The recent arrival of spring serves as a great reminder to us all to think green. Are you doing your part?Back in March 2010, United Way KW launched a “Go Green” initiative aimed at bringing environmental awareness to all that we do. We committed to a triple bottom line of “people, planet and prosperity,” whereupon we would strive to ensure the planet benefitted as we worked cost-effectively to build a prosperous community.
Efforts are ongoing to instill a culture of environmental sustainability here at United Way KW, and we were pleased to recently celebrate the 2nd anniversary of “Go Green.”
We now consider what is best for the planet in all of our decision-making processes and everyday activities. For example, one of our key goals is to reduce the costs associated with office supplies and printed materials. Here’s what we’re now doing in that regard:
· Our paper supplies are biodegradable, contain recycled materials and come from sustainable forestry.
· We’ve reduced the amount of paper we use by printing and copying double-sided documents whenever possible and asking ourselves beforehand whether documents really need to be printed.
· Our printed materials use vegetable based inks and are only printed in the quantities we truly need.
· We minimize waste by using a recycling station.
· We provide shredded paper to the KW Humane Society for animal bedding.
· We are observing members of Sustainable Waterloo Region, a non-profit organization dedicated to collaboratively advancing the environmental sustainability of organizations throughout Waterloo Region.
· We participate in local Earth Day clean-ups and turn the temperature down on National Sweater Day.
We’re still learning and we know we have a way to go, but we persist knowing that the small changes we make today will eventually add up to make a big impact on our organization, our community and our planet.
Cathy Snyder
CFO and CAO, United Way KW
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