Here are some of the practices we currently follow:
- Paper consumption has been reduced by 85 percent. Almost all of our written correspondence is electronic; contracts and other documents that we once faxed are being scanned and transmitted as PDF files. We surface mail business correspondence only when it is absolutely necessary to do so.
- We consume filtered tap water;
- When we do ship, we print our postage via Stamps.com and use the United States Postal Service (USPS) for at-the-door pickup. That alone saves us car trips that each month would require between 10 and 15 gallons of fuel;
- Our computers are turned off when not in use. To further increase our efficiencies, we are employing power management hardware;
- Energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) have replaced incandescent bulbs, and since CFLs may contain mercury we follow standards for bulb recycling and disposal. And, we are now testing LED lighting. The screw-in LED bulbs we bought are expensive–$35.00 each–but they remain cool to the touch and apparently are not drawing a lot of energy. We will keep you posted as we evaluate the long-term return-on-investment (ROI) of our LED lighting;
- In the winter our automatic thermostats are set at 65 degrees. We wear layers! Summers in the Washington D.C. area get very hot so we must use air conditioning but set our automatic thermostats at 78 degrees. To provide further cooling we’ve planted some fast-growing shade trees at our southern exposure;
- Our experiments with composting continue. For instance, we save used coffee grounds to fertilize our outdoor plants;
- Our goal is to recycle at least 50 percent of our post-consumer waste (plastic, newsprint, glass, and metals);
- We promote virtual office capabilities, mass transit stipends, and other environmentally-friendly practices;
- And, we utilize best-in-class telepresence services, including video-conferencing and interviewing, that save money while providing a substantial carbon footprint reduction.
We are not perfect, but we do take our environmental stewardship quite seriously!
Photo ©2005 Dan Smolen
