4-2 -- Sustainable Policies

This week I will be making a suggestion for three sustainable company policies. Being a "Kevin O'Leary-type person" always worried about the bottom line, I think there is a huge potential for companies to combine sustainable policies with money savings, which means everybody wins!

Source: http://lifethegreenway.blogspot.ca/2010/12/dreaming-of-green-christmas-save-more.html retrieved June 25th, 2012

One sustainable policy that many companies have adopted, including the one I work for, is a sustainable travel policy. This one just makes so much sense. Technology today is so far advanced that often times travel isn't necessary. By holding meetings online the environment wins since there is less emissions, no hotel room to be cleaned with chemicals, and no taxi ride to the airport. The company probably wins even more since there is less time used by employees to get to and back from the meeting, and less money spent on travel, meals and accommodation. This policy has all four elements in order to be part of a sustainable strategy: it protects the environment by reducing waste, promotes social responsibility by showing that travel is only approved if absolutely necessary, it respects different cultures not more or less than a one-on-one meeting, and has an economic benefit as outlined above.

Another sustainable policy could be implemented as a purchasing policy. As an example a company could only allow to buy office supplies from recycled materials such as notepads, pens and even printer ink cartridges that are refillable. Obviously such a policy could be extended to other parts of the company. A manufacturer could use as much recyclable materials and packaging as possible for its products. By doing this, the company would not only send a strong signal to employees, but also to suppliers and customers outside the company. Such a policy, again, could have an economic impact as well. Part of the policy could be that only paper that is either used on both sides or contains confidential information can be disposed of. I am sure that such a policy would decrease the amount of paper used worldwide by hundreds of thousands of trees each year! This would also bring paper cost for the company way down.

A motivation to have a sustainable policy for energy efficient operation of buildings is the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Program by the U.S. Green Building Council.
If a company builds or renovates a building, they can get certified for energy efficient design and construction and operations and maintenance. There is a category for homes as well:

Starbucks, is one of many corporations taking pride in getting LEED certification for new and improved future stores as this video shows:

Having an energy efficient store or plant is another way to not only do something for the environment and take responsibility to do business sustainable, but also saves big amounts of money over the life-cycle of a building and gives companies a head start for possible future government requirements.