Cross Cultural Communication Systems, Inc.™ (CCCS, Inc.™)
Environmental Policy
Helping the environment is crucial to healthy living. CCCS, Inc.TM encourages staff to use both sides of the paper when taking notes or making copies, use recycling bins when discarding paper and refill water bottles instead of opening new bottles.
CCCS, Inc.TM promotes the care of our planet by first starting with our own company. Including: recycling paper, recycling plastics, taking measures to use less paper and using energy efficient appliances, LED light bulbs and purchasing recycled supplies, such as toilet and copy paper. The company strives to use email in order to communicate with interpreters, translators and customers, instead of mailing hardcopies. In order to ensure quality assurance and continued education, CCCS, Inc.TM requires that interpreters and staff maintain informed regarding the industry and therefore mandates the completion of quizzes, which are also completed online rather than hardcopy, saving on paper and trees. CCCS, Inc.TM has also written about “Going Green,” in former newsletters, by highlighting different practical measures that can be taken to better care for our planet and consume less of our resources.
The Green Business Bureau provides us with more insight, by stating the following:
10 Ways to Make Your Business Environmentally Friendly
By: news@gbb.org
Here are just ten easy-to-implement ideas for running a green business from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s Greening Operations guides that you can put into practice right now to make your office a more environmentally friendly place:
1. Turn off equipment when it’s not being used. This can reduce the energy used by 25 percent; turning off the computers at the end of the day can save an additional 50 percent.
2. Encourage communications by email, and read email messages onscreen to determine whether it’s necessary to print them. If it’s not, don’t!
3. Reduce fax-related paper waste by using a fax-modem and by using a fax cover sheet only when necessary.Fax-modems allow documents to be sent directly from a computer, without requiring a printed hard copy.
4. Produce double-sided documents whenever possible.
5. Do not leave taps dripping; always close them tightly after use. (One drop wasted per second wastes 10,000 litres per year.)
6. Install displacement toilet dams in toilet reservoirs. Placing one or two plastic containers filled with stones [not bricks] in the toilet’s reservoir will displace about 4 litres of water per flush – a huge reduction of water use over the course of a year.
7. Find a supply of paper with maximum available recycled content.
8. Choose suppliers who take back packaging for reuse.
9. Instigate an ongoing search for “greener” products and services in the local community. The further your supplies or service providers have to travel, the more energy will be used to get them to you.
10. Before deciding whether you need to purchase new office furniture, see if your existing office furniture can be refurbished. It’s less expensive than buying new and better for the environment.
Environmentally friendly actions don’t have to be large to have an impact. Consistently reducing the amount of energy, water, and paper our businesses use can make a huge difference, both to the environment and to our pocketbooks. How much paper would you save over the course of a year, for instance, if you always ran doublesided copies? A small thing – but a big result!
Source: Susan Ward