Profile of a Green Office
With five EnviroSMART reps, the International Programs Office (IPO) is fiercely competing to be the greenest office on campus. EnviroSMART work experience student Zac Matthews caught up with reps Marina Eleftheriadis and Andrés Bayer Echeverri to find out what makes them so green.
- When did the I.P.O. become an environmentally friendly office?
- Around about the same time EnviroSMART came into being. We were already doing other stuff, and when EnviroSMART formed it was an easier push. The day EnviroSMART was announced all five of us straight away put our hands up. We were really excited and couldn’t choose just two of us, so in the end it was decided we could all do it! We always had the vision, but it became more of a reality when our associate director (Meagan Durant) gave the green light.
- What kind of training did you undertake to become an EnviroSMART rep?
- EnviroSMART took us out to the wildlife reserve and taught us all about environmental awareness and introduced us to greening our office. Although we already knew much of it, it was thorough and really fantastic. We also had a visit from a VISY recycling rep and we did a little exercise on calculating our ecological footprint.
- What things are EnviroSMART reps doing to make the IPO green?
- We use only recycled paper, re-use single sided paper without confidential information on it and avoid printing as much as possible. We recycle cartridges and commingled waste. We are trying to use soft copy files and we’re even looking at carbon off-setting. We try to do lots of little things like turning off machines when they are not in use. Fair trade coffee is something we’re trying to get because more money goes to the farmers of the coffee and it helps developing countries.
- Why are you keeping the office environmentally friendly?
- Because everyone is well aware that this is an extremely important thing, and because we were already living like this. It also makes it that little bit more interesting to come to work, and it is a great feeling to know that we are not leaving such a large footprint on the environment like we were before. It is good to teach people how to help the environment.
- What are the challenges or negatives to keeping the office green?
- To keep people motivated and to get people to go that extra mile; some people get lazy! And we get a lot of questions about important things; for example, people don’t really understand about recycling and people make mistakes. But, we don’t really see negatives because the benefits are great regardless of the extra work or money.
- Has there been any competition with other areas of the University?
- Yes, I (Marina) have a very competitive nature unfortunately, and my friend Penny who works at Public Health is like me and has made the Public Health office green. I was always saying ‘I’m going to have a greener office than you.’ So it has become a bit of a competition!