“Going Green”
a Smart Move
on Many Fronts
Once only fashionable, introducing “green” initiatives into your business can bring unintended positive results. In addition to reducing your carbon footprint, some relatively simple green initiatives can result in more efficient and more economical ways of doing business, contributing to a better bottom line, and create goodwill among your clients and staff.
Anchin has introduced many of these initiatives in our offices at 1375 Broadway.
“Our green efforts are part of an on-going effort to be a good corporate citizen. We care not only about our physical environment, but about the human environment we create inside Anchin,” says Anchin Managing Partner Frank Schettino. “These efforts, some at great cost to the Firm and others at great savings to the Firm, are a way that we can give back not only to the community, but to our own employees.”
Here are some initiatives in place at Anchin that might work equally as well in your business:
- The firm only purchases recycled ink for the approximately 150 printers in use throughout the office.
- All of our computers, servers and electrical equipment are recycled through Dell’s asset recovery program. In this program, Dell dismantles the equipment in a controlled environment to dispose of hazardous materials and to keep them out of landfills.
- All rechargeable batteries and cell phones and recycled.
- Light switches in all offices have been upgraded with motion detection switches, reducing by one-third the use of “unnecessary electricity” in the office. The Firm expects to recover the cost of this project within one year.
- The architecture of the Firm’s network room was reconfigured to materially reduce the number of servers in use and the amount of heat they generate. This effort reduced the amount of electricity used in the server room by 50 per cent.
- The entire audit/ tax/ business management and other departments have converted to a paperless environment through the use of leading-edge document management systems.
- Clients receive their tax returns on CDs, unless they specifically request a paper copy of their return.
- Most of our communications – whether a newsletter, client alert, or event invitation – are delivered via email rather than “snail mail,” tremendously reducing our use of paper and the associated costs of mail delivery.
- Recycling bins for bottles and cans have been placed on each floor throughout the firm.
- We host an Earth Fair each year at the firm to introduce our employees to a number of earth-friendly processes and products.
“We feel our efforts are greatly appreciated and respected by our staff,” Schettino says. “Some of the initiatives we have implemented were suggested by the staff through our Suggestion Box, located on the Firm’s Intranet. These suggestions come directly to the Executive Committee, so we are prepared to respond quickly to ideas that make sense and are important to our staff. We see this effort as an ongoing and evolving process, not an event that has ended with the completion of these initiatives.”
In recent years, Anchin’s Economic Development professionals have helped more than 100 businesses receive local, state and federal tax incentives and grants, many of which are related to green initiatives.
Should you wish to discuss incentives that might be available for green initiatives at your business, contact your Anchin relationship partner. |
