Dumpster Dive

"If you want people to think about the waste they produce every day, show it to them," advises Jim Hartzfeld, managing director for Interface Raise, the sustainable consulting unit of Interface, the Atlanta, Ga.-based floor covering manufacturer.

When Interface started talking about becoming a more environmentally friendly and sustainability-focused business back in the early '90s, Hartzfeld says everyone thought they were crazy. "But no one could argue with the idea of reducing waste," he says. "We just needed a way to make it visible."

So, Hartzfeld picked a day to pull all of the dumpsters into the parking lot and empty them out. He then had employees wade through the trash to see what they were throwing away and categorize it into piles. They found plastic containers, broken wooden pallets and dozens of other materials that had the potential for reuse.

"It got us talking about how we could keep these materials from becoming waste by using them in some productive way," he said.

Build a Garbage Web

Showcasing waste can be done just as easily inside an office, Hartzfeld says.

After Interface employees left work one night, his team dumped all office trashcans into the reception area. They strung all recyclable materials from the ceiling with fishing line and paper clips, creating a three dimensional web of trash that employees had to walk through to get to their desks.

"It was a way to make their waste visible and cause people to recoil," he says, noting the company followed this activity up with education about recycling and its impact on the amount of waste sent to landfills.

"It had a powerful impact," he says.

Getting the Most Out of Green Initiatives

• Measure your baseline greenhouse gas emissions Once you identify your biggest culprits, you can choose initiatives that will directly affect them and garner the biggest pay-off for your early efforts. • Get employees involved, through presentations, education and public events The more engaged they are in the process, the more likely they are to change their behavior. • Look at your waste stream with an eye toward its value to someone else. Besides recycling, could there be other uses for what you throw away? • Offer incentives, such as free mugs, gift cards and other small giveaways that can go a long way toward drawing attention to your cause.

Slow Your Flow

We've all heard about -- and hopefully implemented -- high efficiency light bulbs in our offices. This is the first, and arguably easiest, green decision a company can make. It's easy to do, it has a direct impact on energy savings and the return on investment (ROI) is seen in a matter of months.

But did you know you can make the same kind of change to your bathroom faucets and you'll see an even shorter ROI?

"The flow rate on most bathroom faucets is 2.2 gallons per minute," Linstroth says. "That's the same amount of water you use to take a shower. It's a ridiculous and unnecessary overuse."

Melavar replaced all of its bathroom faucet aerators -- which control water flow -- with 0.5 gallon per minute versions, although Linstroth notes that aerators come in a range of flow rates. Aerator cost $2 to $3 and are screwed right on to the faucet, making them as easy to change as a light bulb.

"For $3 per faucet, we curtailed our water use by 50 to 75 percent. If every employee washes their hands three times a day, that's a substantial amount of water savings over a year," he says. "This is a no-brainer."

Drive Change

When it conducted an audit of its greenhouse gas emissions, Melavar discovered that one of its biggest culprits was gasoline use for its employees to get to and from work. To combat its impact, Linstroth's group launched a series of incentives around commuting.