Free Sustainability Audit Offered Through Portland’s Best Business Center
by Linda Meyer, COO of Ink & Paper Group

“Does your business want to be among the best?”

When the City of Portland asked local businesses this question in regard to sustainability, Ink & Paper Group answered with a resounding yes.

In February 2008, the City of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development launched its Best Business Center, through which it offers free Sustainability Audits designed to help small businesses evaluate and improve their environmental practices. With a healthy dose of skepticism (can a book publishing company truly be green?), I requested further information by e-mail, responded to a brief follow-up phone screening, and participated in an hour-long, in-person interview to evaluate Ink & Paper’s current business practices and envision the eco-friendly business future we’d like to work toward.

During the interview, Small Business Advisor Marlowe Kulley stressed that the goal is improvement rather than perfection. She helped us see that although publishing generally requires the use of paper, ink, and a variety of chemicals and processes not necessarily good for the environment, we do have options available to us. In short, we have choices to make. Small improvements can have surprising effect, and some major changes can be implemented with little cost or disturbance to everyday business. Ms. Kulley toured our offices and asked questions about our current procedures, purchases, and publishing methods, all the while asserting that greening must be done in a way that allows a business to make productive but affordable changes. She provided resource conservation advice with realistic options for implementation.

Approximately two weeks after the interview, Ms. Kulley returned to our offices with a Sustainability Guide created especially for Ink & Paper Group. This info-packed guide lists recommended actions and free assistance programs to help us put them into practice. Program partners such as Portland General Electric, Portland’s water bureau, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, and various recycling and green building experts provide an impressive selection of free resources, from brochures to hotlines, technical assistance to financial support. The Sustainability Guide addresses operations; energy; water; transportation; building or remodeling; garbage, recycling, and composting; and other areas specifically relevant to our publishing company.

As a result of our Sustainability Audit, Ink & Paper Group has expanded its recycling programs, devised plans for water- and energy-use reduction, discussed transportation alternatives with partners and staff, and committed to putting our sustainability plan down on paper to share with our authors, vendors, business advisors, and investors. We have pledged to continually reevaluate our progress and keep moving toward a greener future.

If you are interested in learning more, sample Sustainability Guides are available from the Office of Sustainable Development at the Best Business Center website: www.bestbusinesscenter.org. Feel free to e-mail me if you’d like to hear more about our experiences with the audit. We can all make a difference!