Green movement is evolving and expanding at many organizations

A recent survey found that many workers would like to see their employers engage in more environmentally friendly practices or policies. Nearly 11 percent of the 7,661 survey respondents work for government agencies.

According to the online poll, conducted by Corporate Express US Inc. and administered by Zoomerang, a majority of U.S. workers (64 percent) said that their decisions to work for an organization or purchase its products are “strongly” or “somewhat” influenced by the organization’s environmental practices or policies.

The survey also found that:

• Approximately two out of three workers at organizations without environmental policies would like to see such policies implemented in their offices.
  
• Eighty-three percent of employees would like to see their organizations use environmentally friendly cleaning chemicals in their offices. 
  
• Nearly one in three workers said that they possess allergies that are aggravated by environmental conditions in their offices.

According to the survey, demand for environmentally focused products has increased steadily over the past 10 years, with most respondents (60 percent) reporting that the environmental policies at their organizations have been implemented within the past decade. In fact, the trend reflects workers’ personal habits at home, with 78 percent of respondents saying that they recycle at home and 51 percent of respondents indicating they use environmentally friendly cleaning products at home.

Corporate Express launches green cleaning products group

Coinciding with the release of its survey results, Corporate Express introduced the Sustainable Earth group of environmentally friendly commercial cleaning products throughout the United States. In the past, the products have been available only in the Pacific Northwest through Coastwide Laboratories.

Many of the products in the Sustainable Earth collection meet requirements for the Green Seal and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment certification programs, the company said.

One of the public employees who responded to the Corporate Express green survey was Dan Koenig of Portland, Ore.’s Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet). The district provides public transportation in the Portland, Ore., metropolitan area, including most of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties.

“I used to feel the term ‘green’ had a negative connotation to it,” Koenig said. The TriMet district began using Sustainable Earth products in all its facilities in 2002. “I always shied away from green products because, in my 15 years of experience, green products typically didn’t work that well. But I would tell people today to reserve an opinion until they’ve tried Sustainable Earth products. They really get the job done."

According to Koenig, his district’s cleaning chemical costs have been reduced by about 70 percent since the district shifted from traditional commercial cleaners to the Sustainable Earth products. The district also has been able to reduce the number of chemical products that it buys to perform needed cleanup tasks, he said.