The Green Development Office
CharityChannel.com  Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Sarah S. Brophy

It's obvious how the new building or the renovations should be green, and that everyone should be recycling and saving energy, but exactly how does that affect the development office? The most obvious effect is donor impressions of wastefulness. Don’t we want to demonstrate to our investors, partners, and donors that we are thoughtful with our resources, that we maximize them? Don’t you want to show environmentally-conscious donors that you share their beliefs (whether or not you are an environmental organization)? Don’t you want to show your entire audience that you recognize the cultural changes and are in sync? I’ll assume that’s a ‘yes.’

The first step – always – in going green is to start from where you are: What do you do now, as a matter of business as usual? If you can describe it, you can plan to change it; if you can measure it, you can evaluate your success.

So let’s run though the behaviors you are most likely to encounter in your office, and then we’ll think about measuring them and making changes. Most development offices:

• use and generate a lot of paper and collateral
• reports, memos, and files
• appeal letters, inquiries, applications, case statements and campaign material
• communications with staff and volunteers
• event materials
• have a lot of meetings
• staff meetings with coffee, goodies and – paper
• donor and volunteer meetings with meals, goodies and – paper
• and special events
• and use lots of equipment
• photocopiers, faxes, printers
• phones, computers, PDAs
• lights, refrigerators, water coolers
  

There are lots of green concepts that save money, some that cost more. You can do them all, eventually, if you work at it. Start with the easy stuff – saving energy – and use those savings to do green things that may cost more than traditional practices – such as buy 100% recycled paper.

The second and third steps are measuring, and then doing. Start with paper, and event and fundraising collateral. Use your last year’s worth of order forms to assess how much paper and paper products you order, and of what types. Look at your printer bills and find out how much you order and what types of paper and print processes you use. Ask the printer how much of the paper has recycled content, and at what levels. Ask if any of the ink is free of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) which are so harmful to the ecosystem. Ask what green services he or she provides: soy or vegetable inks, eco-solvent printing, etc. Consider switching to someone like http://www.greenerprinter.com to get what you need (or find one closer to the office). Ask the printer to consider tree free paper (http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/greentips/1102-tree-free-paper.html). Avoid over-designing your print materials with too much color, gloss, and non-paper embellishments. And order only as much as you need, and leave out some of the frills (decorations, favors and gifts) that don’t directly contribute to income, and are hard on the environment to produce and dispose of.

For printing and copying in-house, don’t print in color if you don’t have to. Use double-sided printing whenever possible, and consider designating one copier and networked printer as the ‘draft’ machines that re-use paper already printed on one side. When you replace machines, choose ones with low energy use, automatic shut-offs, can print double-sided, and have toner that last longer and is recycled separately from the housing mechanism. Use stationery with narrow margins, and be sure to change your Word defaults to 1" or less from the 1.25" in there now. Help others conserve: add a message on your email that says ‘please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.’

Remember whatever paper materials you don’t buy, you don’t have to pay for, print on, pay to have hauled away, and contribute to the landfill or the recycling pile. Because as good as it is to recycle, ‘tis better to reduce first, reuse next, and recycle last of all. That’s why the mantra is written that way.

How about those meetings, lunches and events? For Pete’s sake, banish those plastic water bottles. Pour it from a pitcher! Offer attendees coffee, other beverages, and food in reusable or recyclable dishes – either nice ceramics you can reuse, on washable linens. I hear you complaining about dishwashing, but I know it’s in someone’s job description to help with hospitality, so just get over it. Food stuffs should be purchased locally and served in bulk formats wherever possible to reduce packaging. So instead of a boxed lunch, wrap the sandwiches in wax paper, put the brownies on a plate and the fruit and salad in bowls, and let guests select their favorites. If it’s a fancy dinner, talk with the caterer about food sources, presentation methods, and post-event recycling.

And save energy, save energy, save energy. Check your energy bills for the last year to give you a benchmark. Then inventory all the electronics associated with your department. Think about the permanent stuff in the office, and the portables you use out and about. Use http://www.mygreenelectronics.org/EnergyCalculator.aspx to calculate how much energy your gadgets really expend. Re-learn to sharpen pencils, and staple paper without electronic devices. Then please, please, please, unplug the ones you’re not using: certainly chargers for cell-phones and PDAs; even turn-off your computers: http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/technology/hardware/do_you_need_to_turn_off_your_pc_at_night.mspx. Put items without sensors on power strips so you can turn many off at once. Gradually add sensors to computers and lights that will turn them off or to sleep according to use, occupancy, light levels, etc. Shift to compact fluorescent bulbs (remember to recycle them with the vendor). Give up the water cooler. If you have a vending machine, consider a miser-type gadget that powers down the machine instead of constantly running at high-levels. Pay attention to innovations in energy-saving devices. Later this year Belkin will put out a “Conserve Surge Protector can shut down six of its eight spaced outlets with the flip of the handy remote's on-off switch.” (DVICE). When you’re done with your electronics, check out http://www.mygreenelectronics.org/ to find a local vendor.

I could go on, but this should do to get you started. Choose one or two areas at first; measure your existing behavior; set green goals; get started; and then assess your performance and congratulate yourself. Remember, there is so much going on with green that no one person can know or do it all, no one book or website will have all the answers. Whenever you get stuck on solving a problem or finding a source, check out http://www.thegreenoffice.com for new ideas and links. If you keep working at it, you and your colleagues will gradually amass all the information you need to be responsible in ways that benefit your organization, your donors, your audience, and the environment.

Copyright © 2010 bMuse, Sarah S. Brophy