GREEN BUSINESS CERTIFICATION PROCESS PROGRAM

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1 GREEN BUSINESS CERTIFICATION PROCESS PROGRAM Dorinda Shipman, Inc. June 2008

2 TOPICS COVERED Benefits from Going Green 4 General Areas of Compliance Solid Waste Reduction & Recycling Energy Conservation Water Conservation Pollution Prevention ABAG and ABA Certification Process Lessons Learned

3 AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

4 GREEN LAW/CONSULTING FIRMS 2008: An Easier Sell In The Post-Inconvenient Truth Era. How Much Will This Cost Me/Us/The Firm? Pre-IT My/Our Clients Will Our Firm Has Turned Into A Bunch Of Hippie Flakes. Post IT My/Our Clients Will Think Our Firm Is Operating in an Environmentally Responsible Manner.

5 ABAG GREEN BUSINESS PROGRAM BACKGROUND Bay Area Green Business Program developed in 1996 by ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments) in collaboration with DTSC Seven counties implement the Green Business Program with help from local agencies and utilities Over 725 businesses have been certified in the Bay Area since 1996

6 PROGRAM OBJECTIVES To help businesses operate in an environmentally responsible way: Conserve energy, water and other natural resources Implement pollution prevention and waste minimization practices Comply with applicable environmental regulations Improve the environment within our community

7 ABA-EPA LAW OFFICE CLIMATE CHALLENGE Law offices may meet EPA s Climate Challenge by undertaking office management best practices : 1) Adopt "best practices" for office paper management 2) Participate in Green Power Partnership by purchasing energy from renewable sources 3) Participate in ENERGY STAR program to reduce energy use by at least 10% through purchase of ENERGY STARdesignated equipment and better energy management practices

8 REASONS TO GO GREEN Improves health of the workplace Creates sense of pride, knowing we are doing our part to conserve resources and minimize pollution Improves operating efficiency and reduces costs Allows us to hold competitive marketing edge as some companies prioritize giving contracts to Green Businesses (i.e., PG&E) Supports Risk Management Improves office air quality and reduces employee exposure to potentially harmful chemicals (cleaners to carpeting) Ensures proper disposal of batteries and e-waste now considered hazardous waste

9 GREEN CERTIFICATION T&R Oakland Office was certified in May 2006 and San Francisco Office certified in October 2006 The cost for certification and kick-off for both offices over a 2 year period has been approximately $18,000 The entire certification process took 8-11 months: months for internal evaluation and changes months for application and inspection approval T&R is posted on the ABAG Website under Green Business Listings (www/greenbiz.ca.gov) with a direct link to our website We can use Green Business Logo

10 WHAT WE DID - T&R Process Formed A Green Committee: with Green teams in both Oakland and San Francisco offices and lots of support from Purchasing and Administration Followed Bay Area Green Business Program Held Green Brown Bags in each office with gift Intranet Green Pages and Monthly Green Tip Green Committee responsible for: implementing certification standards educating management & staff tracking the progress of the program

11 T&R CERTIFICATION PROCESS 1) Assessed T&R operations and made changes to bring us into compliance with program standards (ongoing) 2) Prepared Green Policy for inclusion into T&R Personnel Policy Manual including: 3) Evaluated Green Practices that employees are expected to perform Green Purchasing guidelines that support using: - Green vendors and other Green Businesses - Purchasing environmentally friendly products

12 CERTIFICATION PROCESS (cont) 3) Evaluated building management operations As tenant - little control over building management operations (e.g., lighting) Future lease agreements - select greener buildings and/or building management that supports our Green Policy 4) Submitted application form and checklist (22 pages) describing our operations and changes 5) Four inspectors visited each Office to verify those changes: City/County pollution prevention City/County waste reduction PG&E energy conservation EBMUD/SFPUC water conservation

13 REDUCE PAPER USE OUR BIGGEST WASTE T&R Changes: Printing in-house documents double-sided - >90% print jobs for in-house use - Purchased duplexing printers/copiers - Switched default printer on staff computers to duplexing mode Print Client reports - double-sided and large volumes of appended data on CD Phased-out T&R letterhead buff stationery and moved to electronic T&R logo on white paper

14 WASTE MANAGEMENT Davis St Transfer Facility, San Leandro (visited Aug 2006)

15 REDUCE PAPER USE (cont) Submitting client letters/proposals/reports electronically (pdf) Avoid printing individual copies of large reference documents Use in-house electronic reference library and forms Utilize in-house library for sharing hard copies Reduced office junk mail We re up-to-date on removing T&R from certain mailing lists Encourage getting rid of junk mail at home Using back side of scrap paper for notes

16 RECYCLED-CONTENT PRODUCTS T&R switched our bulk purchasing to Staples, a green business min 30% post-consumer recycled content copy paper, folders and other paper products T&R Newsletters and Brochures min 30% recycled content and switching to soybased printing ink Building an address list to go electronic in the future Report cover spines w/recycled plastic and plastic covers (?) Paper towels, napkins, etc

17 REUSABLE PRODUCTS Using permanent kitchenware (plates, silverware) instead of disposable (phase-out plastic) Encourage staff to bring their own plate & silverware to brownbags, and clean up afterwards! Field staff purchases: reusable batteries and chargers avoid disposable cameras marking borings w/reusable stakes/flags, etc

18 RECYCLING OF OFFICE WASTE Toner and Ink Jet Cartridges recycled by Uptime Resources and Seacoast Inkjet Recycling Old computers, printers donated to schools and nonprofits - 50 million computers are disposed of every year in the U.S. Batteries - 3 billion batteries are purchased in US each year, most are discarded Cell Phones donated to battered women s facility - every day 25,000 cell phones are discarded in California (all are recyclable) - average lifespan of cell phone is 18 months

19 RECYCLING OF BATTERIES

20 ALUMINUM BALE worth $2k/each Davis St Transfer Facility

21 DISPOSITION OF WASTE (cont.) Waste Management: Glass Wineries Gallo Takes 32% less energy to make new glass from recycled glass Quickest recycled 30 days back on grocery shelves Tin cans Lathrup steel smelter Takes 74% less energy to make new steel from recycled steel 80% of tin cans are lined with plastic (Bisphenol A- endocrine disruptor) Aluminum Cans Anheuser-Busch (i.e. Budweiser) Takes 95% less energy to make new aluminum from recycled aluminum Only 90 days back on grocery shelves

22 ENERY EFFICIENCY Set computer monitors to energy-efficient stand by mode after 15 minutes, consuming 90% less energy than regular operational mode Set all printers and copiers to enter energy-saving stand by mode after 20 minutes of non-use Began to replace all electronics (printers, copiers, A/C units) with Energy Star certified devices

23 ENERGY - LIGHTING Posted Turn Off Lights reminders on all switches in the office. Timers automatically turn off all lights at 7:00 p.m. Switched to T-8 Energy Efficient Bulbs, using about 62% less electricity than fixtures with older T-12 bulbs Installed sensors in add-on space to turn lights on and off automatically

24 FLEX YOUR POWER. ORG California's energy efficiency marketing and outreach campaign

25 AIR QUALITY Encouraged use of mass-transit by offering employees Commuter Checks, enabling purchase of transit passes with pre-tax income. Joined Spare-the-Air to receive alerts to circulate throughout office. Require carpet-cleaning contractors to use an environmentally friendly cleaning product. Post a ride-share board to encourage car pooling Require painters to use only paints and sealants with low-vocs (Volatile Organic Compounds).

26 T&R POLLUTION PREVENTION Change to least toxic (biodegradable) cleaning products No pesticides allowed or other chemical sprays or treatments in office without prior approval by the Green Committee check MSDS sheets - even for chemicals that are advertised as non-toxic, environmentally friendly Buy no or low-vocs office supplies (aerosols, glue sticks, highlighter pens etc.) Buy low-emissions furniture and building materials i.e., fabric on new cubicles in Oakland office is Green Guard Air Quality Certified

27 T&R POLLUTION PREVENTION (Cont) Purchase energy efficient field vehicles purchased 2006 hybrid truck Encourage use of mass transit, car pool or biking to work Using BART between offices Automobiles are the second largest source of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, creating >1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually

28 TREADWELL & ROLLO LESSONS LEARNED Our keys to success President and Senior management supported the program Created a written Green Policy that employees are required to follow Green Committee committed to implementing the Green Policy Our challenges Getting people to change - Old habits die hard Justifying costs of new equipment and materials (saved $$ by using significantly less paper; each employee increases paper by ~5%) Finding green products for our business Identifying staff to perform certain tasks (junk mail)

29 STAYING GREEN CERTIFIED Continue to implement green operating practices Implement green business policy Ongoing education of management and staff Continually look for ways to improve our performance Monitor and document our progress Introduce another company to being Green Business certified Audited every 3 years in re-certification process Provide documentation that we are improving our green practices 4 new inspections conducted in each office

30 Everything I ever did that was worthwhile, I caught hell for. EARL WARREN Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court Governor of California, California Attorney General,

31 THINK GREEN We Each Make A Difference!