Sustainability and the Environment: How CTRL Maintains a Green Office

At CTRL, we strive to make sustainable choices. From encouraging proper waste sorting, to solely purchasing green office supplies, to hosting events in sustainable ways, our commitment to the environment guides the way the CTRL office operates.

12 Staff Members

Participating

100 Pounds

Of carbon diverted by the CTRL staff

5 Sustainable Events

And counting!

CTRL is a certified Silver-Level Green Office. So what does that mean exactly? Below you’ll find a few of the practices we have committed to and their corresponding levels.

  • Bronze Checklist

    • Our office has a green team and a green team leader, and regularly meets to discuss ways to improve our office’s green initiatives.
    • The green team leader receives and distributes the monthly sustainability newsletter.
    • We turn off all office electronics, including computers, printers, and copiers, and ensure that office lights are off at the end of the day. We use power strips whenever we can.
    • Everyone in the office knows about the various commuting options they have to get to work.
    • We know about (and promote) the university’s zero waste goals, and we sort our waste appropriately into the correct bins.
    • We have unsubscribed from paper publications in favor of electronic delivery.
    • We make 2Fix requests whenever we see a leak.

  • Silver Checklist

    • We have put up signs in multiple places in our office to remind faculty, staff, and visitors of our sustainability commitments.
    • Every new employee we hire receives training regarding our office’s sustainability commitments, as well as the university’s sustainability goals and initiatives.
    • Every winter break, we participate in the campus-wide energy break.
    • Every event we host includes at least one vegetarian/vegan option (we often have many vegetarian and vegan options at our catered events).
    • Every event we organize does not have balloons or bottled water.
    • We purchase sustainable office supplies, which are typically made from recycled materials and recyclable.
    • We do not have single-serve coffee maker in our office. We have a communal coffee pot that we all share.
    • The printers in the office are set to print and copy double-sided (and we encourage using only black and white printing and copying).
    • We have a scrap paper bin for when we print too much or the wrong print job.
    • Our office shares office supplies through a communal storage closet. We keep all of our exra supplies there.

So what’s next for CTRL? Green Office Gold Certification! We are working hard to achieve certification. Some of the items we are working towards are below.

  • Gold Certification

    • Our office plans on attending a sustainability-themed webinar or community building opportunity.
    • We are working on purchasing only green cleaning products, both for general office use and  use at our individual desks.
    • We are changing our process of purchasing travel for professional development by considering more eco-friendly options (the least energy-intensive option).
    • We are compiling an inventory of all of the office’s electronics- and working on sustainably disposing of the unused electronics we have.
    • With our inventory, we will take stock of what electronics we need and don’t need, and dispose of the electronics we don’t need at an e-waste event.
    • We are moving from 50% recycled content paper to 100% recycled content paper, and finding ways to limit our paper usage.