AVW-TELAV employee’s green contribution
Marc Ledoux, a Technical Service Coordinator from our Montreal branch, recognized an opportunity for improvement with some of our current gear. To get his recommendation put into action, Ledoux contacted Johanne Bélanger, President, AVW-TELAV, specifically regarding the environmental impact that our delegate headphone bags were contributing to the environment. After additional research by our purchasing department in Montreal, we have purchased biodegradable delegate headphone bags.The wording ‘biodegradable bags’ is printed on these bags in order to make delegates aware of our company’s contribution to the environment and commitment to encourage change.
Department Power Saver
In keeping with our “green” initiatives, AVW-TELAV keeps a large barrel of slightly used batteries in our Quality Control area for use by our employees for their personal needs. These batteries have proven useful for kids’ toys, clocks, remotes and other applications. Although these batteries can no longer be used for our equipment purposes, most of them are still at 80 per cent charge or higher.
We also make available for use a battery tester should employees want to test them to ensure they have a reasonable charge. The batteries consist of AA, 9-volt and AAA.
In addition, as a result of a suggestion from our Green Committee (This link will take you to Green Committee Greetings write up below…), we are taking this one step further. As disposing of batteries in the garbage is hazardous, we now encourage employees to bring their used batteries into work to be recycled along with the batteries we recycle on a regular basis.
This applies to household batteries out of toys, appliances, smoke detectors, etc., but does not apply to car or industrial batteries. The batteries can be disposed of, free of charge if our employees bring them in and place them in a separate battery container, marked ‘dead batteries’, in our service department.
This is just another of many attempts by AVW-TELAV to grasp waste-reduction in our everyday operations with a greener thumb.
Equipment commitment
Have you ever wondered what AVW-TELAV does with its equipment that can no longer be used? In addition to our ‘garage sale’ program, we regularly ship loads of operational equipment to the U.S. to be resold.
In fact, in 2008, approximately 90,000 pounds of electronic equipment and road cases were either reused or recycled and never saw a landfill!
Innovate 08
How do you pull off an event with 3719 delegates (plus another unknown number who badge-share), 1906 registered exhibitors, 230 volunteers, 150 speakers and guests, 100 staff members….and close to ZERO Waste? Follow the lead of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO) and organize a “green conference.
”Marta Pawych, HRPAO director of events and sponsorship, and the person most responsible for the green conference initiative, detailed to the Globe and Mail reporter how the organization promoted green practices to its exhibitors. She said exhibitors were “encouraged to use local suppliers to cut down on energy use; to limit their use of paper, and if it is used, to make sure it is environmentally friendly stock printed with vegetable ink.” Additionally, Marta spearheaded the achievement of the Sustainable Futures Qualification.
“Part of our mandate is to advance the HR profession,” said Chris Larsen, HRPAO’s director of marketing and membership, to a Globe and Mail reporter. He said when a company decides to go green, it often looks to its HR department for guidance. As this is the organization’s largest annual event with the biggest environment impact, this was the perfect opportunity to lead by example.
Here are some more of HRPAO’s initiatives to reduce waste at its three-day conference:
- Eliminating bottled water
- Ordering locally produced organic meals
- Buying electricity from a green energy provider
- Providing no printed materials (handouts, agendas, etc.)
- Organizing registration online
- Use of digital evaluation system (eliminating over 31,000 sheets of paper)
As HRPAO’s audio visual partner for this event, AVW-TELAV also did its part to keep waste to a minimum, including:
- Supporting the event with AVW-TELAV staff and inventory already at Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC), where the event was held, to eliminate the use of trucks, transport and gas
- Providing quotations, floor plans, scripts, etc. in electronic format
- Having our technicians load software for the main room and 20 breakout rooms, using memory sticks (no paper)
- Using LED lighting (reduced AC) to light the scenic treatment
- Digitally audio-recording and video-recording the sessions, which eliminated tapes.We then provided HRPAO with CD and electronic copy, which was later used for their web site (paperless)
For its efforts, HRPAO received a Zero-Waste Certificate from Turtle Island Recycling which documented HRPAO’s waste-diversion rate for the event at 97.6 per cent!
