Tag: Office Sustainability Practices

The first year-long Charlottesville Better Business Challenge has officially come to an end. This year’s competition included 107 Charlottesville-area organizations competing in six categories: Waste Reduction, Water, Transportation, Energy, Purchasing, and Leadership. Organizations earning 150 points or more were eligible for the Winner’s Circle. GreenBlue finished in the Winner’s Circle, in addition to being nominated for awards in the categories for Kilowatt Crackdown, Biggest Loser, Green Leader, Top Innovator, and Overall Champion among medium-size organizations. We were, in fact, the only business to be nominated for an award in every category.
On June 21, the Challenge hosted an awards ceremony where everyone walked the “green carpet” at the Paramount Theater here in downtown Charlottesville. Several local area restaurants and wineries donated wonderful food and drinks for the event. I am very proud to announce that at the awards ceremony, GreenBlue won two awards: Kilowatt Crackdown and Biggest Loser (waste reduction).
In most cases being considered the Biggest Loser would not be cause for celebration. However, in this case we are thrilled to have won in this category. This title means our organization had the greatest reduction in waste generated in the office among all participating businesses. We accomplished this by increasing our composting and recycling efforts, and in total we were able to reduce our waste by 40%.
We strive to recycle as many products as we can as an office. Our current recycling initiatives cover not only the usual paper/cardboard, plastics, glass, and metals, but also CFL bulbs, batteries, ink and toner cartridges, electronics, and plastic bags. We have taken electronics and other products to our local Best Buy for recycling and have used Freecycle to find homes for no longer needed items. We’ve bartered items on Craigslist and offered unused lanyards and nametags to a local Girl Scout council. We’ve found that most things can be reused in some manner, it’s just a matter of finding the right place. Although this sometimes can take a bit of research to find the appropriate location, it is definitely worth the effort.
We also started a partnership with the C&O Restaurant to compost our organic waste together. Some of our food waste is taken home to feed a staffer’s chickens, and at times they can be some mighty well fed birds! The remainder of our food products, compostable packaging, and paper towels are now collected and combined with the food waste from the restaurant. We are very appreciative that the C&O houses the large compost collection can and agreed to share the cost with us. We believe this type of partnership could benefit other organizations and restaurants in the community and we actively encourage other local businesses to seek out similar opportunities.
Black Bear Composting recycles our compostable material into products for healthy soil. Once the organics have finished composting, the end product–finished compost–has several benefits:

• Returns nutrients to soil: nutrients derived from the soil in the form of vegetation are returned to the soil to restart the growing cycle
• Revitalizes soil: compost also provides structural and biological benefits to soil that improves soil health
• Reduces chemical needs: soil-amended with compost reduces the need for chemical fertilizing and pest control
• Retains water: compost enhances water absorption of soil, which reduces irrigation needs.

We would like to offer our congratulations to all organizations that participated in the Challenge and a heartfelt Thank You to the Challenge organizers and sponsors that worked so diligently during the past year. For more information on the awards and photos of the awards ceremony, please visit the Better Business Challenge website. You may also want to check out the media coverage sponsored this year by Earless Rabbit. Although sustainability can be challenging to implement, we are proud to have participated in this year’s Better Business Challenge and do our part in ensuring a healthy future for our planet and the next generations.

As an organization that is committed to sustainability, we are always looking for new inspiration to improve our own environmental footprint. One way we are doing that is by participating in the Charlottesville Area Better Business Challenge, which is a friendly competition among local businesses to help them identify ways to reduce the impacts of their day-to-day operations on the environment. I have wanted to improve my own habits and being a part of the business challenge has motivated me to act. One area I would like to address is the packaging waste I create from takeout food (especially from work-day lunches). To take this one step further and get others involved, I came up with the idea for the GreenBlue Walk the Walk Challenge:
The concept: A new challenge is issued each month by one GreenBlue staff member to all staff, and the topic must relate to our work in some way. This is voluntary; so, each person will decide whether or not to commit to this year-long challenge.
The goal: To create better habits that can decrease our impact on the environment, with the intent that we build on each new good habit as the year progresses.
The kicker: If you slip, you have to put $1 in the donation jar for each offense. At the end of the each month, we write about how it went on this blog and total our funds. Then at the end of the year, we select an environmental charity to receive our “kicker funds”.
The twist: The person who initiates the challenge topic in one month tags someone for the following month.
March topic: Come up with creative ways to reduce waste from food and drink packaging.
Basic challenge: Do not use any disposable food/drink carry-out containers (That’s right, no coffee cups, pizza boxes, or Chinese food take-out boxes) or associated paraphernalia (plastic bags, plastic utensils, chopsticks, etc). At home or in the office!
Extra credit: Do not create any food/drink packaging waste.
So, get in the habit of bringing your reusable food and drink containers with you!
Hey, In the Loop Readers, you can participate in our challenge too!  Don’t forget to let us know how you do each month. Also, we will solicit topic ideas from our blog readers for one of our challenges (keep your eyes peeled).
Who’s on board?
Oh, and by the way, tag you’re it: Paul Giacherio! Stay tuned for Paul’s April challenge…

I’m armed with my reusable containers. My food container is made by To-Go Ware (to-goware.com) and I purchased it locally at the Blue Ridge Eco Shop, where they have a variety of reusable food containers. On the FAQ page of their website, To-Go Ware addresses what type of stainless steel is used in the lunch containers and where they are manufactured – for details, visit the To-Go Ware website.
 

In October I was asked to participate with a team of GreenBlue staff in the Charlottesville Area Better Business Challenge, a friendly competition among local businesses to incorporate sustainable practices into their day-to-day operations. This would become one of my first tasks after officially joining GreenBlue as the Office Manager. I did not have a background in sustainable issues and it has been a very educational undertaking.
The Better Business Challenge has all participating businesses start with a scorecard to take stock in six key areas: Energy, Transportation, Waste Reduction, Water, Purchasing, and Leadership. The initial responses serve as the baseline for your business: each improvement gives you 1-2 points, you gain certification with 40 points on the scorecard, and businesses work toward a goal of up to 150 points.
With the initial scorecard completed I found that we are already a pretty sustainable business but we continue to look for areas that we can improve upon. We research and order products that use recycled materials and make efforts to recycle as much of our office materials as possible. We’ve recently installed cans in our kitchen and bathrooms to collect paper towels (non-bleached, recycled materials, of course) and other materials for composting. I was surprised at the amount of stuff that can be composted and I’m sure my garden will appreciate it next summer. Prior to starting with GreenBlue I was unaware that some of the carryout food containers are now made of sugarcane and can be totally composted. We even collect food waste that is fed to a staffer’s chickens.
My learning experience continues daily as I research programmable thermostats, plumbing issues, energy-efficient light bulbs, and compostable materials. I’m sure our efforts will make GreenBlue even more sustainable and in turn we will continue to help others in their efforts. I’ll have more to report on as we complete our goals in June.