Walking the Walk in Energy Savings
By: Zaheen Hussain
How GTECH is competing to save energy this year in the Green Workplace Challenge.
There has been a lot of talk about competition in the GTECH office lately – especially with Homewood, Hazelwood, and Millvale being in the midst of an Ambassador-led Energy Efficiency Challenge. Well we wanted to show the world we are not only talking the talk, but walking the walk. For the first time ever GTECH will be participating in the Green Workplace Challenge in the small non-profit category.
As a small non-profit, the staff and I are always trying to make big impacts with few resources. One vacant lot or educating one community member may seem like a lot, but we’ve found over the years it can amount to big change in a community.
So when Sustainable Pittsburgh, asked us to join the challenge, our feet started moving.
In fact since its inception in 2010, the GWC has saved 26,630,000 kWh of energy, 5,421,000 gallons of water and 4821 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Showing that small actions can add up to big changes.
We are taking the pledge to improve our performance in the areas of water and waste, energy, indoor air quality, transportation, employee engagement and our office policies.
A few specific examples of actions we are taking as an office are:
- Establishing a green team
- turn off our lights and computers at the end of the day
- programming our thermostat
- installing a bottle free water station
- pledging to waste less
- measuring our waste
- pursuing on-site solar power (we are VERY excited about this)
Follow our blog to stay up to date on our actions (you may be able to adopt one or two). We hear CCI is working hard to defend its title from last year!
Businesses of all sizes, nonprofits, colleges/universities, local governments, and K-12 schools in southwestern Pennsylvania are eligible to compete in the Green Workplace Challenge. In two years, more than 100 employers in southwestern Pennsylvania voluntarily completed over 2,000 measurable actions, saving $7.4 million in energy costs. Be part of making this impact even bigger. Have an organization that wants to compete? Sign up by January 31 at www.gwcpgh.org.
