Green Spot Program Initiates Awareness

We recently submitted our audit for the Columbus 2009 Green Spot initiative. In the process we acknowledged our internal practices for energy savings, the discussion alone brought out a flurry of ideas and highlighted our best practices for a green office environment. We know we can do better and awareness for all employees was a good start.

The Green Spot program was launched by Mayor Michael Coleman in July of 2008 to promote environmental awareness in Columbus. Improveit! Home Remodeling saw this as worthwhile program and applied soon after its announcement. This initiative by the city of Columbus had a close connection with the home improvements we offer in Ohio. For the audit, we submitted our mission statement for Improveit2green.com and I copied it here:

MISSION STATEMENT: Improveit2green.com, an information source of Improveit! Home Remodeling, an Ohio Energy company, has as its mission the following to promote energy savings and the use of green home improvements:

• Maximize every customer’s energy savings by providing the best energy saving solutions to our customers.
• Operate with the highest ethical and moral standards in promoting home improvements that save energy.
• Provide education on energy savings to our employees, customers, and partners.
• Practice green in the workplace, travel and construction sites.

FOLLOWING THE MISSION:

As part of our internal discussion we listed ways we were following the mission and listed them:

• Converted all computers to ENERGY STAR rated machines.
• Computer CRT monitors were converted to LCDs to conserve energy.
• Promoted our campaign for Energy Efficiency at the 2009 Ohio State Fair and gave a away a scooter as a grand prize that used less fuel at 80 mpg.
• We are now providing a free energy analysis to home owners.
• We promote an Energy Efficiency package that includes attic insulation, water heater blankets, pipe insulation, air duct sealing, and foundation sealing.
• Our main line of products which includes Windows, Doors, Siding, and Attic Insulation are ENERGY STAR rated and where applicable qualify for the 30% Federal Tax Credit.
• We have trained our sales staff to be Energy Efficiency Specialists.
• All shower heads on our Bath and Shower systems are aerated, low flow to minimize water consumption.
• In the offices 100 percent of bulbs used are energy efficient fluorescent.
• We use water purification instead of bottled water in our vending area.
• Sales management actively encourages reps to purchase efficient vehicles for better gas mileage.
• Employees are encouraged to ride bicycles and are offered a location inside for daytime bike storage.
• Through November of 2009 our office recycling program was credited with an equivalency of 48 trees or 9,600 pounds of paper saved. In 2008 we were recognized with saving an estimated 56 trees or 11,200 pounds.
• Improveit! has a program to recycle scrap and debris for each home improvement job site.
• We are consistently adding more information to our energy awareness site, improveit2green.com, and blog on issues of energy conservation and late breaking news.
• Our customer relationship management (CRM) program developed in-house drastically reduces the amount of paper necessary to track customer points of contact. The Ohio Energy company, improveit360, is the software arm that is responsible for developing this program and offer it in legacy format to other home improvement contractors. The new release due out by the end of this quarter will be web based and reduce our carbon footprint even further.

By posting this list it is our hope that we can add to it, the awareness alone is worth mentioning to our employees and the discussion that follows will help.