I am very excited about the prospect of making some positive environmental changes at work. Chris’s story and his achievements give me the hope that I and the team of like minded coworkers who have joined me can make a difference both for the environment and for the company’s bottom line.
I am starting from scratch; I have put together a team under the aegis of the Employee Activity Committee to make April “Earth Month” at our research and development facility. This is the first Earth Day celebration we will be participating in as a facility.
We are kicking the month off with a lunchtime viewing of “An Inconvenient Truth.”
We'll be screening this movie and "Who Killed the Electric Car?" as part of an effort to increase awareness.
The goals for the month are:
· To increase use of the recycling bins in the facility
· Encourage participation for the trail clean up day on the 28th
· Create a “Sustainability” team to evaluate opportunities to cut waste and
costs from operations at our facility.
Some of the ideas we have for the sustainability team to start assessing are:
- Switching to more energy efficient light bulbs
- Have periodic recycling drives (shoes, electronics, hazardous house hold goods etc) not just for
employees, but for the surrounding community.
- Giving employees access to their own plot of land on the property to raise vegetables (donating
some to the local food bank and allowing the employees to keep the rest).
- Making green roofs, installing solar panels or some other friendly use of the buildings on site.
- Adopting a highway section
The Apple Store in downtown Chicago has a green roof; this might make a good model for our R&D facility.
I am looking forward to this endeavor; I know the corporation as a whole is focused on becoming more environmentally friendly. Last year we converted our sales force company car options to hybrids, we donate water purification systems to the areas where we have production facilities and many of our production facilities have won efficiency awards.
I have a great team to work with can’t wait to get started.
Stay tuned for more reports on this journey.
-Jim
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