Carpooling, using computers for data management, avoiding unnecessary printouts and printing on both sides of the paper are just some of the steps offices can take to become more eco-friendly.
The guidelines were offered by Helka Julkunen, head of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Green Office Initiative at a workshop held at Pearl Continental Hotel on Tuesday.
Others include activating energy-saving settings on computers, turning off devices at the end of the working day, switching off lights when going out of the office, reducing the number of business trips by organising video and telephone conference calls.
The workshop was attended by chief executive officers of 22 companies who were told how adopting the Green Office guidelines can reduce running costs as well as the company’s carbon footprint.
The Green Office initiative was started in Finland in 1992 and introduced in Pakistan in 2009. Nine companies are certified Green Offices: Unilever, Packages, Engro Corporation Ltd Karachi, Engro Fertilizers Ltd Karachi, Engro Fertilizers Daharki, Qarshi Industres (Pvt) Limited, Engro Foods Ltd, Engro Powergen Ltd and Engro Polymers Ltd. Another four –Tetra Pak, Irfan and Irfan, IBA Sukkur and ICI Soda Ash Works – are in the process of adopting green practices.
In Finland, 200 companies are certified with the green office initiative. India, Vietnam and Turkey are other countries where the WWF has introduced this initiative.
The WWF guides companies through an environment management system plan (EMS) for greener office practices. Once a company meets the criteria, it is certified by the WWF.
Maijo Sirvio, a Green Office expert, spoke about major tools of the Green Office initiative. Servio said that once certified, the companies are part of the global network of green companies and can share information about reducing electricity and water consumption and means of car pooling for reducing fuel consumption. The companies are regularly audited, get access to GO net (an international intranet that offers helpful information regarding Green Office tools), optional lectures on eco-efficient practices for the employees and eco-tip mailing list for employees.
The WWF-Pakistan awards a diploma if the company meets the EMS criteria. The criteria require businesses to select a Green Office coordinator and a team and come up with a plan to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste, adopt recycling and sort out waste. The business is also required to educate its personnel about Green Office practices, choose performance indicators, set numeric objectives and monitor fulfilment of the objectives. The companies are required to report to WWF annually.
The indicators can include consumption of paper, electricity and heat, car fuel, air travel and the amount of unsorted waste, according to a WWF-Finland press release.
A WWF official said that more Pakistani companies were showing interest in adopting the initiative.
A similar workshop will be held in Karachi on September 21.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2012.
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I feel like people overlook the benefits and convenience of carpooling. If co-workers are all going to the same place at around the same time in the morning and some of them live near each other, why not just share a ride? You save gas money, you save the planet from more greenhouse gases, and you can even save time if the city has HOV lanes. A website called amovens (us.amovens.com) actually facilitates the carpooling process by letting people set their own prices for getting a ride or giving a ride.