With the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Rivanna River just down the road from the office, Charlottesville provides GreenBlue with a great natural setting for a sustainability organization. GreenBlue staff work daily to help make businesses and products more sustainable, and we are well equipped with the knowledge, expertise, and research to make this happen. But each year on April 22, we like to remind ourselves of the reason we do what we do, and spend Earth Day celebrating our planet and the protection of its natural environment.
While we are thrilled to see the annual excitement today, we think it’s important to treat every day like “Earth Day.”
April 21, 2014: A typical day in the life of a GreenBlue staffer:
8:15 am: It’s still 40 degrees outside? Time to bundle up for my fifteen minute walk to work. No need to drive when walking is so easy. My route involves crossing over Charlottesville’s historic Downtown Mall, a vibrant pedestrian mall filled with shops and restaurants.
8:30 am: Arrive at GreenBlue. I walk in, noticeably looking a bit confused as I’m wondering if I’m the first one in since it seems like all of the lights are off. Nope. About four others beat me in, but why turn on the lights if there is enough natural sunlight beaming in?
11:00 am: Restroom break where I always compost my paper towel after drying my hands, otherwise I will be gently reminded to do so by Anne Bedarf, our resident Composting Queen. Not to mention, there is a handy sign at the trash can, asking you to STOP, and think, “can it be composted?” before throwing something away.
12:30 pm: Now that it’s warmer outside, it’s time to stop staring at the computer screen and head out to the Downtown Mall for some lunch and fresh air!
1:00 pm:Back from lunch, so now its time to deal with any packaging or other waste I’ve accumulated (although I usually try to bring some of the GreenBlue reusable containers when I get food to-go). At GreenBlue, we either compost food waste or drop it in the little green bucket as scraps for some of our staff’s chickens. GreenBlue has many helpful guides plastered throughout the office to make sure we are all recycling correctly. The recycling options are endless; just check out our recycling closet where we can recycle most plastic types, paper, metal, cardboard, plastic bags and films, batteries, and many more products and packages.
2:30 pm: Snack break to eat a banana, and yes, of course I compost the peel.
4:00 pm: Time for a break to water the plants. The GreenBlue office is filled with plants to bring a little of the outdoors in.
5:00 – 6:00 pm: Everyone is departing to either walk, bike, or carpool home. Our GreenBlue culture is one in which sustainable practices are second nature, fully ingrained into our everyday activities. Not only do we work with companies to help them put their best environmental foot forward, we make sure to walk that same walk in our office daily.
