Sometimes an idea turned passion is a tough thing to let go.
When Office Solutions' president and co-founder Bob Mairena decided it was time the company recycled its corrugated waste, there was little interest from recycling firms in the small amount the company had. If it wanted to recycle, Office Solutions would have to pay.
But Mairena and his wife, co-founder and vice president Cindy Mairena, weren't content with that. So they reached out to customers in 2007, offering to collect and recycle their corrugated waste, as well. The result – two environmental awards and over 142 tons of materials each month rerouted from landfills to recycling centers.
It's an effort that began in 1984 when the company first opened. Internal recycling was built into the very first business model, and the green culture defines the company. “It's interwoven into everything we do,” says Mairena. “The culture is through-and-through.”
Yet it wasn’t an easy sell for all Office Solutions employees. When Mairena first approached his sales and marketing team about promoting a green program to customers, they didn’t quite see the value and didn’t fully embrace or promote the recycling initiative. So he did it his way. Approaching the warehouse and distribution team, he collaborated with the manager and “sold it through the back door” –getting drivers to promote recycling with the customers. The company also recycles corrugated from the customers’ other suppliers.
Soon customers were raving about it – to their Office Solutions sales people. What’s not to love? Mairena says the recycling efforts save customers trash collection costs and helps them do the right thing. “New prospects were calling us to take part in this program.” The company offers the rec...
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...ogram within the company, etc. The manual is provided to all Office Solutions customers. “Whether they want to recycle the product through us or by themselves, we're there to make sure they're doing the right thing and make it easy for them.”
Next for the company is the launch of a line of environmentally friendly office furniture, carrying on the consistent tone of the company's environmental practices. There's also a move to consider biodiesel for the truck fleet.
Mairena says he hopes the conscious ecological efforts will make customers think twice about their consumption levels. “Being environmentally sensitive and not consumer-oriented is somewhat counterproductive from a business standpoint,” he says with a laugh, “If we’re making you more conscious about waste, you’re not buying as much paper or toner. But in the end we think that’s the right thing to do.”
As it is a boot making company, there have a lot of greenhouse gases, and they do really care about their grants to the problem.
Staples Inc. is the largest retail office supply chain which operates world wide with almost 2000 stores operating in over 10 countries and several more via catalog and delivery order1. Staples offers supplies, office machines, furniture, technology and other business services such as their copy center2. Aside from providing services and products to meet the needs of stakeholders such as the employees, investors and customers, of the corporation, Staples offers a program called Staples' Soul. This program was instituted in order to meet the concerns of all the other stakeholders such as local communities, the government, private organizations, and regulatory authorities. To do so they seek environmental excellence by offering environmentally preferable products and educating stakeholders about environmental issues, they also work for the community through their alliance with the U.S. and international charitable organizations, cause marketing ini...
With forward movement in society, it is important to consider not just what will propel most toward success, but also what will help to sustain the environment along the way. What may have been considered appropriate decades ago, may no longer be socially acceptable due to the changes observed in both the business world and the environment (Fiske, 2010). Therefore, it is important for organizations thriving in today?s economy to consider how they may capitalize most effectively from their product or service of choice while minimizing or eliminating any damages along the way (Knoke, 2012).
Supplying eco-friendly products has been on the Walmart agenda since the early 1990s. After a failed first attempt and much criticism, the company decided to try again. In a speech made in October of 2005, CEO of Walmart, H. Lee Scott Jr., declared Walmart would devise a “business sustainable strategy” to reduce the environmental impact the company had. Walmart could not pull this off alone. If they only focused on the confines of themselves, rather than all that they were involved with, it was estimated that they’d only reduce their impact by about 10%. To reach that goal of 100%, Walmart had to involve stakeholders to make networks which achieve sustainability. These networks proved to be vital in not only Walmart’s goal in minimizing its environmental impact, but recovering their reputation, avoiding criticism, saving money, raising awareness, improving customer satisfaction, and creating incentive for other businesses to work towards sustainability.
Melanie Scruggs recently wrote an article titled “Cost will be too great if Houston doesn’t recycle” about the dangers that Houston may face if they continue to put recycling as a top priority. I believe that Melanie Scruggs does an amazing job describing the issues that we are facing and poses an effective argument on why we should recycle. Melanie Scruggs graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, and she was awarded a Plan 11 Honors degree. (TCE 1) Melanie then joined the TCE in 2012 and she served as a organizer, field manager, program staff member, and a program director. Melanie then moved back to Houston around 2013 where she now serves on the board of the Houston Clean City Commission, the League of Women Voters, as well as the Houston Peace and Justice Center.
In conclusion to this investigation one thing is clear and that is that recycling reeks benefits to the environment, Recycling material when compared to making material from raw material is a more efficient energy saving and more environmentally friendly way to reuse material that is usually consider as trash such as empty glass, and plastic bottles, or old newspapers. Recycling helps reduce the possible carbon emissions greatly and does reduce the human carbon footprint. But Recycling doesn’t resolve the pollution that is around the world today. Leading to new questions, questions like what about the landfills are they sustainable, and if so for how long. How long until the air becomes unbreathable? How long until Earth becomes its own furnace?
This scenario, a low-urgency issue as a middle manager at a company, seems particularly useful as it is a position that many of us might find ourselves in upon graduation. We are thrown into the scenario with an average amount of surface information. In this exercise, we were faced with the challenges related to implementing an organization-wide sustainability initiative, to which we face some resistance. The plan sought to change the amount of raw material inputs to make Spectrum's sunglasses more ecologically friendly, as well as address the company’s current env...
"If it is carried out correctly, electronics recycling can prevent pollution, create jobs, and save resources." Valerie Thomas asserts that reusing strategies Khan 2 that help advancement throughout the complete hardware store network can lessen electronic waste contamination. Transfer or reuse of hardware can have noteworthy human well-being and environmental sway. Gadgets can hold lead, brominated fire retardants, cadmium, mercury, arsenic and an extensive variety of different metals and concoction mixes. In a 2008 report, the GAO [government Responsibility Office] found that a significant proportion of these end up in nations where transfer practices are hazardous to laborers and perilous to the earth.
Companies that carry out greenwashing commonly use the words, ‘green’, ‘energy efficient’, and ‘clean’ to expo...
...ach out to your customers. These methods are better for the environment, since they are useful and will be used by your potential customers. Another idea that could be used is printing calendars on recycled paper; this could help make an eco-friendly statement. Placing ads online is a good way to reach potential customers without wasting sustainable resources.
In recent years, business or green business was no longer an option to become an obligation. Companies started to change their mindset and values to develop new environmental proposals, for example launching second ecological lines.
Annie Leonard, in her book The Story of Stuff, says that companies can significantly reduce their toll on the environment by changing their design. The design determines “the amount of energy used in making and using the product,” “the length of the product’s life span” and “its ability to be recycled” (Leonard). All these things determine the amount of resources a company must use, so simply changing a product’s design is one way a company can have a large impact on the sustainability of the environment in which it operates. One example of this is that “Wal-Mart attributed more than $100 million of its 2009 revenue to a decision to switch to a recyclable variety of cardboard in shipments” which it sells to a recycler instead of paying to send it to a landfill (Bhanoo).
From last few years there are plenty of good companies telling their environmental stories to the world and even some who are not but should be. Some do it well; others do not know where to begin or how to go about it. There are a few tips on what to look for by a customer who does not get greenwashed.
Recycling is important in the effort to preserve our environment for future generations. We are running out of locations to put landfills. Recycling is a simple and effective way to reduce the amount of waste stored in landfills, yet many people do not know how easy it can be. For example, whenever I go to Shoprite® and I b...
Consumers have expectations In terms of a good quality product that should be availed at a reasonable price. Consumers don’t only want the business to be socially responsible towards them in this manner of reasonable prices but way beyond this. They should meet the needs of consumers in ways of convenience and appearance. But business should also consider other aspects like environmental impact when packaging is disposed.