A growing number of businesses are realizing environmentally friendly strategies are good for more than just marketing.
"For starters, you have employees who enjoy coming to their workplace environment every day, which raises morale and cuts down on turnover," says Toby Barazzuol, president of Vancouver-based Eclipse Awards and vice-chair of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association.
"You also save money on your monthly utility bill because of the reduced energy use. Those are just two of the examples. There are actually a lot more strong business reasons."
Barazzuol says Eclipse, which manufactures crystal and glass awards for the corporate market, has been in business for almost nine years, but the environmental awareness change in his business began about four years ago when he listened to speeches by environmentalist David Suzuki and read books by author Paul Hawken on the business aspects of environmentalism. "I have to say we're not a mission-based company when it comes to sustainability. It's not something we make a big show about. But it is something we try and incorporate into everything we do," he says. He adds the efforts include recycling and trying to monitor energy use in the office whenever possible.
Eclipse's client list includes companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and even a recent United Nations conference in Montreal on climate change.
Later this year, Eclipse will be moving into larger office space next door in its Downtown East Side neighbourhood. Barazzuol says the previous tenants were "already thinking green" with the space, even if it was a slightly questionable connection. "It used to be a federally run marijuana grow operation that supplied terminally ill cancer patients," he explains.
During the renovations, Barazzuol had workers carefully take down the old drywall and other building materials. They were later listed on the popular Craigslist online bulletin board for anyone who could reuse them.
The renovated building's front façade has been designed to include floor-to-ceiling garage doors rather than windows to allow air to circulate through the reception area. A garden area will be built on the roof where employees can relax during their breaks or lunch hours, says Barazzuol.
Meanwhile, an international hotel chain has approached a wildlife conservation charity to enlist their help in reducing CO2 emissions. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts announced in late January it would be partnering with the World Wildlife Federation to study the company's environmental habits.
Fairmont hopes to have targets in place by this June to reduce its CO2 emission patterns, Mike Russill, Fairmont's president and CEO, said in a media release.
Fairmont has already had environmental programs in place for almost two decades and developed a guidebook it describes as a "how-to text that any company can obtain to create or grow their environmental programming," the news release added. But spokesperson Mike Taylor told Business Edge the new program will try to set even more stringent targets.
Generally speaking, Taylor said CO2 emissions are created by the hotel industry in everything from energy for heating and cooling to laundry facilities and pool maintenance.
"To our knowledge, Fairmont is the only luxury hotel chain that has partnered with WWF in this manner. We hope to have our standards in place before June, but we wanted to create a bit of room in case of anything unexpected happening," he explained.
Office furniture manufacturers are carefully eyeing the trend toward environmental sustainability. When office furniture manufacturer Allsteel Inc. wanted to establish its first Canadian sales centre in late 2006, it chose a historical building in Toronto's Liberty Village area. The company invited proposals from designers to make the space into one of the first LEED certified interiors in the country.
LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) refers to a program run by the Canada Green Building Council, which certifies building projects that meet special environmentally friendly standards.
Toronto-based design firm figure3 was finally selected and sent a design team of three staff to Allsteel's Muscatine, Iowa, head office for a "visioning meeting," says Christopher Wright, the figure3 design partner who led the project.
"They were already involved in creating sustainable environments and had a rough idea of what they wanted," Wright says. "It was just a case of trying to ensure what they wanted could be brought in on budget and to meet LEED standards."
The new office is in the former Toronto Carpet Factory building, which used the space from 1899 to the 1920s. That meant it already had interesting architectural features including 60-ft. ceilings, 20-ft. original leaded-glass windows and exposed brick walls.
The third-floor conference room uses the original carpet factory hardwood floor, refinished with an eco-friendly stain. Designers tried to preserve the historical aspect of the building during renovations while still establishing Allsteel's corporate look, says Wright.
"It was an interesting challenge. I'm certainly pleased with the final result and I think we did very well."
Keri Luly, an Allsteel stewardship co-ordinator who was one of the company's representatives during the design process, says it was hard work making sure the LEED environmental criteria were met. "But it was definitely worth it. This is part of a trend we've been seeing in offices throughout the United States and Canada. It was important for us to take a leadership position in this," she said in a telephone interview from Iowa.
Even details such as low-emitting lighting and materials with high recycled content were chosen. Carpets were examined to ensure there was no "off-gassing" of emissions such as formaldehyde, says Luly.
During renovations of the new Toronto office, building materials were also carefully taken down to ensure they could be recycled as much as possible.
"I'm not sure how many contracts we've actually gotten because of our position (on sustainability), but even from an employee-health standpoint, we feel it's worth it," says Luly.
Allsteel was able to hold the grand opening for its office last December. As it was going on, officials in another part of the city were unveiling plans to give Toronto the "greenest" transit system in North America by 2020.
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is convinced that investing in environmentally friendly practices is worthwhile.
"We've been adopting certain environmental initiatives for quite some time," said Marilyn Bolton, spokeswoman for the TTC, which is Toronto's second-biggest energy consumer. "We are also big on recycling, not just in encouraging our customers, but in what we do in our offices. Toner cartridges, batteries, scrap wood from the yards - it all gets recycled."
But the TTC says it has more ambitious plans outlined in a detailed 14-page report released in early December. For example:
* When the TTC's Victoria Park subway station renovations begin later this year, it will have a green roof covered in plants for cooling. An addition planned for part of the yard in the Wilson subway station will have a cool roof designed with a special coating to reflect sunlight.
* The TTC's fleet of about 150 hybrid buses uses a bio-diesel fuel that is the most efficient available, with five per cent vegetable oil and 95 per cent low- sulphur diesel. Plans called for 230 hybrid buses to be in place by the start of this month and 334 by the end of 2008, making it the largest bio-diesel hybrid bus fleet in Canada.
* Direct staff to work with Toronto Hydro to look at ways of improving use of renewable energy resources.
Municipal transit systems in other major Canadian cities already have environmental initiatives in place.
For example, Calgary Transit uses wind-generated power to run its CTrain vehicles and washes its buses with recycled water, according to its website.
(David Hatton can be reached at hatton@businessedge.ca)
