Carlo Krikowa and his wife Anita Krikowa decided to change their lifestyle, throw everything out and start again.
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"We were living this completely unsustainable lifestyle and we were buying all this shit we didn't need but just didn't make us happy," Mr Krikowa said.
They sold their designer furniture, made a vegetable garden and started designing their furniture from wooden pallets, which eventually turned into their furniture business, Boyandgirlco.
"I had no carpentry experience before this," Mr Krikowa said.
"We didn't actually plan on turning it into a business it was only after our friends and family said it was good."
Boyandgirlco took home an Actsmart Business Sustainability award, which recognises Canberra small business' green credentials, on Thursday.
"Our whole company is underpinned by sustainability," Mr Krikowa said.
"I think this award recognises that this city has a very green focus. It acknowledges more the Canberra population's belief in what we do."
Boyandgirlco recycles the nails they recover from pallets, redirects sawdust to farms and reuses wooden offcuts for other projects.
They also design eco-friendly T-shirts, produced in a green-powered factory in Sweden with organic cotton and minimum water waste.
"Your average T-shirt, do you how many litres of water it takes to produce that? 2700," Mr Krikowa said.
TedX Canberra also took home an Actsmart award for its waste disposal efforts at local TedX events.
Lead organiser Ingrid Tomanovits said it recycled more than 78 per cent of its waste from last year's TedX.
"I put that down to our volunteers and coordinators. They're the ones that really drove the effort," Ms Tomanovits said.
"I think you just have to decide that it matters."
TedX provided three types of bins – compost, general recycling and landfill – at their event, with volunteers actively sorting through the waste so it was disposed correctly.
"It's not the most glamorous job in the world," Ms Tomanovits said.
It made sure its caterers only used biodegrable serving ware, while volunteers at bins helped guests dispose their waste correctly.
Ms Tomanovits said it would scale it up this year for larger crowds and hoped others in Canberra could emulate it.
"If we can do it anybody can," Ms Tomanovits said.
