Business Sustainability Tips

Support for sustainability can be an important factor in attracting and retaining good employees. Some ways to support your employees include:

• Send your employee identified as a green champion to a Recycling 101 course.
• Provide new hires with information on recycling, paper reduction, and alternative commuting in their orientation packet.
• Celebrate Earth Day with a meeting that includes both a report on progress by your business on sustainability goals and an opportunity to gather feedback from your employees on ways to improve sustainable practices.
• Make a written plan available for continuity of operations in case of a disaster or other unexpected disruptions.

• Use copy/print paper that contains at least 30% post-consumer recycled content— Paper made with recycled content uses less energy, water, and chemicals to produce because the fiber has already been extracted from trees.
• Switch to paperless invoicing, billing and payroll to reduce paper use.
• Set your printers to double-sided printing as the default.
• Use post-consumer recycled content for other paper products such as paper towels and envelopes.

• Eliminate paper plates, paper cups and paper items from the breakroom or kitchens.
• Provide washable, reusable service ware (which is cheaper in the long run).
• Ask staff to bring unused dishes from home to stock the employee breakroom-this minimizes upfront costs.
  Set up a system for dishes to be washed after meetings.

• By collecting food scraps at your business, you can keep waste out of the landfill and reduce greenhouse gas emission
• Food scraps collected from businesses in our region are put to use as fuel for energy generation via anaerobic digestion.
• Food establishments in our region will be required over time to separate food scraps for collection, with the first businesses impacted beginning March 2022.
• Visit the Clackamas County Garbage and Recycling webpage on reducing wasted food for more information about the food scraps collection program or for tips to reduce food waste.

• A waste audit can help you understand your business’s waste streams–what is ending up where.
• During a waste audit, representative samples of garbage and recycling are collected, separated, and examined. What you find can help educate employees to reduce waste and manage materials more responsibly.
• Note which items make up the bulk of your garbage or recycling and set goals to reduce those. Finding a lot of coffee cups? Encourage staff to use durable coffee mugs instead. Is a lot of paper going to waste? Push paperless options or, at a minimum, set up double-sided printing. Switching to alternatives that reduce waste and save businesses money and time in unexpected ways.

As a PGE customer, it is easy to monitor and manage your energy use through their Energy Tracker to identify triggers that drive your bill up and:

• Determine how much electricity you use each month.
• Examine energy usage by the day, the hour, or even by 15-minute intervals to spot when and how you use the most energy.
• Compare your current bill to last month or to last year to look for trends.
• Monitor energy use at least annually and evaluate conservation opportunities.

• Use the programmable thermostats to set back the temperature during off-hours. PGE has incentives.
• Smart thermostats are better than simple programmable thermostats because they adjust automatically and can recognize holidays and other irregular days off.
• Do you have office rebels who override the thermostat’s settings? Minimize this behavior by setting the timer so that the heat/air comes on 15-20 minutes before the first employee arrives, thereby starting the temperature at the desired setting by the start of the day.

• Electronics in standby mode still draw power even though they appear off (phantom energy).
• Consider plugging devices (computer monitors, computer peripherals, etc.) into “smart” power strips, which shut down devices in standby mode.
• Power strips with motion sensors automatically power down devices when workers leave for the day.

• LEDs last longer, perform better, and save more energy than other interior light options.
• Replace any older magnetic ballasts with electronic ones—this will save energy, reduce flickering, and often the number of bulbs, possibly lower operating costs.
• Energy Trust’s guide to energy-efficient lighting technologies for businesses offers ideas for efficient alternatives.
• Energy Trust of Oregon offers cash incentives for some business upgrades.
• Energy Trust of Oregon also offers cash incentives for some business modifications in their exterior lighting incentive program.

• Most water heaters work by holding water in a tank at a specific temperature, 24 hours a day, but are set to temperatures higher than necessary which can waste energy and money.
• If the temperature is set to 120° higher-than-average demands will still be met, burns prevented, and energy saved 24 hours a day.
• If uncertain about your water heater setting and temperature, run hot tap water over an immersion thermometer to get a fairly accurate reading of your water temperature.

• Lower window blinds or use window film to prevent the sun from heating up your space. This will lower A/C load.
• Set ceiling fans to rotate counterclockwise in the summer.
• Weather strip or caulk windows and doors to prevent leakage and reduce winter drafts.

• Renewable energy can be purchased through Portland General Electric.
• Purchase 100% renewable energy for $12 on average per month for a small business.
• Renewable energy can reduce your long term operating costs.
• If your utilities are through a lease, encourage your property manager to purchase renewable power.