One of the most exciting times of the year for me is when I get to sit down and tally up the recycling reports from the previous year. I’m excited to announce that we saved 2,095 TONS of recyclable materials from the landfill in 2013. That’s a regular sized football field covered 2.8 feet deep!!
And really, it goes beyond this. One of the things I have had the pleasure of watching is how the Green Girl community has grown over the years. Recycling is just one part of the bigger picture, and I never tire of hearing about how our customers are making strides toward both reducing and reusing materials.
Take one of my great friends and neighbor Deb, for example. When it was time for her family to move, she decided that she didn’t want to buy all-new boxes for the big trek down our hill – she wanted to reuse if possible. Coincidentally, a family from PA had just moved to Longmont and didn’t have a way to recycle all of their once-used moving boxes… The result? I got to introduce the two families, help get boxes to the mountains and it was a win-win all around. That makes me feel great – we are making a difference not only with recycling materials themselves, but with people in need as well.
Getting back to end of the year reporting and sharing information with everyone – each year we ask customers to proudly post all their recycling savings. Recycling isn’t always easy and never really that ‘sexy’ (well, I think it is…) but many just see it as trash. This year.. I’m so proud to announce that we are seeing customers for the first time really sharing how much they are diverting – take Salto Coffee Works in Nederland as an example. They are truly a source of inspiration for me. In a recent blog, they not only proclaimed their dedication to going green, but they even used our annual report to post to their web site how much oil, landfill space, raw materials and water they saved last year—all by recycling! We love having Salto as a customer and we love the inspiration they are passing on to theirs.
Another really exciting business really ‘going green’ in 2014 in Pellman’s Auto in Boulder. They not only recycle everything they can from their office and the back shop – they have yearly meetings with us to help educate employees on recycling, adding any item possible onto the ‘yes you can recycle this’ list. I love going into one of their meetings and answering questions – everyone there really cares that they are diverting. This year they even added a full compost program!! If you want to support a truly ‘zero waste automotive specialist’ – we think they are as green as you can be – truly green at heart. (See the bottom of this month’s newsletter for a special deal for Green Girl customers!)
As a community collectively aware of the larger picture of sustainability, we are able to grow by listening to each and the steps we are taking to reduce our impact on the environment. What are you doing that is working for you? What measures has your company taken to “go green?” Send me a note or give me a call—we invite you to share your ideas! Together we can all keep making a difference. It just takes one small decision to recycle, a company to make it easy to be green and everyone generations from now benefits.