The firm bases its annual EMS plan and processes on three key environmental aspects: use of consumable materials, energy use, and business travel and transportation. Using these categories, several goals were set to reduce the firm's environmental impact in 2007. Achievements include:
-- Reduced paper use, per person, by 23 percent (goal was to reduce by 5
percent)
-- Reduced overall paper usage by 4 metric tons, while staffing levels
increased throughout the company
-- Increased recycled paper from 68 percent to 73 percent of all paper
purchased
-- Established environmental procurement criteria for 25 percent of
national agreements
-- Recycled 66,106 pounds of electronic waste at the office and corporate
level
Through a combination of reducing paper use and increasing recycled paper purchases, CH2M HILL has realized impressive environmental savings (calculated using www.papercalculator.org):
-- 4,315 trees
-- 7,233 million BTUs of energy (enough to power 79 homes for a year)
-- 1.1 million pounds of CO2 equivalent (equal to taking 98 cars per year
off the road)
-- 3.6 million gallons of wastewater (about five Olympic-sized swimming
pools)
"These environmental savings are based on a projection of what we would have used in 2007, if we had not changed our paper consumption habits," says Brandy Wilson, CH2M HILL's EMS manager. "The successes resulted from the dedication of people in our firm to incorporating a more sustainable approach to everything we do, from printing in the office to creating environmentally innovative projects for our clients."
Building on the 2007 EMS accomplishments and on further data, the firm has set several goals for 2008:
-- Again decrease paper use by 5 percent per employee
-- Increase availability of the electronics recycling program to 85
percent of all U.S. offices
-- Further increase recycled paper to 78 percent of paper purchased
-- Reduce by 5 percent the total square footage per employee in five
offices through teleworking and by developing a part-time teleworking
program
-- Address energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for the firm's
Denver headquarters, with the goal of reducing energy consumption by 5
percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent
Bill Dehn, CH2M HILL's president of North American operations and executive sponsor of the EMS says, "I see us incorporating this whole ethic of sustainability as a part of the normal work that we do in a way that adds value to clients, even when they don't ask for it. Sustainability and all the things that go along with it need to become the fabric of how we do business and how we live our lives."
Learn more about CH2M HILL's commitment in its Sustainability Report available at: www.ch2m.com/corporate/about_us/assets/Sustainability_Report.pdf.
Headquartered in Englewood, Colo., employee-owned CH2M HILL is a global leader in engineering, procurement, construction and operations for government, civil, industrial and energy clients. With more than $5 billion in revenue and 24,000 employees, CH2M HILL is an industry-leading program management, construction management and design firm, as ranked by Engineering News-Record (2007). The firm's work is concentrated in the areas of energy, water, transportation, environment, nuclear and industrial facilities. The firm has long been recognized as a most-admired company and leading employer, including being named by FORTUNE as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For and one of America's Most Admired Companies (2008). Visit www.ch2mhill.com.
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Contact: Tessa Anderson Phone: 720.286.2246 E-Mail: Email Contact
