Knowing your office carbon footprint is an important part of moving towards a greener and more efficient business operation. Calculating your footprint can be a perfect first step in determining baselines for conservation and emission reduction initiatives. It also gives you an excellent tool for tracking the progress of conservation efforts, comparing your carbon footprint with similar businesses, and motivating employees to participate in conservation campaigns.
Track your energy usage with a range of tools.
Green Irene provides an online office carbon footprint calculator tool to its clients. This calculator enables your business to analyze energy use and cost for multiple years, track greenhouse gas emissions quickly and easily, view weather data to learn if weather affects your energy use, see the results of your energy conservation efforts on easy-to-read charts and graphs, and submit your commercial building data to ENERGY STAR to receive an official energy rating.
The calculator looks at energy, water, and heating fuel use. Coupled with a resource such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol calculator (http://www.ghgprotocol.org/calculation-tools/service-sector), which concentrates more on carbon emissions from vehicles, these calculators can serve as a robust toolkit for companies in designing office energy/water/carbon footprint reduction campaigns.
Submit data to ENERGY STAR and receive an official rating.
The Green Irene calculator requires access to a history of monthly utility bills (water and fuel data are optional if these utilities are not metered separately for your office). Also note that the calculator requires a minimum entry of 5,000 for office square footage.
As part of a Green Office Makeover, your local Green Irene Eco-Consultant can provide you with more information on this calculator, as well as many additional resources to help you develop and implement your conservation initiatives, including policy templates, research support, and a full line of eco-friendly products. Contact him or her today and get access to powerful resources that can help your business go green!
From the National Association of Realtors Green Designation, of which Green Irene LLC is a Founding Sponsor. This impacts new non-residential buildings in California:
Green Building Gets a Boost With CALGREEN
The green building movement just got a big boost. The state of California was the first state to mandate green building standards when the California Building Standards Commission unanimously adopted the Green Building Standards Code (CALGREEN) last month.
When CALGREEN takes effect on January 1, 2011, all new nonresidential buildings over 10,000 square feet will need to adhere to the code. Its goal is reducing green house gas emissions, energy consumption and water use.
“This is a major step for the green industry,” comments Al Medina, director of NAR’s Green Designation. “Before, green mandates were left up to municipalities. I wouldn’t be surprised if other states start following California’s lead.”
Of CALGREEN, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “With this first-in-the nation mandatory green building standards code, California continues to pave the way in energy efficiency and environmental protection. Today’s action lays the foundation for the move to greener buildings constructed with environmentally advanced building practices that decrease waste, reduce energy use and conserve resources.”
CALGREEN will require new buildings constructed in California to:
- Reduce water consumption by 20 percent
- Divert 50 percent of construction waste from landfills
- Install low pollutant-emitting materials
- Include separate water meters for nonresidential buildings’ indoor and outdoor water use, with a requirement for moisture-sensing irrigation systems for larger landscape projects
- Get mandatory inspections of energy systems (e.g., heat furnace, air conditioner and mechanical equipment) for nonresidential buildings over 10,000 square feet to ensure that all are working at their maximum capacity and according to their design efficiencies.
Once a building passes the state building inspection, its owner will be able to label the building compliant with CALGREEN.
CALGREEN likely will spur advances in building products. “California is a hotbed of innovation. With the mandate, there’s a lot of opportunity for small manufacturers with innovative products,” he says. Moreover, builders likely will be seeking out such companies and manufacturers because they’ll need products and materials to meet the CALGREEN standards for projects.
“Before, a new start-up would have to claw its way to get in front of builders. They have opportunity, in the next couple years, for builders to find them,” adds Medina. Moreover, he notes that opportunity exists for California specialists, such as real estate professionals, builders and developers, to become expert in CALGREEN and become the go-to person for consumers and building end-users and be the one to explain CALGREEN and its effects on them and their businesses.
And in the long term, CALGREEN has the potential to improve all buildings, not just new ones. “There will be a stark difference between new and old buildings in terms of energy efficiency and comfort,” he observes. He anticipates a time when the gap between new and old will be so wide that older buildings will be forced to upgrade to remain competitive in the market.
Printing is a vital part of your business, but it can also be a significant contributor to your company’s environmental footprint. Consider that paper and ink manufacture can impact our environment before the printing even begins! By greening your printing, your company can show its commitment to a better environment and more eco-friendly business practices. So what steps can you take?
Buy recycled paper. Consider that a forest area the size of 20 football fields is lost every minute to paper production. The Environmental Defense Fund estimates that 90 percent of the printing and writing paper in the United States is produced from virgin wood pulp. Producing 2,000 pounds (one ton) of virgin uncoated paper requires 6,000 pounds of wood. Producing a ton of paper using 100% post-consumer copy paper rather than virgin pulp saves the equivalent of 24 trees (forty feet in height and 6-8 inches in diameter).
42% of all the wood harvested for industrial purposes in the world goes to making paper. The magazine industry alone harvests more than 30 million trees every year for paper. That’s more than one tree every second.
The pulp and paper industry is also the third largest industrial contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, after the chemical and steel industries. Producing a ton of paper using 100% post-consumer copy paper rather than virgin pulp saves 4,100-kilowatt hours of electricity and 60 pounds of air pollution.
Make sure your printers use eco-friendly inks. The printing industry is the single largest toxic polluter in the world. It is also the third largest consumer of fossil fuels, after the automobile and steel-manufacturing industries. Eco-friendly printing helps keep toxic chemicals out of our environment and generates far fewer greenhouse gases compared to conventional printing. Printing green also requires much less water than conventional printing. Printers use trillions of gallons of water, which then has to be treated because of its toxicity.
Finally, recycle your paper products, which will reduce the amount of solid waste going into landfills, and improve the market for recycled paper goods. Producing a ton of virgin uncoated paper requires 19,075 gallons of water. Producing a ton of paper using 100% post-consumer copy paper rather than virgin pulp saves 7,000 gallons of water.
With facts like these, now is a great time to think about your company’s paper procurement, paper reduction, and paper waste disposal strategies. Your local Green Irene Eco-Consultant can provide guidance in developing these strategies, and can provide you with the resources you need for developing your green printing policy. Contact them today and start working toward a more sustainable business!
(Facts excerpted from Print Net, Inc.)
Was disgusted by this story in the New York Times where clothing retailer giant H & M routinely rips holes in brand new clothing and throws them in the trash to be put in a landfill. I certainly understand they don’t want people coming into the store and returning them for store credit (with no receipt), but they could cut the tag out or put a “X” on the inside tag in red marker and donate to local shelters so kids and adults can get free clothes.
They must spend a lot of money on “sustainability” and may do a lot of great things but be careful that something like this can really set back your customers image of you. ACTIONS must mesh with the WORDS.
Read the excerpt below and the full article is at the link.
PJ Stafford
Green Irene Eco Consultant
New York
It is winter. A third of the city is poor. And unworn clothing is being destroyed nightly. Each piece of clothing had holes punched through it by a machine.
They were found by Cynthia Magnus, who attends classes at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York on Fifth Avenue and noticed the piles of discarded clothing as she walked to the subway station in Herald Square. She was aghast at the waste, and dragged some of the bags home to Brooklyn, hoping that someone would be willing to take on the job of patching the clothes and making them wearable.
During her walks down 35th Street, Ms. Magnus said, it is more common to find destroyed clothing in the H & M trash. On Dec. 7, during an early cold snap, she said, she saw about 20 bags filled with H & M clothing that had been cut up.
“Gloves with the fingers cut off,” Ms. Magnus said, reciting the inventory of ruined items. “Warm socks. Cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor. Men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.” The jackets were tagged $59, $79 and $129.
H & M, which is based in Sweden, has an executive in charge of corporate responsibility who leads the company’s sustainability efforts. On its Web site, H&M reports that to save paper, it has shrunk its shipping labels.
“How about all the solid waste generated by throwing away usable garments and plastic hangers?” Ms. Magnus asked in a letter to the executive, Ingrid Schullstrom. She volunteered to help H & M connect with a charity or agency in New York that could put the unsold items to better use than simply tossing them in the trash. So far, she said, she has gotten no response.
UPDATE: After a flurry of publicity following the New York Times article, H & M has promised to stop the practice of destroying discarded clothing, but the damage to their image is done.
The business travel that happens for conferences and events can have a significant environmental impact, and it can be a considerable cost for event planners or attendees. Coordinating rideshares for an event would be a great way to go green and save money, but only if the event planner has the time and resources to manage a rideshare system.
Enter companies like Zoompool (http://www.zoompool.com/event): nationwide services that create online rideshare matching for company events. Zoompool provides a “SmartBadge” that can be included on an event website or within an e-mail. This badge links to a personalized search page where attendees can enter their information to find the rideshare nearest to them. Check out a video about their services at http://www.zoompool.com/eventattendees.
Services like Zoompool’s can make an event more accessible for those not wanting to drive, and less costly for those who might otherwise travel alone. Zoompool even provides carpool-related customer support for attendees, making event coordination that much easier for you.
Zoompool is one of several new businesses that provide tools for greening business travel and commuting. Other companies like Ridespring and Zimride also offer commuting coordination for companies, for events, and for individuals. With these great new rideshare coordination services, green event planning has become that much easier. Taking advantage of these services will provide you with the time to concentrate on other aspects of your event, while also benefiting from a reduced carbon footprint and reduced travel costs.
Has your company taken steps to green your business travel? Share them with us in the comments below!
According to the EPA, the average office worker in the US uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year, which equates to about 2 pounds of paper and paperboard products every day from every worker. That’s a total of 4 million tons of paper used annually in America’s offices, and equates to the use of 465 trees per person over a lifetime.
Yet, of that amount, only about a third is recycled. Paper and cardboard still make up almost two-thirds of the waste found in landfills, and two-thirds of paper overall is composed from virgin wood material.
I can never understand why the 50% or 100% recycled printer paper costs MORE than the paper made from virgin pulp as, after all, you aren’t cutting down trees and processing them to get the raw material. But when you see numbers like this you have to think that a buck or two extra per ream for 100% recycled content makes sense… and that is why we only use that in our offices. Combine that with a paper reduction strategy and you are really on the right track to reducing that 465 trees per person number.
Recycling one ton of paper would:
- Save enough energy to power the average American home for six months.
- Save 7,000 gallons of water.
- Save 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one metric ton of carbon equivalent (MTCE).
Your local Eco-Consultant can work with your business on steps for paper reduction, and they can even help you in developing a sustainable paper procurement policy. Contact them today and start shedding some weight from your company’s paper usage.
Check out this great clip from the NBC show 30 Rock:
With the central role played by technology in the modern workplace, greening your IT operations is a fundamental part of improving office efficiency and reducing environmental impact. Take this quick quiz excerpted from the Wall Street Journal to test your awareness of green IT issues:
1) Which of these roles for information and communications technology has the potential to yield the biggest reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030?
A. Retrofitting existing buildings
B. Designing new buildings for reduced emissions
C. Telecommuting and virtual meetings
D. E-commerce and replacing paper
Answer: D. According to a study by the World Wildlife Fund, a big increase in online shopping and in the use of electronic transactions and documents to replace paper bills and publications could eliminate nearly a billion tons of greenhouse gases a year from the environment. That’s about twice the reduction estimated to result from either making existing buildings more efficient or designing new buildings that constantly monitor and adjust air conditioning and heating to minimize waste. More telecommuting and virtual meetings would save about 160 million tons of emissions a year, it estimated.
9) What percentage of corporate PC users leave their computers on nights and weekends when they aren’t in use?
A. About half
B. Hardly anyone
C. About 25%
D. Almost everyone
Answer: A. According to the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy, less than half of corporate PC users shut their computers down overnight, even though they aren’t using them. Turning them off would save an estimated 20 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions a year—roughly equivalent to the impact of four million cars.
10) What makes Windows 7 greener than Vista and other older Windows operating systems?
A. Microsoft prints the product manual on recycled paper.
B. It won’t run on high-energy microprocessors.
C. It reduces processor activity while the computer is idle.
D. It adjusts for intermittent power from wind turbines and solar panels.
Answer: C. It reduces background activity by electronically checking all connected devices at once and then going to sleep, rather than checking them at random times, which requires a central processor to be in operation almost constantly. It also reduces power consumption in other ways: It can be configured to stop searching for a network connection when a network cable isn’t plugged in. It suspends Bluetooth radio connectivity when it senses the Bluetooth device is in low-power mode. And it dims displays after shorter periods of inactivity than previous models.
How well did you know these green IT facts? Green Irene’s Ask Green Irene database can provide you with much more information about energy conservation in your IT operations, which can translate into cost savings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions for your business. A 3-month membership to Ask Green Irene is included in the Green Office Makeover service offered by Green Irene.
Disposing of lighting that contains mercury can be a burden for any business. Federal law now requires most businesses to recycle spent fluorescent lamps. Moreover, if mercury contamination shows up at a disposal facility where your lamps have been sent, there are no small quantity exemptions from liability for site clean up. State and local disposal regulations may also require recycling and issue fines for improper disposal. Some states even have complete landfill bans on mercury-containing lighting.
However, it does not cost much to recycle your business’ mercury-containing lighting. Over the life cycle of a fluorescent lamp, it is estimated that the cost to recycle today is less than 1% of the total cost of ownership.
Costs to operate fluorescent lighting technology
The 1% Factor
This 1% cost of recycling is worth it when you consider that it’s the easiest and the cheapest way to avoid costly fines or liabilities. Green Irene’s recycling kits are a great solution to guarantee cost-effective and convenient compliance for your business. One price includes everything you need to begin recycling — packaging, prepaid freight from your facility, processing and certificates of recycling. Best of all, recycling is provided by the largest environmental services company in the world, and when it comes to liability protection, no other product offers as much environmental liability protection for your business.
As one example, our 4 foot lamp recycling kit comes with the appropriate container, liner, bi-lingual instructions, terms and conditions, pre-addressed and pre-paid return shipping label, and proof of purchase with serial number. Fill and send the kit for recycling at your convenience from your building. As soon as your package arrives for recycling, you’ll have electronic access to your Certificate of Acceptance, giving you the documentation you need to prove that your tubes were recycled appropriately.
By including lamp recycling with Green Irene in your budget, you can maintain energy-efficient lighting and stay on the path to sustainability, while also staying in compliance with federal, state and local disposal regulations. Let Green Irene make sure that you receive the best value for your 1%. Click here for more information about these products.
An environmental policy statement is a document that establishes your company’s commitment to green practices by setting the goals and principles that will guide employees and assist management in eco-friendly decision-making.
Developing a statement is an important public relations tool, since it helps to spell out your company’s environmental efforts for clients, suppliers, media, and the community at large.
A statement can also be an important investment by establishing set ways to reduce overhead through conservation and best environmental practices, which will boost your bottom line.
All businesses are different, so there is no “one size fits all” policy, but there are common topics that any statement should address. Some of these topics include:
- Sourcing products and supplies to minimize environmental impact.
- Reducing waste reduction in purchasing, manufacturing, and shipping.
- Conserving energy and water.
- Considering green practices during construction and renovations.
- Reducing toxins at the workplace.
As a service to its Green Office Makeover clients, Green Irene provides sample policies that include detailed policy points on all of these topics and more. The Green Office Makeover starts at $250 for small businesses, during which your local Green Irene Eco-Consultant provides advice in developing or implementing green policies with the resources of the largest green consulting firm in the country at his/her disposal. With the information you need to create your environmental policy statement, your Eco-Consultant can give your company an important advantage in an increasingly eco-conscious world.
