In the last several months, BCSS has been planning and implementing several new changes in an effort to decrease our carbon footprint. We had aimed to fully reveal these endeavours in April 2020 in conjunction with the Earth Day Mobile Bay event, the Delta Woods and Water Festival and other local community events being held this Spring. Unfortunately, the pandemic has cancelled or postponed these events, but we’re still working to do what we can to celebrate the environment and our enhancements. In addition to our current efforts like interoffice recycling, User Tips education and our partnerships with local environmental organizations, we wanted to utilize more steps, no matter how small, that could benefit the health of our ecosystem. Here are some actions we have taken so far to become more eco-friendly:
- Installed a new rain barrel to water all of our plants and things on the company grounds.
- Provided several different reusable items to employees, such as trash and recycle bags for vehicles, grocery bags and water bottles.
- Offer reusable water bottles, tumblers and cups to visitors.
- Added recycling containers at Service buildings, in addition to current ones at the main office building.
- Provide a portable filtered water refill dispenser, the Water on Wheels, at community events instead of disposable bottled water.
- Changed all printed paper products, such as bills, letterhead and envelopes to post-consumer waste paper, and we’ve added a “Please consider recycling this bill” message on bills.
- Boosted encouragement for employees to do little things like turn off electronics and lights whenever possible, print less paper and double sided when possible and idle less in vehicles.
- Added hand towels in bathrooms and kitchen for drying hands and cleaning to reduce paper towel usage.
- Use reusable serving ware and silverware more frequently in the offices instead of disposable products for takeout and catered meals.
- Began to donate annually to the Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign, which is a major forest restoration effort with a goal of planting a billion trees across the planet. You can learn more about it on their website. Trees provide so many benefits to our everyday lives. They filter clean air, provide fresh drinking water, help curb climate change, and create homes for thousands of species of plants and animals.
- Installed a new rain barrel to water all of our plants and things on the company grounds.
- Provided several different reusable items to employees, such as trash and recycle bags for vehicles, grocery bags and water bottles.
- Offer reusable water bottles, tumblers and cups to visitors.
- Added recycling containers at Service buildings, in addition to current ones at the main office building.
- Provide a portable filtered water refill dispenser, the Water on Wheels, at community events instead of disposable bottled water.
- Changed all printed paper products, such as bills, letterhead and envelopes to post-consumer waste paper, and we’ve added a “Please consider recycling this bill” message on bills.
- Boosted encouragement for employees to do little things like turn off electronics and lights whenever possible, print less paper and double sided when possible and idle less in vehicles.
- Added hand towels in bathrooms and kitchen for drying hands and cleaning to reduce paper towel usage.
- Use reusable serving ware and silverware more frequently in the offices instead of disposable products for takeout and catered meals.
- Began to donate annually to the Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign, which is a major forest restoration effort with a goal of planting a billion trees across the planet. You can learn more about it on their website. Trees provide so many benefits to our everyday lives. They filter clean air, provide fresh drinking water, help curb climate change, and create homes for thousands of species of plants and animals.
Although we are a fairly small utility, we believe that if we can inspire our employees, their families and community members to help the environment while practicing what we advocate, that it can make a positive impact. We continue to look into more ways we can save energy and resources and participate in activities that enrich our natural world.
We are also excited to share our Water on Wheels, new educational activities and reusable products with the community after things return to normal. Do you have any suggestions on things we can do as part of this effort? Let us know here.
Check out our new sustainability logo that BCSS employees voted for.
