Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
Number of Employees: 1500
Company Website: http://www.phly.com
Charter Member

MISSION STATEMENT GREENPHLY is a team effort by all employees to protect and preserve the environment. We work within our community to promote the effective use, disposal and recycling of resources by methods that are clean, safe and healthy for the environment. We mentor our employees to become advocates to lead their families and community to preserve our world for future generations.

How green is our business? Below is a list of Green Business Program checklist actions we've taken to reduce our impact on the environment.

Energy » Lighting

Q: Arrange your workspaces to take advantage of areas with natural sunlight, and design for increased natural lighting when remodeling (workspace within 30' of natural light).
Q: Disconnect unused ballasts in de-lamped fixtures and replace burned out lamps to avoid ballast damage.
Q: Increase natural lighting through installing sidelights or lowering cubicle and nonstructural walls that block lighting to interior workstations.
Q: Install bypass/delay timers for off-hour lighting.
Q: Install occupancy sensors on lights in places of variable occupancy, such as restrooms, private offices, storage, etc.
Q: Install optical reflectors or diffusers to increase lighting efficiency and reduce the number of fixtures, lamps.
Q: Keep lighting fixtures, diffusers and lamps clean so that they are lighting as effectively as possible (dirt can reduce lighting efficiency by up to 50%).
Q: Maintain (and adhere to) a written policy to turn off office lights when leaving for more than 15 minutes and post reminders.
Q: Reduce ambient lighting to 1W/sf and 35 FC (except in specialty work areas).
Q: Replace magnetic ballasts with electronic ballasts and install T-8 or T-5 lamps.
Q: Replace standard fluorescent lights with low- or no-mercury fluorescent lights that are higher efficiency.
Q: Use daylight sensors in lighting systems.

Energy » General

Q: Conduct an informal internal energy audit of your facilities (assess and implement simple measures to reduce energy consumption).

Energy » HVAC

Q: If appropriate, apply window film to reduce solar heat gain.
Q: Implement weatherizing policy and measures (I.e. weather stripping, caulking, sealing unused space, not heating/cooling unused space).
Q: Institute and/or maintain a written maintenance program: Inspect permanent filters every 3 months and clean permanent filters with mild detergents when necessary (change replaceable filters every three months); check the entire system for coolant and air leaks, clogs, and obstructions of air intake and vents; keep the condenser coils free of dust and lint; keeps the evaporator coils free of excessive frost.
Q: Maintain (and adhere to) a written policy that ensures blinds and curtains are closed during peak summer period (white reflects) to reduce A/C load.

Leadership and Education

Q: Designate a green office advocate or working committee.
Q: Actively encourage employees to adopt sustainable practices outside of work, and provide resources for doing so (such as discounted compact fluorescent (CF) light bulbs).
Q: Appoint management level sustainability officer.
Q: Assess and track your firm's/facility's (ies') Philadelphia region estimated baseline carbon footprint. (Use of the calculator provided by Pennsylvania Environmental Council is strongly encouraged; however, a member may assess its carbon footprint using the protocols identified below (see NOTE).)
Q: Establish and promote individual green pledge for employees.
Q: Host regular green awareness events within the company.
Q: Post and maintain your current Greater Philadelphia Green Business Commitment Self-Certification Report (this checklist) on your external website.
Q: Prepare an external annual report on progress to be distributed publicly.
Q: Prepare an internal annual report of progress and distribute to employees/shareholders.
Q: Promote sustainability initiative and forthcoming changes, strategies, and objectives within company on a regular basis to raise consciousness and add transparency of the initiative.

Operations & Procurement » General Practices

Q: Ask vendors to take back packaging and used or damaged products for reuse and recycling.
Q: Choose vendors who can articulate sustainable practices.
Q: In order to improve indoor air quality, ban smoking from interior spaces and designate exterior smoking areas at least 25 feet from building entries, outdoor air intakes and operable windows, with cigarette butt disposal units.
Q: Purchase items with the least packaging and work with vendors to minimize product packaging. Minimize packaging in your own products and services.
Q: Use local businesses for products and services whenever possible.
Q: Use unbleached and/or chlorine-free paper products (copy paper, promotional paper, paper towels, coffee filters, etc.).
Q: When possible, arrange to order goods from vendors who make deliveries of multiple items in a single delivery.
Q: When purchasing garbage pails or garbage bags, find ones that use recycled plastic (e.g. recycled HDPE trash liner bags instead of LDPE or LLDPE).

Operations & Procurement » Facilities / Janitorial

Q: Buy low or no VOC paints, coatings, adhesives, and sealants for surface coating projects.
Q: Buy toilet paper, tissues and paper towels that have 35%-100% post-consumer recycled content.
Q: Implement a "just in time" purchasing policy (inventory reduction purchasing) and a "first-in/first-out" chemical usage policy (using older chemicals first) to use old material first.
Q: Replace aerosols with non-aerosol alternatives (such as pump sprays for fresheners and cleaners).
Q: Use green cleaning techniques and products, including low-toxic, biodegradable cleaners, and properly dispose of expired materials.
Q: When replacing furniture, phase in low-VOC furniture.

Operations & Procurement » Office

Q: Institute a written policy regarding the leasing of office equipment where appropriate. Businesses that lease out equipment tend to use more durable items, salvage reusable parts, and refurbish, recycle, or donate used equipment that can no longer be leased.
Q: Use recycled or remanufactured laser and copier toner cartridges.
Q: When purchasing new printers, buy ones with duplex capability.

Transportation » Fleet

Q: Carefully plan delivery routes and errands to eliminate unnecessary trips.

Transportation » Business Travel

Q: Have written policy to use public transit or car share if possible when traveling from office in metro area.
Q: Use teleconferencing to cut down on amount of business travel.

Transportation » Commuter

Q: Offer secure areas for bicycle storage for both employees and customers.
Q: Operate a car pooling message board for employees who drive.

Waste Reduction & Recycling » Policies

Q: Donate or exchange unwanted but usable items (furniture, supplies, electronics, scrap materials, computer disks, etc.) to schools, churches, hospitals, libraries, nonprofit organizations, museums, teacher resource organizations, etc.; or enroll in a waste exchange program.
Q: Make it easy for employees to recycle by placing clearly marked collection bins in convenient locations. Post signs and/or train employees regarding recycling policies and procedures in the office.

Waste Reduction & Recycling » Paper

Q: Eliminate fax cover sheets by using "sticky" fax directory notes or use software that allows you to send and receive faxes directly from your computer without printing.
Q: Encourage employees to read, highlight and comment on documents on the computer screen whenever possible.
Q: If your facility still has an old printer without duplex capability, use only for single page documents and ensure multi-page documents are printed on duplex printer.
Q: Institute a policy that switches to electronic forms, eliminate excess forms and make paper forms more efficient.
Q: Keep a stack of previously used paper near printers. Use it for drafts, scratch paper or internal memos or designate a draft tray on printers with multiple trays.
Q: Maintain (and adhere to) a written policy of "green printing practices, including duplex printing, draft printing, and utilization of scrap paper.
Q: Purge your own mailing lists to eliminate duplication.
Q: Recycle (after full use/reuse) all paper products that your recycling vendor will accept.
Q: Recycle toner cartridges, cell phones and dry cell batteries.
Q: Recycle tyvek envelopes.
Q: Where possible, reuse envelopes as both send and return envelopes: cover up old addresses and postage, affix new, and/or use two way or
Q: Write "refused" on unwanted first class mail and return to sender.

Waste Reduction & Recycling » Food & Beverage

Q: For catering and takeout, either use your own reusable dishes or encourage caterers to serve "family-style" in reusable serving dishes.
Q: In the lunch/break room, eliminate disposables (plastic utensils, coffee stirrers, paper towels) by using permanent ware (mugs, dishes, utensils, towels/rags, coffee filters, etc.)
Q: Recycle food and beverage containers (all glass, #1 & #2 plastic and aluminum containers).

Water Management » Exterior

Q: If company owns any vehicles, routinely check for leaks and keep a spill kit handy to catch/collect spills from leaking company or employee vehicles.

Water Management » Interior

Q: Regularly check for and repair all leaks in your facility (toilet leaks can be detected in tank toilets with leak detecting tablets. Train your staff to monitor and respond immediately to leaking equipment.
Q: Understand your water bill and review it monthly for indications of leaks, spikes or other problems.