Posted on: Sunday, February 22, 2004

'Green teams' making imprint at workplace

By Ken Dey
Idaho Statesman

BOISE, Idaho — Trophies mean little to this team of employees.

They don't wear uniforms emblazoned with a company logo and they may or may not have any athletic ability.

Helping the environment while saving the company money — not scoring points — is the ultimate goal of the Green Team.

The concept of green teams is growing across the country. They're now a part of big companies like Starbucks, but the roots of green teams started at smaller companies like Boise's CH2M Hill.

CH2M Hill started its Green Team in 1999. It was the fifth CH2M Hill office to form a team, and now the company has green teams in more than 30 offices across the United States.

The Boise team is completely voluntary and encompasses employees from different departments and job titles, but with a common goal to help the environment by suggesting and often implementing changes at their companies.

Some of the Boise Green team's accomplishments include eliminating the use of paper and Styrofoam cups and changing the company's copying policy so that employees now do double-sided copying to save paper.

Just eliminating the cups, and giving everyone a mug or glass, is saving the company $900 a year.

The team also organizes events for other employees to talk about things like water and energy conservation, organic gardening, carpooling and local open space.

Brandy Wilson, a technical writer and one of the founding members of the team, said the best way to have a successful team is to implement things first that save the company money.

"We find we have to continuously connect things to the bottom line and be real analytical about it to get management support and to have things happen," Wilson said.

Starting with things that can save a company money helps make it easier to gain approval for things that might cost a little extra like switching to recycled paper or paying to have cardboard recycled.

Wilson and other team members say changing attitudes and cultures at a company isn't always easy.

"We're upsetting their lives a little bit, and some of them get upset with you," said Betsy Roberts, a civil engineer and co-founder of the team.

The team has often felt the wrath of disgruntled co-workers, whether it's been because they took away paper cups or encouraged double-sided copying.