising campaign.

In 2010, IBEX raised $20,475 for Habitat for Humanity with its Clean Your Green Plant it Forward campaign, during which it encouraged community groups and businesses to make a field of flowers from recyclable materials, and had people sponsor the flowers.

This year, the company has taken a different approach to encourage donors to get involved in the campaign with the Clean Your Green Move the Green-o-meter initiative.

"We’re taking an incremental approach, and we’ve mathematically figured it all out. We’re going to clean a metre of the garden for every $189 donated, in hopes of reaching the $8,000 goal and cleaning up the entire garden," Yarnell said.

"We’re going out fairly regularly and depending on how much money is raised, we’re cleaning that much of the garden," he added.

IBEX had already collected $2,485 as of last week. The company is hoping to reach its goal and have the gardens cleaned by the end of July.

"It’s a bit more of a stubborn campaign than the last one, because if we don’t raise money we don’t clean," Yarnell said.

Daryll Stewart, CEO of IBEX, said it’s important to maintain the project as an ongoing initiative.

"It all goes hand in hand. Getting out and doing this stuff together is a really cool company experience, so that’s neat, but the big thing we’re raising thousands of dollars to put people in homes. It’s 10 times more inspirational to raise the money for Habitat for Humanity than it is to clean up the garden. It just keeps us going out there," he said.

If employees are able to raise this year’s goal of $8,000, IBEX’s contributions to Habitat for Humanity will total more than $50,000 in the last five years.

danielle.finch@canstarnews.com