In Part 2 of our series, Tatiana Sehring, Strategic Manager Environmental Leadership and Sustainability, gives us 5 quick, easy ways that we can minimize our environmental impact in the office.  As we celebrate Earth Day tomorrow, the world will turn its focus to issues related to the state of our environment.  With Tatiana’s suggestions, however, we can carry the spirit of Earth Day past tomorrow and integrate sustainable practices into our daily lives throughout the year.  Happy Earth Day!

by Ryan Harding

I am confident that, with Earth Day on the immediate horizon, the nation’s biggest publications have begun to compose those bannerheads that will run on April 22, as the whole news media takes up its annual tradition of, for a day, fixing its gaze on environmental issues. For one day, we will collectively turn our eye to the issue of sustainability, reading retrospectives on the environmental movement, which trace its genealogy, and connect the movement’s past to its present and future, or op-eds on environmental degradation, carbon emissions, and water scarcity. However, I have always found the practice of celebrating the Earth—that blue and green rough-skinned globular object we ride through space—one day a year to be somewhat offbeat. Throwing the Earth a party which, in terms of scale and magnitude, might resemble a Queen’s Golden Jubilee arouse in us the same sense of purpose, excitement and focus as, say, the theme of monarchy, royal nuptials. Admittedly, likening Earth Day to a celebration of the Queen’s fiftieth anniversary trivializes what the day is, and the evocative purpose it serves—Earth Day represents a day on which the world can unite not only in common purpose, but on which humanity can publicly express and reflect on its support of conservation, helping to further embolden and revitalize a movement whose object is to turn “sustainability” and “conservation” into household terms. This analogy does, however, illustrate a point: the Earth deserves more than a Day.

John Viera, Director of Sustainable Business Strategies at Ford Motors, recently contributed an article to GreenBiz plotting the trajectory of sustainability education in America, creating a cultural climate conducive to the growth of sustainability into a corporate imperative. Although, for the most part, the target of Viera’s analysis is rather narrow, his conclusions throw an interesting light on the future of sustainability in American business and education, and implicitly addresses the fleeting attention we pay to the Earth on its day, answering the question, “What happens after Earth Day?”

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by Beth Gray

Supply chain management is an important element of any business.  Dr. Robert Handfield, Professor of Supply Chain Management at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management, notes that until recently, “few businesses understood, much less managed, the entire chain of activities that ultimately delivered products to the final customer.”  It is more common in recent years, however, that businesses are paying much more attention to their supply chains.  With the increasing awareness of the importance of corporate social responsibility initiatives, supply chains are not only being “managed,” but are also becoming more environmentally friendly. 

Institutions of higher education are incredible consumers of goods.  In most cases, these “goods” – everything from toilet paper to food and from ink cartridges to dorm furniture – come from outside vendors.  The environmentally-conscious university has to consider the methods used to create these products and the environmental impact of transporting them from manufacturer to end user when evaluating its own environmental impact.  In addition, the waste created from these goods must be considered.  Many colleges and universities are addressing the entire life-cycle of goods and services in order to create more sustainable supply chains.  Rutgers University, for example, has developed a comprehensive, “holistic” approach to supply chain management that is driven by both good and effective use of university funds and the university’s stated responsibility to the environment. 

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by Kelly Wenner

Imagine a vending machine that pays you for your product. For those readers living in a state with a bottle deposit law Reverse Vending Machines, or RVMs, may already be commonplace at your local public spaces.  An RVM is a device that accepts empty beverage containers and returns payment – either in money or another form of currency such as coupons or gift cards – to the user.  Businesses that are looking for ways to increase their sustainability initiatives may have found one in this incarnation of recycling. What blue recycling bins lack is what RVMs offer – an interactive element for the user and the opportunity to provide immediate rewards for recycling.  RVMs also provide opportunities for businesses to develop relationships with the public and further strengthen and encourage sustainability initiatives within communities.

A variety of institutions have taken their recycling efforts to the next level with the use of RVMs.  Universities such as Sacred Heart University in Connecticut have tied in their incentives with free goods from key sponsors like BIC and FUJIFILM.  Large event venues like the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, encouraged by eco-minded entertainers, offer prizes to their patrons in the form of event tickets.  Even hospitals have honed in on the opportunities provided by RVMs.  Hospital staff and patients generate hundreds of used beverage and meal containers daily.  The Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, decided to use the recycling of these containers to the benefit of their employees.  The proceeds from each bottle or container placed into the machine go to raise money for the hospital’s Employee Hardship Fund.  PepsiCo created, in conjunction with Waste Management RVM, the ”Dream Machine,” to offer reward points to individuals who use the machine to recycle bottles and cans or cash donations to charities.  The points accumulate to earn rewards such as travel or movie tickets and coupons for Pepsi products.

These unique endeavors demonstrate how many different ways RVMs can be used by a wide variety of industries to incentivize people to recycle.

by Beth Gray

Recently, a coworker who is also an American Public University (APU) student (as many of our employees are) sent me a link to a YouTube video that her professor posted as part of that week’s assignment.  The video, produced by The Story of Stuff Project and narrated by Annie Leonard, is 20 minutes in length and provides a somewhat scathing look at the life cycle of our “stuff.” 

Through the use of basic yet effective animations, Leonard describes in accessible terms how all of our stuff comes to be and what happens when we are finished with it.  Through the five steps of the materials economy (extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal), our stuff requires tremendous resources, natural and human.  Along the way, the process harms many of the parties involved.  During the extraction process, for example, people living in the places where the first resources are culled often lose the lands and natural materials on which they have relied for generations.  Because their resources are lost, some 200,000 people a day (worldwide) move from environments that had previously sustained them for generations to cities in search of work, often finding it in the factories that are making stuff from the resources taken from their lands.  During the production process, workers are subjected to many harmful chemicals that are used to create the stuff.  At the same time, working conditions in many of the factories producing our stuff leave much to be desired. 

Even the consumer, who is the driving force behind the manufacturing of this stuff is harmed.  The toxins that go into making the stuff impact those who buy and use these items.  Leonard uses the phrase, “toxins in, toxics out” to make the point that many of our products are actually toxic to us.  Through all of this, the environment takes the most consistent abuse, however.  The loss of vast quantities of natural resources, toxins emitted into the environment, and the irresponsible disposal of most items leaves our planet quite vulnerable, according to Leonard.

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