Welcome
Welcome to the second issue of the quarterly Green Committee newsletter, Green Shoots and Leaves. It’s been a while since the first issue, but we have lots to report! In this edition, we describe the latest initiatives as well as the results we have achieved over the past few months.
Fighting Paper
We tried to control the usage of paper on several fronts. While two-sided printing and the use of scanners has gone up, the use of banner sheets has decreased. There is still a large amount of paper that can be reused. A couple of storage containers have been, therefore, set up next to the editorial printers. One is for one-sided paper and the other for used paper, and the collected paper is spiral-bound and reused as scrap paper.
A pilot project has been initiated to pulp returns at source. Finally, all school publishing has been moved to environment friendly paper and plans are afoot to do the same for higher education books next year.
Result: Paper consumption is down by 15 percent.
“Power”full Group
As you all know, we moved to the new office in May 2009. The awareness drive about the use of monitors and the lights in the office coupled with the building being LEED-certified* has led to a sharp decrease in power usage.
Result: The May–August power consumption was calculated to be down by 55 per cent!
*The leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) rating system is an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.
Planting Season
After several rounds of discussion and design, our office is going to have indoor plants very soon.
Wheeling and dealing
The shuttle service has been expanded. The bus now starts from Mayur Vihar Phase I at 8:15 am. The other pick-up points are Hasanpur Depo as well as Anand Vihar ISBT, Dabur Chowk and Vaishali Sector 5.
Future Notes
We are exploring possible options for recycling e-waste. Additionally, there are plans to collaborate with an NGO to plant trees in schools in the NCR area.
Get involved
At the end of the day, what we are trying to achieve is contribute toward a greener and better environment and your feedback is valuable to us to achieve this purpose.
Here are some suggestions sent by Rajit Anand:
1) Make sure that we always buy printers that have duplex (both sides) printing options and set the default for all print jobs to duplex printing. This can reduce the paper used by 30-40% very quickly if it is not already being done.
2) Have enough scanners around the office and encourage people who send paper-based documents by mail to send digital documents instead where possible. This not only reduces the paper footprint but reduces the time to receive, which is an operational efficiency, as well as reduces courier charges and the carbon emissions related to all the vehicles that would be involved in getting the package to its destination. We can achieve this by having a few heavy duty scanners in the office or by buying multifunction printers that have scanners scattered around the office that can make scanning and sending a very convenient option for all.
3) Ensure that we buy recycled paper as much as possible. This is paper that has been created from used paper and rags rather than by cutting down new trees. We can achieve this by sticking to buying from certain brands of paper manufacturers.
4) Have motion sensor based lighting in all conference and meeting rooms and cabins.
5) Stop the practice of providing plastic or Styrofoam cups for tea, coffee. Have people use porcelain cups or mugs that they wash afterwards and reuse.
6) Encourage people to have a pet potted plant per desk.
We hope that you have similar stories or suggestions and we would like to hear them. Do send your comments, ideas, experiences, and suggestions to pearsongc.india.greencomm@blogger.com.
