Are you proud of your office? This Earth Day at Buchanan PR, I’m reflecting on our humble abode, and realizing just how proud I am to be a part of such an eco-friendly organization. Why do I find us so green, you may ask? Let me give you a little tour of our building…maybe you’ll pick up on a few ways to give Mother Nature a break at your own workplace.
Meet me around at the back of the building – we’ll start this unconventional tour in an unconventional way. Parking space? You’re looking at all of them! We only need these few! While some of us drive, others take public transportation or even walk to work. Even better, some are able to work from home and telecommute! How’s that for cutting down on auto-emissions?
Step inside and you’ll find yourself in our kitchen. That overflowing bin in front of you? That’s our recycling. You’ll notice it’s much taller and fuller than our garbage bin. We’re anything but a wasteful bunch. All plastics, glass, cardboard… anything that can be reused goes in here. We also recycle paper (even in the form of magazines and newspaper) in bins located conveniently both up and downstairs. [inlinetweet prefix=”null” tweeter=”null” suffix=”null”]One ton of recycled paper conserves 60,000 gallons of water[/inlinetweet]… so we do what we can to contribute. Why isn’t it our trash filled with coffee cups and paper plates? Good question.
You’ll notice we’re just an oven short of a full kitchen. Since this building has been re-purposed from its residential origins (that’s right, even the building itself is recycled) we can brew our own coffee, heat up lunch, and do our own dishes right here. We have cabinets stocked with mugs and plates, and drawers full of cutlery and kitchenware, and most of the time, we bring lunch from home. Also, a considerable portion of the team is either vegetarian or vegan, and the rest of us know how to enjoy a healthy meat-free meal every now and again. Did you know that if a family of four cut out just one steak a week it would alleviate the same amount of greenhouse gases as taking their car off the road for three months? What and how we eat affects our planet, and we know that here at Buchanan Public Relations!
Here in the conference room, we have our staff meetings and entertain guests. I see you eyeing our beautiful wooden conference table – it’s made from reclaimed wood. In fact, a lot of our furniture and decor are either repurposed, or have been picked up at consignment stores. We also keep our population of potted plants for more than just aesthetics; they help to purify our air naturally. Indoor plants are not only able to remove Co2 from the air, they also suck out a number of harmful gasses released by everyday products.
Walking up the stairs, you may catch a nice breeze. We keep our windows (and some of our doors) open on days like this. Controlling the office climate this way saves us energy, and it’s far from our only energy-saving tactic. You’ll also notice we keep very few lights on during the day. The windows in our offices can provide us with enough natural lighting when the sun is shining. We also have this to thank for our positive demeanor… vitamin D promotes wellness after all!
Take a peek in our supply closet. We buy recycled notepads and other paper products when possible because recycled paper does not contribute to deforestation. Our supply closet is filled with piles of old file folders and boxes of outdated envelopes and notecards. We keep these because we know that they are reusable (simply change the labels on them), and that sooner or later, even stationery with our old address can be used for things such as filing, or scratch paper. Things (and people too!) at Buchanan PR are used to their full potential.
Finally, our “IT” room. Here we house a very complicated-looking machine, whose main function is to allow us all to save our files and documents in one shared, and always-accessible drive. This digitization saves us stacks of paper (not to mention the hassle of filing and the risk of paper cuts), as well as ink. Speaking of ink, our printer is often on energy-saver mode, and when it does run out of ink, we are able to recycle the cartridges at our local supply store.
Well I think that about wraps up our brief tour. I hope you picked up on a few tricks you can take along with you. Oh! I almost forgot the most important thing…respecting the animals around you as well! We keep our dogs very happy – our four-legged friends are the most valuable members of our family!
Happy Earth Day from Buchanan PR.
Thank you, Taylor, for helping me to view our office through fresh eyes! I honestly had no idea how pervasive our “recycled” mindset was in our new (old!) building.
The foyer wall is made from twice re-purposed barn wood. Best of all, it looks great!