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As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) marches forward with its regulatory agenda to quantify and control emissions of GHGs, facilities (both those currently regulated and those in the crosshairs), are scrambling to develop a GHG emissions reduction strategy.
According to the EPA, an organization’s carbon footprint has three components for purposes of developing a GHG inventory:
- Direct emissions: From on-site combustion and mobile sources.
- Indirect emissions: From purchased electricity and steam.
- Optional emissions: Examples include product transport, employee business travel, and employee commuting.
This article discusses a few ways to reduce indirect and optional emissions.
While some major industries admittedly need to do a lot more than “green their offices,” no step is too small in an overall GHG emissions reduction strategy. In addition, the implementation of voluntary steps to reduce an organization’s footprint shows good faith to regulators and is a definite public relations plus with your community.
Attend the Reducing Your GHG Emissions webinar on March 18 to learn 5 successful strategies for reducing your environmental footprint. Learn more.
5 Simple Steps to Reduce the Carbon Footprint at Work
- Encourage employees to cut paper use. Promote a “think before you print” mentality. Not every document needs to be printed. If something must be printed, train your staff to use “duplex printing,” i.e., printing on both sides of the page. Documents that are for in-house use only can also be printed using multiple pages per sheet. Train your employees on how to select these options on their computers.
- Make sure only the “right” paper is available. Purchase only environmentally preferable paper, which requires only half the number of trees as conventional paper. Encourage recycling by installing bins at several facility locations to make it easier to collect paper for recycling or reuse as notepaper.
- Encourage less energy-consuming commutes. Switching to public transportation, carpooling, biking, or telecommuting, can save energy and reduce GHG emissions on the way to and from work. You can offer your employees commuter benefits that can:
- Address limited or expensive parking,
- Reduce traffic congestion,
- Improve employee recruiting and retention, and
- Minimize the environmental impacts associated with drive-alone commuting.
Reducing Your GHG Emissions: 5 Ways to Whittle Down Your Environmental Footprint
Learn how to develop and implement your GHG emission reduction strategy with cost-effective, legally compliant measures. Register today!
- Think about purchasing ENERGY STAR® products. TheEPA claims that products bearing the ENERGY STAR labels are more energy efficient than standard products. In general, according to the Agency, ENERGY STAR qualified products reduce energy costs by at least 30 percent. In addition, the EPA says that there have been significant reductions in GHG emissions because of the use of ENERGY STAR products in homes, businesses, and industrial operations on the order of a cumulative GHG reduction of 3,700 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2E) through 2013.
Note: What is CO2E? Each GHG differs in its ability to absorb heat in the atmosphere. For example, methane traps 25 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide absorbs almost 300 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide. The ability of a GHG to absorb heat in the atmosphere is referred to as its global-warming potential (GWP). Often, estimates of GHG emissions are converted to units of MMTCO2E, which account for each GHG’s GWP and allow for the direct comparison of the impacts of emissions and reductions of different GHGs.
- Track your GHG emissions. Develop and document a GHG inventory to ensure consistency as your organization collects data each year to track progress toward reaching an emissions reduction goal.
Green strategies at work are not just operational; they involve educating employees and engaging them in ideas and innovation. Many companies, both large and small, have taken up the charge to be environmentally friendly and have reported benefits that include a boost in employee morale, customer appreciation, and reductions in operation costs.