We gave grant of £88,000 over 2001-04 to Friends of the Earth Scotland for the Green Office
project - to promote good environmental practice in office
management in the difficult to reach, small professional
office and small and medium size enterprise
sectors.
Friends of the Earth Scotland promotes the
conservation, restoration and rational use of the
environment for the benefit of the community by
disseminating information and supporting positive
practical initiatives.
An annual Green Office Exhibition and Seminar was
held over three years with one each in Edinburgh , Glasgow and Aberdeen . There were also annual Office Amnesty Weeks
recruiting over one hundred offices to take part. In total
the project planned to involve 600 organisations in these
Green Office activities.
Additional funding was secured from the Edinburgh
Environmental Partnership to update Friends of the Earth
Scotland's Green Office Action Plan and pilot an assessment
and advice service. The two projects worked very
closely together and complemented each other very well.
Green Office Exhibition and Seminar 2001,
Thursday 29 November, Trades Hall, Glasgow
All 24 exhibition spaces were taken by companies and
organisations which included: BioRegional; Glasgow
City Council; Hay Nisbet Press; Inveresk Graphic Products;
Shanks; The Energy Saving Trust; Scottish Power.
130 delegates attended the exhibition with 64
attending the seminar on Energy Efficiency run by the
Scottish Energy Efficiency Office and 83 attending the
afternoon seminar on Office Resources run by
BioRegional.
Feedback was positive with 57% of those returning
evaluation forms describing the event as 'very
useful'. 86% thought it represented 'good value for
money'.
The Green Office Action Plan was well
received as this gave delegates a starting point for most
aspects of greening their office.
Green Office Action Week 2002
This made use of materials for the initiative
developed during 2001 - A3 posters, A5 flyers and
information on how to conduct an office amnesty and also
killer facts detailing why organisations should be taking
part. The event took place between 18 and 22 March 2002 with 131 offices feeding back results with the
estimated savings of £28,431.60. Included in the savings
were: 5,430 ball point pens; 1,934 pencils; 2,672 bull dog
clips; 403 computer disks; 1,104 highlighter pens &
2,407 plastic wallets.
Green Office Exhibition and Seminar 2002, Thursday 7
November, Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh
Companies and organisations which took the 17
exhibition spaces included: Shanks Waste Management; Blue
Line Office Furniture; Friends Provident; Scottish Energy
Efficiency Office; Eagle Envelopes; LEEP; RAGS;
Transportenergy; Biobags; Scottish Executive - 'Learn to
let go' Campaign; Fleurtations; Curtis Fine Papers; The
Business Environment Network; The Edinburgh Environment
Partnership Grant s Scheme Ltd; Green Spectrum; City
Couriers.
136 delegates attended the exhibition with 108
attending the seminar on Recycling run by LEEP, 107
attending the seminar on green office auditing run by
FoE Scotland , 94 attending the seminar on Energy Efficiency run
by the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office and 99 attending
the seminar on green office policy run by SNH.
Feedback was very positive with 82% of those
returning evaluation forms describing the event as
'very useful' and 94% believing that the event
represented 'good value for money'.
A few delegates thought that the seminars were
possibly attended by too many people and felt that they
would have benefited from reduced numbers with smaller
workshops. In 2003 numbers were therefore limited to 40
per seminar.
Green Office Action Week 2003
This ran from 17 to 22 March 2003 . In those five days, businesses were asked to
conduct an office amnesty. To help them in their quest, a
pack was developed, containing:
- Posters for each business
- Information about how to conduct their Green
Office Action Week
- Overview of greening the office and why they
should take part in the Green Office Action
Week
- Evaluation form for submission to Friends of
the Earth Scotland
201 businesses signed up to take part, and 120
fed back their results which was estimated saved
£29,746.25. Some specific savings were: 4,507 ball
point pens; 1,715 pencils; 153 staplers; 816 computer
discs; 588 highlighters; 4,184 plastic wallets and 990
bulldog clips.
Green Office Exhibition and Seminar 2003, Thursday 13
November, Elphinstone Hall, University of Aberdeen
To spread access to as many people as possible the
final exhibition was held in Aberdeen . Research carried out in conjunction with Aberdeen
City Council revealed that there are strong networks in the
North East of organisations who take environmental matters
seriously. It was therefore a little disappointing to find
that participation in the Green Office Exhibition and
Seminar in Aberdeen was lower compared to previous years. 15
exhibition spaces were taken up and 100 delegates attended
the event.
Exhibitors included: Recycling Advisory Group
Scotland; Jutexpo; Ogilvie Ross; ReBoot; The Green
Stationery Company.
However despite the lower numbers, the event was a
success and it was particularly pleasing that The Green
Stationery Company attended. They claim to have had
increased sales from organisations in Scotland due to being present at the Green Office Exhibition
& Seminar and state that they would definitely come on
board in the future. Very good links were built with
Aberdeen City Council and hopefully they will become more
closely involved in future Green Office work.
Green Office Action Week 2004
Taking account of project funding ending at 31 March 2004 , t he 2004 event was marketed over a shorter period of time, and ran from 23 to 27 February. This would also allow time for feedback
before the end of the project.
238 offices signed up to take part with just
under 100 feeding back their results by the
deadline.
The 2004 event calculated that offices saved
£17,313.78
Conclusions
John Ross, co-founder of Perthshire Ogilvie Ross,
had stalls at two Green Office exhibitions: "At last
year'sEdinburghevent the company, which uses old office
furniture for new products, gained £60,000 worth of
business in the six months following the
exhibition."
The three year project showed that although
organisations will engage with 'green' issues, it is
not at the forefront of everyone's mind all of the
time. The annual initiatives re-engage people in the
office environment.
Procurement staff need to be supported internally
by the management of their organisation and externally
by a network of people with a similar role and
experience to share. They need help in engaging with
the people in their organisation who are not willing to
support initiatives such as this. This could be in the
form of internal presentations, more promotional
materials to display around their office (recycling
reciprocals, posters, flyers, etc.), or setting up
partnerships within local areas so that they have a
support network that they can rely on when the going
gets tough. 'Greening' the office is about an ongoing
commitment to the environment and not just a one-off
event.
The Green Office Exhibition and Seminar format
was good in that it gave like-minded people a
networking opportunity which is very important when
trying to take on the task of 'greening' the office
environment. It is vital that links are forged between
offices as a support network.
An online auditing website has been developed at
www.green-office.org.uk and this is where people tend to find the next step to
'greening' their office along with calls to FoE Scotland . With funding this could be developed into a more
comprehensive auditing 'one stop shop' for offices who want
to 'green' their office environment.
Contact
Friends of the Earth Scotland
Lamb's House
Burgess Street
Edinburgh
EH6 6RD
Telephone: 0131 554 9977
Email:
info@foe-scotland.org.uk
www.foe-scotland.org.uk