Are we green?

Being environmentally conscious is something that is taking on more of a priority in the minds of many of us. As a result, many of our staff have recently challenged us to make sure we are telling all of you how we practice being green.

This was an interesting question because we have actually done a pretty good job being ‘green’ over the years, however we have never had a formal program or mandate. What we do have is an internal culture that believes in recycling and reusing.

As much of what we do has been driven by our staff, we decided to ask them to share their thoughts on how we are doing. This seemed like a good starting point for sharing with all of you. Then we created this green page to tell you what they had to say.

As time goes by, we will make sure we update it as we achieve new goals in this area.

In our stores:

• Reducing
• Reusing
• Recycling
• Choosing

At our support and administration office:
(includes our Inside & Outside Sales areas, plus our Purchasing, Marketing and Warehouse)

• Reducing
• Reusing
• we make our own notepads by stacking and gluing old photocopies with a card backing — when the paper is done, we re-use the backing to make more pads
• we re-use interoffice envelopes, binders and file folders instead of buying new ones
• we have informal practices around reusing office furniture and accessories, so that we aren't just purchasing new stuff all the time and throwing the old stuff out
• when we order office supplies, we order pen refills instead of disposable pens and constantly look at new options such as recycled post-it notes
• we re-fill the cartridges for our laser printer and copier instead of buying new ones
• we hate to throw anything out — for example we have an easel graveyard for replacement parts
• our supplier samples are saved as gifts for the staff Christmas party, or given away as donations
• we try to donate or sell off products that are damaged or discontinued, rather than just throw them away — we have given an awful lot away over the years that might have otherwise ended up in the landfill
• Recycling
• Choosing

Ideas for future changes:

• change our account invoices to be sent via email rather than the usual paper trail
• continue to buy responsibly for products that we re-sell and for internal supplies
• develop an online ‘ECO PRODUCTS’ section in our online product catalogue, so customers can easily find all the eco-friendly products we carry
• repeat some of the customer outreach sessions we have done previously on ‘safe studio habits’ including non-toxic painting options
• take advantage of some of the incentives and programs available to businesses making ‘green’ improvements, such as BC Hydro and Live Smart BC, and the Clean Air Foundation