In 2010, a group of us at Digital Cement started an initiative to reduce the company’s overall environmental footprint. We approached this project like any other — we measured our current activities as a baseline and used the measurements to help project ways to make future improvements.
We Measured Inputs And Outputs In 4 Areas:
- Energy
- Transport
- Waste
- Procurement
With our baseline emission metrics recorded, we developed an informed environmental footprint reduction plan. We planned to continually remeasure our activity and to track our progress in the form of a Report Card, to be shared bi-annually across the company.
Business is the force of change. Business is essential to solving the climate crisis, because this is what business is best at: innovating, changing, addressing risks, searching for opportunities. There is no more vital task.
— Richard Branson
Getting Everyone Involved
Necessary for the success of our reduction activities was the participation and support of every Digital Cement employee. We needed to inspire employees to take action at work and in their personal lives.
The Following Actions Were Taken:
- A Green IT audit (conducted by SoftChoice).
- Default duplexing on all printers.
- A Complete audit of all suppliers with a proposal to switch over to more environmentally friendly paper options, cleaning supplies and caterers
- Bike/Walk to work days
- A Five-day Transit Challenge
- A Recycling vs. Waste education campaign
- A weekly “tip” email
- Branded portable and re-usable coffee cups
- A monthly “fossil award”, themed each month, for most environmentally unfriendly employee
Will Farrell
We began under the name “The Green Team”. To avoid problematic associations with the dubious Will Farrell collective, we made a branding change. Several brand ideas were drafted and circulated to the company for a vote. The winning idea was “Green Standard”.
This Represents
- A new baseline, a new way of doing things, a new normal
- The gold/green standard for low footprint offices
- A stamp of approval and certification for environmentally responsible behaviour
