As you may know, one of the NACE initiatives for the upcoming conference in New Orleans includes a focus on being "green". This concept of looking for ways to make an impact on the environment include a number of initatives at the conference including reducing plastic waste by eliminating individual bottled water, using post-consumer recycled materials such as an eco-friendly tote (51% recycled materials), badge holders that are made of 51% recycled material, having recycle bins in place of traditional trash cans at the conference, using post-consumer recycled paper for any printed materials including the conference notebook, and overall limiting the amount of printed materials by providing session handouts electronically. In addition, excess food from the conference will be donated to a local food rescue program.
These types of initiatives may seem small on the surface, but if we all make a commitment to small changes in our work and personal lives, we can make a difference.
As one of the largest recruiter of college grads, Enterprise has seen college students asking more questions about a company’s environmental and social practices. Employers who want to connect with the socially and environmentally conscious students are making their "green intiatives" a part of their recruiting efforts and marketing to college students as part of the company’s environmental or social platform. We are als seeing more employers are using the recycle logo on their career fair giveaways or using giveaways made from recycled materials.
At Enterprise Rent-A-Car, having been in business for more than half a century, we know that leadership is not a short-term proposition. For us, environmental stewardship is a long-term approach to addressing those parts of the world that we touch with our business, and involving ourselves with those issues over which we have some influence. It's an approach built upon a commitment to ensure the sustainability of our business, as well as the sustainability of the world we all share. Our environmental platform includes the following intiatives:
Empowering our customers to offset the CO2 of their rental by funding projects that work to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Operating the world’s largest fleet of fuel-efficient cars, including more than 440,000 vehicles that achieve 28 mpg highway or better.
Embracing New Clean Technologies by taking advantage of existing alternative technologies, such as FlexFuel and hybrid vehicles, and helping expand the availability and use of alternative fuels, such as E85.
Funding the search for renewable fuels by donating $25 million to one of the world's leading plant science centers to develop renewable, reliable fuels from plant sources.
Funding the planting of 50 million trees over the next 50 years with The National Arbor Day Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service.
Sharing our environmental platform is important to our college recruiting efforts because it ties to our corporate values and ethics. With a fleet of more than one million vehicles, we understand that we have an impact on the environment. This initiative allows us to demonstrate that we're positively impacting change and we highlight our initiatives on our careers website and through our new website highlighting our environmental platform keystogreen.com.
I'd love to hear what others are doing either from an organizational level or a personal level to make a positive impact on our environment. Does your university or company have any formal "green" initiatives? What tips to you have for NACE members to support this cause?
