Corporate US Goes Green (3-Sep-07)
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Full article: Corporate US Goes Green (3-Sep-07)
Doing good for the environment while doing good business is a trend that is gaining momentum in corporate America. 73% of U.S. workers say they want their employers to be more environmentally responsible. Being green is very powerful from a cultural point of view in the office.
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Doing good for the environment while doing good business is a trend that is gaining momentum in corporate America.
In fact, 73 percent of U.S. workers say they want their employers to be more environmentally responsible, according to a July study by Sun Microsystems. And nearly 80 percent of companies say they are doing something, even if it’s as simple as recycling.
“Being green is very powerful from a cultural point of view in the office,” said Karl Ahlrichs, a human resources professional in Carmel. Ind. “If an organization truly is the modern family, the way people live at their home and the way people live at their office should be somewhat aligned.”
At Hickman+Associates in Carmel, Ind., the first clue that you have entered an environmentally friendly company is bicycles sitting in the middle of the office for any employee to use. Open the cabinets in the break room, and you find glass plates and cups to use at staff parties, instead of paper or plastic. Then there’s the ban on fax cover sheets. Why waste another sheet of paper?
“You are never done being green,” said Melissa Hickman, principal of the marketing and communications firm. “You can’t just check this off of your list at the end of the day. You have to look for new things you can do all the time.”
Instead of starting up her car to grab a muffin one recent morning, Hickman+Associates employee Jill Sherwood hopped on a bike and pedaled to a nearby cafeteria. On her lunch break, she biked to the bank to make a deposit.
“It’s exercise,” Sherwood said. ‘’It saves money on gas. And, yes, it’s good for the environment.“
At Roche Diagnostics in Indianapolis, there’s something green everywhere you turn.
Light switches are gone, replaced by sensors that turn on when someone enters a room and off if no motion is detected in a certain amount of time. Office chairs and carpets are recyclable. Hybrid cars are available for salespeople to use. From 2003 to 2006, the company went from 535 tons of trash recycled to 1,300 tons. The National Wildlife Federation recently named the Roche Employee Park a certified wildlife habitat site.
The overarching goal: Make as small a footprint as it can on the environment, said Steve Hunter, Roche’s manager of environmental protection.
‘’Everyone has children or family members we really care about, and it’s important we do what we can do to ensure our children have the same opportunities we had,“ Hunter said.
In November, the Meijer grocery store chain will begin offering customers the opportunity to buy reusable plastic bags. And the retailer has dozens of fueling stations where it offers E85, the blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, at 10 cents less than the price of regular gasoline.
At Rolls-Royce, internal newsletters and publications are distributed almost exclusively in a digital format. The company’s aircraft engine manufacturing plant in Indianapolis has reduced its emissions more than 80 percent in the past few decades.
While environmentally friendly offices are good for the outside world, they also reduce employee absenteeism and cut down on health insurance costs, said Maryjane Behforouz, owner of Healthy Structures in Indianapolis, which designs office spaces with environmentally friendly products.
‘’The greatest health impact is indoor air quality, especially in a work environment where you typically can’t open windows,“ Behforouz said. ‘’And it shows that the company cares and they are investing in employees’ health. The green and the healthy overlap very much.”
- Source: The Enquirer
