WWF's Living Planet @Work and OPA's greener footprint

By Glenna Ford
Senior Regulatory Communications Advisor, OPA
Our journey toward reducing our environmental footprint began in 2007 with the formation of an employee environment committee. Since that time, we have been extremely lucky to work with a committed group of people from across our organization.

 
 
 
 
(c) OPA
In 2010, we took a big step forward when our Board and executive team approved an environmental policy for our internal operations. The commitment of top management to reducing the OPA’s environmental footprint spurred on our decision to participate in the WWF pilot project.
Our first major area of focus was on reducing the amount of paper we used in our printing. We moved to electronic pay stubs, set our printers to double-sided printing and upgraded our black and white paper to 100 percent Forest Stewardship Council-approved, post-consumer recycled content. As part of our Living Planet @Work efforts, we now track printing by employee organization-wide and are on track to meet our goals of reducing black and white printing by five percent and colour printing by 10 percent.
Another issue we are hard at work on – and one very close to our hearts at the OPA – is electricity conservation. In partnership with our landlord, Oxford Properties, we disconnected most of our perimeter ceiling lighting to take advantage of the natural lighting that comes in our windows. We also replaced existing lighting, using lower wattage fluorescent bulbs and replacing halogen pot lights with LEDs. These initiatives led to a seven percent reduction in electricity consumption. We are aiming for a further three percent reduction in electricity use this year.
One of our key goals has been to lead by example through the initiatives that we undertake. We are the first tenant in our 27-floor office building to implement a new waste management system that includes organic waste recycling. We are completing our first waste audit to determine the results of our efforts and track our progress toward our 10 percent waste reduction goal.
Of special note, the OPA was recently named one of Canada’s Top Green Employers for 2011. We’re very proud of this award, which recognizes the significant momentum we have gained in our sustainability efforts. In early July, we found out that we had the highest participation rate in Pollution Probe’s Clean Air Commute in our size category – again thanks to the dedication of our staff to this worthy cause!
The OPA is passionate and excited by the work we are doing to lessen our collective impact on the planet and to carry on the lessons learned and experiences gained from Living Planet @Work.