Cut costs and carbon
Submitted by Amanda Powell-Smi... on Wed, 25/08/2010 - 14:31
While many charities have top line environmental policies in place, very few who deliver services outside the core field of sustainability have managed to turn these policies into on-going employee action.
As financial pressure on the charity sector builds, environmental action needs to be seen as an opportunity rather than a chore. As well as meeting legal obligations, it is increasingly important for charity reputation, employee motivation, corporate partner selection and financial management.
Are your bins still full of paper? Based on average paper usage figures, an office of 35 people uses just over 500 reams of paper a year. A 10 percent reduction could save almost £200 per year – as well as additional savings on toner and electricity usage.
How do you travel to meetings? In London, the use of bicycles to get to and from meetings clocks up considerable savings. Twenty five journeys by bike each month can save £100 on public transport or £500 per month (£6000 per year) if taken by taxi. With the introduction of the bike hire scheme by Transport for London, the initial investment in bikes is no longer necessary.
Far from being a nice-to-do, environmental action must be prioritised by charities. Now is the time to get a dynamic and inspiring employee engagement campaign in place.
This is very inspiring to be educated enough about the great difference of environmental actions as an opportunity or a chore. Pointing to London in the bicycle riding is a great example to figure out so. Riding a bicycle seems to be a great way to help reduce the so-called environmental reduction since this is one way of avoiding of using gas as a means of transportation. If you look closer to bicycle riding, it maybe a good treat as a form of exercise and a great reward of considerable savings in turning to public vehicles such as taxi. I guess, in aiming to make our life simple is a great way also to protect and care for our environment. I know that we cannot eliminate in embracing the new features of technology but in a wise and disciplinary way we could live life to a simple yet in a modernized way.