In May 2006, I had the privilege of meeting
the staff of the Green Team Project at the Small Business Center
here in Jacksonville, FL. What a treat.
My personal core values are about protecting
and preserving the environment, but as a company, we were not sure
how we could get "greener" without it driving up costs, and
negatively affecting our customers.
The purpose of the
Green Team Project is
"helping people save money by becoming
environmentally-friendly in their everyday practices."
OK, I can live with that, it's totally win-win.
When I first heard Sarah Boren from the Green
Team speak, one of the stories that caught my attention was about a
small nursery school, and the impact of getting rid of paper cups.
They recommended to the school to install a water fountain - because
it would reduce their waste management fees. The school had their
ROI is less than a year, because they could downsize their dumpster
by installing a fountain.
So I signed up CS ideas for a FREE
evaluation. Sarah Boren and Katy Swanson from the Green Team came
out to our location and explained how they would help us - at NO
COST to our company. Definitely affordable.
Before the Green Team came out, I had already
begun thinking about the water fountain story. We were buying
3-4 cases of bottled water every week - and even though we recycled
the bottles all those bottles do leave an footprint. So I ordered a
Water Cooler for the break room, and started water bottle delivery.
I was quite proud of the first accomplishment.
A couple of weeks later we had our first
appointment with the Green Team - Sarah Boren and Katy Swanson came
out to talk about our location and the procedures. When I told the
water cooler story, they asked me one simple question - how often do
you have bottled water delivered. Fortunately, it's just once per
month - but if it had been weekly, what I didn't realize until then,
was that I nearly traded one environmental situation for another.
What's the impact of that? Previously we were getting our
water at the same time as our other shopping - no additional fuel or
emissions. By having water delivered, we were adding fuel
consumption and emissions, that weren't there before.
OK, so I had a lot to learn about my "habits"
and how big the "footprint" is on our actions.
The things that the Green Team Project
surveyed were in the following categories:
- Chemicals
- Electrical and Water Consumption
- Waste Disposal and Recycling
- Fuel and Emissions
There was lots of learning to do . . . and
more to be done. But the great part is that we have found ways to
improve our impact - without increasing our costs.
Here are some of the ways we've made things
better:
- Whenever possible, we print on recycled
or post-consumer content paper. Even this piece of paper you’re
reading fits the bill.
- When we purchase filler, we use packing
peanuts made from cornstarch that dissolves in water. We also
re-use the filling that is sent to us by our suppliers.
- When possible, we have stopped
purchasing items in plastic clamshells, instead we use smaller
polybags, which take up far less space in our landfills. This
will keep 10,000 clamshells out of landfills in the next year
and it is a three-fold win on fuel and emissions, too. It
requires less fuel and emissions to deliver the products to our
distributor, to us and then to your door, too.
- We’re replacing our janitorial supplies
with non-toxic, bio-friendly alternatives.
- We installed a water cooler, instead of
buying individual bottled water for our break room—and we don’t
buy paper cups to go with it. Now everyone has their own water
cup to go along with their coffee cup.
- Traditional light bulbs are being
replaced with CFL’s (compact fluorescent lights).
- We recycle, reduce and re-use everything
that we can. Boxes that still have “life” left in them are
returned to local distributors for re-use and those that don’t
are cut down and recycled, along with our plastics and
aluminums.
