The Gift Exchange

Like many individuals and businesses alike, GiftTree is making an effort to reduce our ecological footprint. We believe that small changes can make a big difference. We already recycle all cardboard, paper, and aluminum cans, but we continuously look for new ideas to implement.

For example, in hopes of eliminating the use of plastic utensils, we’re currently in the middle of a utensil drive. Employees have been asked to bring in utensils that they can donate to our lunch room. I know I have mismatched silverware that’s rarely used at the back of the utensil drawer at home. Why not bring them in to work where they’ll be much more useful?

We also have an espresso machine in our lunch room. Possibly because coffee is like fuel here at GiftTree, especially during the hectic holidays, but it also helps us be more environmentally friendly. We use ceramic mugs and it reduces the number of trips to our local Starbuck’s. If only five GiftTree employees replace one Starbuck’s coffee with an espresso made here at work each day, that’s a savings of 1,300 paper cups a year, not to mention 1,300 fewer trips in the car.

GiftTree has an employee suggestion program where employees contribute ideas that can help improve operations, the work environment, basically any suggestions to improve the company and how we do business are accepted. For the month of June, our theme is reducing the amount of paper we use. One suggestion is to eliminate printed papers for meetings. Thanks to an employee suggestion, GiftTree will be purchasing a projector for our conference room. This one, simple solution will save reams of paper each year.

What is your company doing to reduce your impact on the environment? We’d love to hear your suggestions too!

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