Taking care of the world we share

Our carbon footprint primarily reflects our use of physical space, energy and fuel.

We manage our buildings, equipment, fleet and resources conscientiously and effectively to meet business needs, reduce our carbon footprint and limit our environmental impact.

In 2010 we made strides in energy consumption, paper use, recycling and other areas with the help of our customers and those we work with.

Every effort, no matter how big or small, makes a difference.

Take a look at some of what we did in 2010.

  • Our renovation of two, large volume air conditioning units in one of our Cleveland buildings yielded an energy savings of 333,930 kWh.
  • We fine tuned computer programs that use sensors to monitor the heating and cooling schedules in buildings to improve energy efficiency.
  • We managed equipment schedules to better align with building occupancy and save energy.
  • Employees across locations recycled eyeglasses, cell phones, shoes and more during our annual Environmental Awareness Week in April. In Cleveland alone, we collected 1,295 pairs of shoes, 282 eyeglasses and 167 cell phones to send to recycling organizations who repurpose them.
  • Seven of our regional facilities have met the criteria to achieve Energy Star certification.
  • Employees accepted Northeast Ohio Area Coordinating Agency’s Commuter Challenge in July and earned first place in the region for using alternate transportation like biking, carpooling, walking or telecommuting for two weeks.  The 30 employees who participated saved a total of 5,187 miles of driving.
  • We received the Promise to the Earth Award from the National Arbor Day Foundation for our two-year partnership to plant over 1.5 million trees when customers signed up for one of our Paperless options. The project was completed in 2010.
  • For the ninth time in the last 12 years, we made the NorthCoast list of the 99 best places to work in northeast Ohio. We also received a Special Category Award for Sustainability, recognizing our efforts.
  • We continued to replace six-cylinder vehicles in our company fleet with four-cylinder vehicles to reduce our impact on the environment. (See related chart under Numbers).)
  • We committed to use of Forest Stewardship Council and/or recycled logos on materials as appropriate so people understand the type of paper we use for various items they receive from us.
  • We cut paper costs by more than $92,000,increased information sharing and reduced paper use by putting two quarterly newsletters online instead of printing and distributing them.
  • We moved from using printed materials to flash drives for our Special Lines' sales organization mailings. We also use flash drives now for agent handouts following meetings.
  • We worked with ClearCarbon Consulting, Inc. to baseline our carbon footprint and improve our reporting.
  • We combined the company’s travel and expense systems into one tool to make the related processes more streamlined and electronic based, reducing paper use, infrastructure needs and costs.
  • We created environmentally friendly packaging for our Snapshot product, including reducing the size and amount of packaging used and printing instructions on FSC certified and 30% recycled paper.