As Paperless As Possible

Going paperless is one of the main ways we work to avoid unnecessary waste. As much as possible, we favour electronic materials over printed ones. When using paper, all printing must be double sided and in grayscale. We’ve also invested in productivity tools that allow us to collaborate together online, reducing the need for printing. Finally, we recycle our ink/toner cartridges with our suppliers, although it does usually take us a while to run out!

Plastic Schmastic

We use recyclable coffee pods in our kitchen to reduce plastic waste. We also have real cutlery, ceramic coffee cups, and plates for meals and snacks, and we encourage staff and guests to use our glassware or their water bottles for beverages when filling up at our permanent filtered/sparkling water station. You won’t find many single use plastics in our kitchen! To add, we also have recycling and composting stations throughout our office.

Let There Be (Sustainable) Light!

Our office is fortunate to have many large, bright windows, so often in our meeting rooms we don’t even need to turn on the lights! But, for when lighting is necessary, we are outfitted with LED lights to conserve energy, and we ask our staff to turn off lights in meeting rooms that are not in use. Common areas such as the kitchen and washrooms are outfitted with motion activated LED lighting, so these turn off whenever someone is not in the room to avoid wasted energy. We also use rechargeable batteries over single use ones for all of our devices and computer peripherals.

Participation In Action

Many Vovians take public transit or bike to work when weather permits, cutting down emissions. Our team also works from home a couple of days per week, cutting down on the number of vehicles commuting.

When driving is necessary, we always carpool to off-site meetings, events and engagements, and staff team builders. Or, if it’s within walking distance, we enjoy a stroll as a group to get to where we’re going.