We drink tap water and manage office equipment

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

A tapWhen spreading ideas of environmental awareness and sustainable management, we can now rely on our own experience as well as set examples by our actions. Namely, participation in the Green Programme has given us not only the knowledge we and good conscience we need, but also direct savings thanks to smarter consumption - we have given up bottled water altogether.

We reached this decision after measuring the power consumption of our office equipment. The device that was constantly heating up and cooling water did not seem to be reasonable in its working logic. We now use pre-filtered tap water. The acquisition of a reverse osmosis device will pay off (together with four-year service intervals) in just 14 months. And all of our employees say that the water tastes better now.

Termination of power consumption outside of office hours will save us more than 9000 kroons and means that more than seven tonnes of carbon dioxide will not be emitted into the air. When purchasing electricity from Eesti Energia, everyone can easily calculate the resulting carbon footprint - about 1.1 kg CO2/kWh.

Water tankThus, we will prevent seven tonnes of CO2 contributing to global warming from being released. This is equivalent to the quantity emitted, for example, in the course of production and transport to supermarket shelves of nearly two tonnes of pork in Denmark. It is also the quantity emitted in the course of driving more than 40,000 kilometres with a car with medium petrol consumption. Or, the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted as a result of a meal of plaice, cauliflower and hulled barley - which a family of four could eat 1400 times!

All we have to do now is install timers on five devices and then move on to the issue of lighting. This is an intricate question. As became clear in our energy-saving experiment with two families, using energy-saving options is quite complicated when it comes to lighting, as energy-saving light bulbs are often not compatible with existing fittings. New fittings, however, may be too costly to purchase. We work in an old building which has a chandelier in the ceiling, and we are not allowed to put anything else there.

We hope to organise joint paper procurement in autumn with the other participants in the Green Programme. On the one hand, this will cut expenses, and on the other, we will be able to procure slightly more expensive and environmentally friendly paper (e.g. paper bearing the Nordic eco-label).

The Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia is one of the 11 bodies in the country which has made the decision to make its everyday operations more environmentally aware and its use of resources more economical - all part of NGO Ökomeedia's project entitled 'The Green Programme'. Ökomeedia wants everyone who joins the programme to achieve savings of up to 10% in at least one type of resource consumption.

Besides us, Swedbank, the State Forest Management Centre, the Radisson Blu Hotel, the Port of Tallinn, Teater NO99, Restor, Keila Municipality, Reet Aus Fashion House, the Recycling Centre and the Network of Estonian Non-Profit Organisations have joined the Green Programme. Ökomeedia's partners in supporting the Green Programme are the Estonian Fund for Nature, Futuren, Eesti Energia, Ecoprint, Tallinna Vesi and the Maailm creative agency.

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