The YIKES office is located in a Platinum LEED certified building and is powered by 100% Renewable electricity through The Energy Cooperative. YIKES recycles, composts office waste and prints on recycled paper with soy ink. The YIKES office uses green cleaning and paper products. YIKES is also a 100% replanted office.
Your office or home may not be LEED certified, but you can still be just as green in both places. There are many levels of behavioral change that anybody can make to decrease their carbon footprint and create less waste. AND all of these behaviors can help you save money; so Mother Earth and your bottom line both get a boost.
Side by side trash and recycling. – recycling is a ‘matter of convenience’ for a lot of people. If there is a recyclable bottle in their hand but the only receptacle available is a trash can; guess where the bottle is going to end up? Put a recycling bin next to every trash can you have, and you will see an almost instant increase in recyclable waste and a decrease in the amount of waste headed to the landfill. In Philadelphia you can co-mingle all of your recyclables, meaning everything can go in one bin. Find out what the rules are for your city and start recycling.
LED Lightbulbs – When your next lightbulb burns out, instead of using another halogen or standard bulb begin replacing them with LED bulbs. LED Lights are energy efficient, cost effective, durable, energy efficient, have a long lifespan.
A standard 50W halogen lamp turns 90% of electricity used into heat with only 10% into light. The benefit of LED Lights are that they use only 15% of the energy a standard halogen uses, provide up to 85% of the light output and create less heat making them so cool to touch.
Control the thermostat – if it’s July and the people around you are wearing sweaters, the air-conditioning temperature is set too low. If it’s December and you have people sweating in tee-shirts, then your heat is too high. Keeping your AC set to 78 degrees in the summer will keep your space cool without exerting too much demand on your system. Keeping the temp at 70 degrees in the winter will keep your place comfortable in the chilly months.The easiest option is to a programmable thermostat and set it for an ambient temperature that’s appropriate for the season. One can program the thermostat to cycle the system off when there is nobody occupying the building.
Natural light – unless you work in a location where the public has constant access to the inside of your building, open the blinds and turn off a few of the overhead lights during the day. This will lower your electric bill and help with your natural circadian rhythm.
Water filtration system – a water filtration cooler is a fixed-cost alternative to bottled water. You can have a cooler installed directly into an existing cold water supply. This will ensure that your household of business has a continuous supply of clean, refreshing water at a single set price. Almost all of the popular water cooler companies offer this option.
Going paperless – this is pretty self-explanatory. Unless it is federal law that you have to keep physical copies of your paperwork turn to electronic copies for all of your needs. PDF and email invoices, pay your bills and people through your bank account and keep all of your correspondence in your email. Though people find reassurance in the old school way of tactile paper management, streaming lining to all electronic paperwork makes it easier to find documents and payment receipts with keyword searches.
Cleaning chemicals and bathroom supplies – There are so many reasons why you should cut back on our chemical exposure in life, and the best place to start is you cleaning supply bucket. Here are my top reasons why you should make the switch to a natural product next time your bleach spray or bottle of ‘The Works’ runs out.
Purer Environment – Changing to greener methods, “helps reduce pollution to our waterways and the air and it minimizes your impact on ozone depletion and global climate change with fewer smog-producing chemicals,” advises Snow. Many green products also use recyclable packaging which minimizes waste.
Safer Products – Conventional cleaning products pose risks such as chemical burns to the cleaner’s skin and eyes. Green cleaners aren’t corrosive and meet strict standards regarding inhalation toxicity, combustibility and skin absorption.
Less Expensive (I’m noticing a theme here…) – For home cleaning, vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, etc. can do the trick for pennies on the dollar, compared to buying conventional cleaning products,” Snow says. Why go out and buy products when you can use things you already have in your pantry?
Electronic waste recycling – Old hard drives, printers and LCD screens collecting dust in your storage space. Don’t throw them out with the trash. They will not degrade over time, and will sit forever in a landfill. Instead recycle them through an electronic recycling program. Yikes, Inc. uses greendisk.com. In this service we receive a box to fill up at our own pace with anything technology related that has run its course. If you feel like you don’t have enough electronic waste. search your local listings for a community shredding event.
Potted Plants – this is only as difficult as you perceive your green thumb to be. Plants offer pretty decoration and improve the air quality in your home or office. Here’s a list of 24 of the easiest plants to grow and another of the 7 best houseplants for beginners. Find one and introduce some more life into world.
Composting – you don’t have to have a farm to compost. If you live in an Urban Area check out your local community gardens and see if they collect compost. You can also subscribe to a service, where it is picked up from your home. By returning your natural foodstuff byproducts to the earth, you can help create a Humus that will improve the pH and moisture level in the soil. This will create more bountiful harvest, and who doesn’t like more food.
Rain Barrels – you can collect the rain runoff from your gutters and reuse it at a later date to water your garden, flower boxes or grass. It’s a perfect solution to keeping your water bill low and lilies blossomed in the thick of summer. The City of Philadelphia has a (FREE!) rain barrel program for homeowners. If you’re not a Philadelphia resident check with your municipal programs for either a rain barrel program, or reimbursements for installing one. Rain barrels help keep the sewer system from getting overwhelmed during flash storms, so it’s in every city’s interest to support this effort.
After a busy month of organizing this year’s WordCamp Philly (and building the website), the whole YIKES team is enjoying the sold-out conference this weekend. We are volunteering, teaching and learning.
Conferences, WordPress WordCamp. Post link.
YIKES has been recognized as a great place to work with a spot on the third annual Best in the World for Workers list. See our score and learn more about the other honorees; we are in great company.
A business is more than a building, a service, or a product. A business is made up of people, and treating those people right is a crucial part of doing business the right way. That’s why we are proud to lead our fellow B Corps in working to create a better life for our employees as a 2015 Best for Workers honoree.
How are we Best for the Environment? We earned a worker impact score in the top 10% of all Certified B Corporations on the B Impact Assessment, a comprehensive assessment of a company’s impact on workers, the community and the environment. Every day, along with our fellow honorees, we are taking the lead in providing comprehensive benefits and wellness programs, paying living wages, and creating opportunities for employee ownership.
We take pride in smart, effective, creative web solutions, but that pride would be misplaced if we weren’t first and foremost focusing on the people who make it possible: our team. That’s one of the reasons we became a B Corp in the first place.
Check them all out at bcorporation.net.
B Corps and Sustainability, YIKES News. Post link.
Join us for our 2014 Philabundance Food Drive and help fight against hunger.
Join YIKES, Inc. again in collecting donations for the Philabundance food drive. Help us beat our record of almost 300 pounds!
*Donations will be accepted from now until December 19th, 2014 at our office. We are located at 204 East Girard Avenue in Philadelphia. The office is open Monday-Friday 9am to 5pm.
You can also visit our Virtual Food Drive and donate online!
YIKES News food drive, philabundance. Post link.