Posts tagged ‘corporate action’
Review: True Green @ Work
I’ve recently been reading this book I got from the library, True Green @ Work.
Cover shot of the book 'True Green @ Work
Check out the review I wrote today if you want to know more about it!
Spotlight: Dilbert’s Take on Paper Cups
I like the Dilbert comic strip. It reminds me a little of my office, which reminds me of when I first found out I’d be working in an office (as opposed to teaching in a shitty classroom). I felt all sophisticated. Ha. Oh, how we grow. And oh, how our cynicism grows. Hmm. Nah, I don’t hate it that much really.
Anyway, I actually subscribe to the daily Dilbert comic strip, but for a while there I wasn’t checking my reader, so I missed them. One of my colleagues gets the daily strip emailed to her every morning by her sister (who in turn gets them from someone else), and when I expressed my liking for Dilbert, she started sending them on to me. I’ve since begun accessing my feed reader again, but haven’t had the heart to tell her to stop, so I get my daily dose of Dilbert twice. I like how sometimes the strips build on each other. The following two came through this week, and I they got me thinking.
The first strip makes me think of the way a lot of people commonly view eco-friendly items that replace the things they’re used to. The prevailing opinion seems to be that they’re not as good as the original version (squirrel, anyone?). Is this true? In my opinion, not usually. I think that often the producers of eco-friendly goods go to considerable lengths to ensure the newer version at least meets and often outperforms the original. Sometimes it’s something else (original) that is the problem. For example, until we got new printers at work a couple of weeks ago, we weren’t able to use recycled printer paper as it caused paper jams up the wazoo. The new printers are fine with it… which I think means it was really the old, out-of-date printers that were not so good. No-one has complained about the paper coffee cups though, but I guess I hardly ever see anyone using them.
Which brings me to the second strip. Just like Dilbert, we actually did introduce paper cups in our offices Australia-wide this year, to replace styrofoam and plastic cups. They’re recyclable and made from recycled paper. But, just as Dilbert says, it’s not so clear how that helps the planet. See, no-one really used the disposable cups in my office anyway (not sure about other offices around Australia though). Everyone already used reusable mugs, which is really awesome cos I’m reading this book called true green @ work that I got from the library and it says that over the life of a mug (about 3000 uses), you make 30 times less solid waste than if you use a cardboard cup. (Whoa, talk about a run-on sentence. Yes, I edit for a living.) You also create 60 times less air pollution. Considering that as of the time of publishing (2007), Australians were using around 400 million disposable cups per year, think of all the eco-savings. And of course, paper cups are better than plastic and styrofoam, so if you thought those stats were bad, just imagine…
Of course, you could always make like No Impact Man and use a jar instead. I do wonder how that would go down in the corporate culture though. I think my boss might think I’m insane. Then again, I get the impression that my new boss may have tree-hugger hippy potential (in an affluent boss-y way), so you never know. (I’m already reusing glass juice bottles as my water bottles, but I think it’s more socially acceptable to drink from a bottle).
Regardless, I think the introducing-recycled-and-recyclable-paper-cups-initiative is a good idea, even if it is just a drop in the bucket and not as effective as getting rid of disposable cups entirely. It does raise visibility… but how much is it really helping the planet?
Recycle: Cleaning your Recyclables
I’m trying to get back into the swing or writing regular posts after an unplanned almost week off. Work is still ugh, but today I escalated some stuff that has been a concern for a while, and it does feel good to get it off my chest and also no longer be potentially accountable for any wrongdoing. That is really good. Today I even had time to empty the work recycling bin. Yay!
Recycle - even the dirty stuff!
On the topic of recycling, I found out last week that you don’t have to have perfectly clean recyclables. This is a good thing, because the people at work cannot rinse the milk bottles out to save themselves. It’s also good for me at home though, because even though I rinse my soy milk cartons, this means I don’t have to spend ages and waste water scraping peanut butter from inside the jar (although Loodle the hungry puppy often helps me with that anyway).
So yeah – rinse, but don’t do so to the point where it really wastes water. The recycling gods are not going to reject your items cos they’re a bit nasty.
(Re)Use: Resources
While not an environmental concern per se, today I was flat out doing some work stemming from my trip last week. I was pretty frustrated and very tired and it got me thinking… I wouldn’t have to be doing this bloody work if someone from Melbourne had attended instead of me! I went on a trip to Perth the week before already and there were people at work who could have gone instead of me! Whinge whinge whinge bitch bitch bitch. Hello everyone, you can call me Groucho Marx, emphasis on the Groucho. I’ll also answer to Oscar.
Did I mention I was/am very tired? My eyes are seriously drooping as I type this even now. I’m not that much of a whinger normally, and I generally actually like work trips as I get to explore the country on the company dollar. I had one day’s notice this time though, so it was a bit much, really. I had to miss my workmate’s going-away party.
Me overlooking the Indian Ocean in Perth on my last work trip
Anyway, I thought about it some more and then I felt a bit crap, because in this instance, the Melbourne staff member who was supposed to attend was unable to due to stuff with the bushfires, which is why it was a bit of an emergency (read very short notice) that I go. But still – pain in the arse, although fair enough.
Throughout all my mental ranting and bitching though, I thought of these key – and environmentally friendly – points that made me feel a little bit better.
- My attendance (Brisbane to Melbourne) was better than flying the most appropriate person over from India. At least the travel was domestic.
- It was better to fly little old me to Melbourne than it would have been to fly 26 other people north to Brisbane. One versus the many.
- There was really no way to run this event via telecommuting or the company would have done it.
So for all my complaining, maybe my company did use their resources wisely, albeit mostly from a financial perspective (cheaper travel). The environmental impact is there nonetheless, but at least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
I still wish I hadn’t been at work until 6:45pm today. That’s so not cool. Bah environmentally-friendly humbug.
And I was so busy I forgot to empty the work recycling bin. Oops. The director will give me a gentle reminder if I don’t do it first thing tomorrow. The things we do…
Recycle: Bin Types
The talk of the eco-interwebz this week is a study by Sean Duffy and Michelle Verger, who work in psychology at Rutgers University. After noticing a pattern in the number of items recycled properly and the type of bin used, they completed a study; a series of experiments. Apparently, if a recycling bin has a hole in it to put the recyclable rubbish through, it is 34% more effective than a bin that looks like a regular rubbish bin. That is, the recyclables go into the right bin (not the general waste bin), but also that the general waste doesn’t go into the recycling bin.
Um. Weird. More organisational psychology craziness!
Seriously though, this seems legit. So I wonder why this is? I can see why people would have trouble recycling properly, if you get bins like the ones shown below, and described at Treehugger. They’re just so poorly signed.
Poor signage - picture from Steven de Sousa on Treehugger
But what if the bin is signed properly? Is it really the childlike delight at poking something through a hole that makes that type of recycling bin so much more effective, as suggested by Duffy? His study found that signage had nothing to do with it.
Our work recycling bin, the one my Environment Team colleagues and I organised, has a flip top lid. It is appropriately signed and the lid is green though. Perhaps it’s the colouring that is making these bins a success? Regardless, people are using them… even without a hole to poke the rubbish through.
Guess I don’t need to get out my stanley knife and cut a hole in the lid just yet.
Spotlight: Telecommuting
Hands up those who know what telepresence is. Anyone? No?
Oh wait, I can’t see your hands. But with telepresence, I could.
Telepresence, a kind of virtual conferencing, is just one of the higher-end ways companies are reducing their impact on the environment through telecommuting. Telecommuting is type of work arrangement providing flexibility around work locations. Telecommuters use high-speed internet, telephones, Voice over IP, video conferencing, virtual networks and portable work equipment (like laptops) to work from a variety of locations. Most people work from home, setting up home offices and going to ‘work’ every morning there. Others, sometimes called nomad workers, travel from place to place and log in from wherever they like. Telecommuting is also used to attend to international business. This type of virtual work is really only effective in jobs where you don’t need to be on-site to achieve the objectives of your role. Typically, larger companies have used telecommuting most effectively, but more and more medium and smaller businesses are now offering options like these to employees.
So what does telecommuting have to do with the environment?
Companies offering telecommuting often cite a reduction in the environmental impact caused by travel as a major driver for the development of these arrangements. As we all know, courtesy of my handy-dandy Transport pyramid (yes, I’ll be spruiking that thing for all time, so proud am I of my artistic endeavours while tipsy), some types of transportation have more of an impact on the environment than others. The original pyramid focused on local transportation, but here’s a modified version including long-haul travel.
Transport Pyramid, mark 2
The new section, Fishes and Birds, which includes massive cruise liners and aeroplanes, is weeny and right up the top there because it’s the type of transport you should use the least. Planes and big, big boats will stuff up your carbon emissions big time – often whatever you save with all your low impact living, all the good you do, will be eradicated by one measly flight. But you need to work, so what are you going to do?
Telecommute.
Telecommuting allows people, like me, to work globally without the need for international or even domestic flights. Most of my team members are in India. They’re awesome folks. Telecommuting is great for international business. Instances when you might need to fly to attend a conference or meet with the client can be replaced by high-quality telepresence, and internal communication often occurs via phone hook-up. Many large companies also have huge private networks with forums, bulletin boards, wikis and social networking applications – all designed to make global collaboration easier.
Telecommuting traditionally works very well for regular day-to-day work conditions. People who work in niche industries or who live outside of major cities, and who in the past would have needed to move or commute long distances to get to work, can now work from their home, or verandah, or backyard. Think of the environmental impact of taking planes normally filled with fly-backers (people who commute by plane on weekends) out of the sky every weekend, and cars off the highways every morning and evening. It’s pretty awesome.
There are flow-on effects of telecommuting too. Less office space needs to be rented, which means a smaller market for the construction of the high-rise office buildings that so many of us work in. Less driving and flying means less fuel needs to be extracted from the earth. Cars and planes experience less wear and tear and so need to be replaced less often. Congestion on the roads is reduced, which means smoother flowing traffic, and less idling time – which decreases carbon emissions. Reduced travel time means happier workers, who have more leisure time to devote to family – and composting, food gardening, home cooking and other aspects of low impact living that can fall in the priority list of time-poor people.
I don’t telecommute often myself (aside from my interactions with my co-workers in the northern hemisphere). I only really work from home if I’m feeling a bit under the weather, but not bad enough to call in sick, or if I have other commitments like a parent-teacher interview. I love that I could though, if I wanted to. In my opinion, telecommuting is a win for everyone; the company saves money, the workers save time and job flexibility increases satisfaction, and the environment fares much better.
Can you tell I’m a bit of a fan? Go telecommuting!
Recycle: Corporate Recycling
I’m part of my Environmental team at work.
It’s one of the advantages to working for a multi-national – they’ve got the money to invest in seemingly altruistic endeavours. Really, they’re into it at the moment because clients and prospective clients are becoming increasingly conscious of the environmental impact of doing business. Many clients are insisting that the companies they do business with have ISO 14001 certification, or are working towards it. So country by country, office by office, my company is doing just that.
Not in Brisbane though. We’re not big enough. So we started our team to tackle the environmental issues we face at work.
It started nearly six months ago, when a Brisbane-based woman from another section of the company gave a presentation on how the company is getting or has received ISO certification in several offices. There was an awesome video, showing offices with sensor lights in Bangalore, water reduction in London, recycling in Madrid. I was inspired.
I was also hoping for promotion, and thinking I needed to do something that made me look brilliant and caring, since apparently doing great at my work wasn’t getting me anywhere. (You can see I’m as altruistic as my company). Having resigned myself to organising team bonding events or something equally thrilling, it suddenly occurred to me; maybe I could do something that would make me look good and make me feel good. There mightn’t be an environmental action team for Brisbane yet, but there could be. The woman presenting was a place to start.
So to cut a long story short, I contacted her, other folks contacted her, and now we have a volunteer team of four concerned citizens. Things have been moving slowly – we only meet once a month, as work is very fast-paced and keeps us all busy, but we’re getting there. Our main focus right now is setting up some recycling. (You were wondering when I’d get to the point, weren’t you?)
We already had paper recycling, but now we’ve set up a series of regular recycling bins in the Brisbane offices. They take plastic, glass, aluminium, tin, paper, cardboard, paper cups and so on. We’re having a little trouble with getting the big central bin set up, though. Currently it’s hiding in a storage room cos the basement security guard won’t let us put it with the the other bins in the caged off area downstairs. We’re contacting the building owner to find out if it’s policy, if we have to rent bin space, or if it’s just the the basement guy playing God. So far it seems to be working well – the recycling bin is full everyday, and the regular bin seems to have less rubbish in it. My job recently has been to create some posters to encourage people to recycle. We already have some to ensure people recycle correctly.
Apparently the recycling company can provide statistics of how much we send them, so that, coupled with how much stuff we order (how many bottles of milk, how many paper cups and so on) should enable us to provide results to our colleagues to reinforce the message that recycling rocks!
I was mentioning in the meeting today though that I think after we’ve gotten through the recycling bit, we should talk about reusing. Cos while recycling is good, reusing is better. I know, it’s my catch-cry right now. Don’t think I’m not into recycling though, I am. Our recycling bin always has more in it than our regular bin.
In fact, here are a few (a few!?) reasons I like recycling:
- Twenty aluminium cans can be recycled with the same energy required to produce one new can from raw materials.
- Recycling one aluminium can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours. Is TV what we want to use the energy for though?
- In 2002, Australia recycled over 31,000 tonnes of aluminium drink cans – that’s 63% of the cans used that year, or around 2 billion individual cans.
- Making plastic from recycled materials uses only 30% of the energy required to make plastic products from fossil fuels.
- Roughly 117,000 tonnes of recyclables are contaminated in Australia each year (as of 2006), and end up as landfill.
- In 2006, methane from landfill accounted for 13.5% of Australia’s total emissions, with an estimated 710,000 tonnes of methane being released into the atmosphere annually. One tonne of methane has the same effect on global warming as 24.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
- Making recycled glass uses less energy and makes less than making new glass because crushed recycled glass melts at a lower temperature than the virgin components of glass (essentially, sand).
- The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a light bulb for four hours.
- Well-run recycling programs cost less to operate than waste collection, landfilling, and incineration. The more people recycle, the cheaper it gets.
- Recycling creates four jobs for every one job created in the waste management and disposal industries.
- Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees.
- Brutal wars over natural resources, including timber and minerals, have killed or displaced more than 20 million people and are raising at least $12 billion a year for rebels, warlords, and repressive governments. Recycling eases the demand for the resources.
- Recycling prevents habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, and soil erosion associated with logging and mining.
So do the right thing. Put it in the bin. The recycling bin. 
Sources:
- Recycling Reality
- Australian Bureau of Statistics – Waste
- Why do we recycle?
- Waste and Recycling
- Recycling Benefits.
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