On greening the office

01 Dec 2008

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Dear Umbra,

The Powers That Be at my job have decided to start a Green Initiative. The project got put on the desk of the office manager, who doesn't know where to start. I signed up to be a part of the committee, and I was wondering if you had any advice about how to go about something like this. I have some good experience, but it's with school and church groups. I'm wondering what may be unique to work environments that I'm not thinking of already. It's very exciting! I'm sure there are programs out there, and I thought you'd be just the person to ask.

Kelli S.
Bethesda, Md.

Dearest Kelli,

All hail the Powers That Be. If the Powers weren't in favor, it would be harder to proceed. With Their blessing, your committee can choose between two main approaches to greening the office. The first is to put on Global Warming glasses, and the other is to make a list and check it twice.

Bring work down to earth.

One way to evaluate the environmental status of an office is to view all actions through the lens of Global Warming, The Problem That Be. With GW glasses, business is quantified, reduction goals are set, benchmarks are reached, and success is celebrated all in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions. As the committee chooses between sourcing recycled paper and funding employee bus passes, for example, the glasses only show them the emissions resulting from each choice. A good tool for the GW approach is a carbon footprint calculator designed for offices. Lo and behold, the EPA has such a calculator, in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. It is based on well-respected work from the World Resources Institute.

The second method, in which one makes a list of areas to improve and then gets better at some or all of them, is all over the internet. This method is closely related to the first and may have similar outcomes. My favorite document is Portland's Green Office Guide. Their improvement categories are office equipment, paper products, heating and cooling, water, and car-related items. Office equipment includes computers, refrigerators, and everything in between. Together with the self-explanatory paper products, office equipment should be responsibly sourced and responsibly discarded. Heating and cooling improvements could take place at the thermostat, in crawlspaces, and at the store, among other places. The water system includes hot water, sink, and toilet -- as well as landscape use. Car and transport impacts include commuting as well as business-related mileage, and don't forget the heat island parking lot.

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There are lots more resources out there for you, including suggestions from Clean Air Cool Planet and the Sierra Club. Perhaps the best way to start is to make a list of the topics I mention plus others you gather, take them to your committee, ask for input, and together prioritize the first steps (in consultation with The Powers, of course).

As to how to choose which method best suits your workplace, I defer to your experience with school and church groups, and your own office politics. I hope these resources are helpful and wish you the best with the project. Write in and let us know how it goes if you have the time.

Facsimile,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (3 comments)

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Use non proprietary software and formats

The Powers That Be at my job have decided to start a Green Initiative... I'm wondering what may be unique to work environments that I'm not thinking of already

switch as soon as possible to OpenOffice and the Opendocument file format for all your office documents. Do the same for email and all the other electronic documents needed in your office.

This will not only save you the license costs of proprietary office software. Above all, you will be finally free from forced periodical software upgrades, which are bad because software pollutes!

Yes, software pollutes. This is explained in detail in a chapter published online of my own book, but the base concept is very short and simple: computer components pollute a lot both when made and when dumped or recycled.

If you use software like Windows or Microsoft Office, which requires a computer upgrade every 2/3 years because it cannot be customized, nor read the latest file format, you will send much more ewaste than necessary to landfills.

If, instead, you switch to file formats which can be read by many different programs, even those which WILL run on older computers; and/or you switch to Linux, which can be tailored to minimize its RAM and hard disk needs, then you will greatly reduce over time the amount of electronics that you need to have manufactured (=pollution and energy waste) or trashed (=more pollution).

Feel free to contact me privately in any moment if you need more explanation on these matters.

Best Regards,

M. Fioretti

your civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how software is used AROUND you: http://digifreedom.net

by mfioretti at 12:46 AM on 02 Dec 2008

Greening your office

How exciting to see a company embarking on this path! My role is all about the "greening" of our operations and here are some tips:

Talk to your procurement department. How do they evaluate the stuff that is purchased?
See where the company is now so you can benchmark progress.
Write it up in an Office Environmental Management Plan, sectioned out into topics such as Waste, Energy (sub categories of heating and lighting), Procurement (which includes paper and stationery purchasing).

A good publication, very useful:
Green Officiency - Running a Cost Effective Environmentally Aware Office (good for giving you ideas about what should be looked at)

http://www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk/Our-Services/Publications ...

Hope this helps!

by breebee at 2:32 AM on 02 Dec 2008

agreed

This is what I do at work, too. In addition to Umbra's advice, I would say let the committee brainstorm so that they get excited and have some ownership over what you take on. Include some easy, low-hanging items, like saving paper and fixing the autoflush toilets, so that people see results and feel like they are making a difference. On the flip side, the group may spend an inordinate amount of time talking about buying recycled post-its, when what they really need to do is stop driving their SUVs. Let them vent, then do research, use your expertise, and/or get someone who knows the relative impacts of actions to help you prioritize.

Our Action Plan is divided into Transportation, Energy, Waste, Land, Water, and Engagement. Depending what your company does, most of these categories will work for you.

As breebee notes, a lot of decisions happen in Procurement, so be sure to work closely with them.

Friendly competitions, and free food, never hurt, either. Really, any experience you have with schools should carry over (except you don't have to paint the recycling bins).

by scarls5 at 5:25 PM on 02 Dec 2008

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Super Powers