The world is rapidly moving towards more sustainable energy practices and we know we all have a role to play. Our team works hard to reduce our carbon footprint and maintain the integrity of our planet, and we have practices in place that we hope would make our community proud. We’re excited to be transparent about how our office is sustainable!
Here’s a few ways we’re doing our part:
As Paperless As Possible
Going paperless is one of the main ways we work to avoid unnecessary waste. As much as possible, we favour electronic materials over printed ones. When using paper, all printing must be double sided and in grayscale. We’ve also invested in productivity tools that allow us to collaborate together online, reducing the need for printing.
Finally, we recycle our ink/toner cartridges with our suppliers, although it does usually take us a while to run out!
Plastic Schmastic
Coffee pods? Not in this office. We have podless coffee stations to reduce waste and environmental impact. We also have real cutlery, ceramic coffee cups, and plates for meals and snacks, and we encourage staff and guests to use our glassware or their water bottles for beverages when filling up at our permanent filtered/sparkling water station. You won’t find many single use plastics in our kitchen!
To add, we also have recycling and composting stations throughout our office.
Let There Be (Sustainable) Light!
Our office is fortunate to have many large, bright windows, so often in our meeting rooms we don’t even need to turn on the lights! But, for when lighting is necessary, we are outfitted with LED lights to conserve energy, and we ask our staff to turn off lights in meeting rooms that are not in use. Common areas such as the kitchen and washrooms are outfitted with motion activated LED lighting, so these turn off whenever someone is not in the room to avoid wasted energy.
We also use rechargeable batteries over single use ones for all of our devices and computer peripherals.
Participation In Action
Many Vovians take public transit or bike to work when weather permits, cutting down emissions! We also allow staff to work from home, and have a number of staff who work from home every day, cutting down on the number of vehicles commuting.
When driving is necessary, we always carpool to off-site meetings, events and engagements, and staff team builders. Or, if it’s within walking distance, we enjoy a stroll as a group to get to where we’re going.