The Green Team at PCH

The PCH Green Team is our featured topic today, in honor of Earth Day, April 22, 2011.

Publishers Clearing House has always recognized the importance of being a good corporate citizen.  Part of that responsibility is doing business in a way that minimizes our impact on the environment.

Originally conceived as the PCH Environmental Paper Task Force in Spring 2007, the group of dedicated Publishers Clearing House employees was established to focus primarily on procurement of paper and packaging materials that are sourced in an environmentally responsible manner, and to explore opportunities for sustainability-focused marketing efficiencies.  Now dubbed “The Green Team“, their goals have become more all-encompassing to include company-wide efforts affecting energy usage, office paper reduction, and other reduce, reuse and recycling initiatives.

The PCH Green Team communicates regularly with all PCHers to remind us about recycling and other office waste reduction initiatives, as well as to give us tips about quick and easy-to-remember energy and money-saver ideas, like the following:

• Turn out your lights whenever you leave your office.  Most of us do this at home and for the same reason (it saves money), it’s a good idea to do it at work, too.
• Think twice before clicking the print button.  Do you really need a hard copy of a document that you can easily reference on your computer?
• Duplex (front and back) print whenever you can.  Less paper means less waste and less cost to the company.

The PCH Green Team works with our facilities department to help make recycling easy by placing recycling bins in convenient locations, such as this one in the dining room at sweepstakes headquarters in Port Washington.

They also collect batteries for recycling – check out this huge drum being prepared for proper disposal!

Every year the PCH Green Team issues an annual status report to share their progress and goals.  Impressive reductions in power usage at our facilities were achieved through lighting efficiencies, automated HVAC control systems and upgrades to our IT system, printers and monitors, as detailed in the team’s 2011 Status Report, entitled, “Continuing Our Commitment to Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility.” You can view a copy of the report online by clicking its title in the previous sentence.

I am proud to be a PCHer for many reasons, including Publishers Clearing House’s commitment to sustainability and corporate responsibility. Ever since my days as a high school student when I attended a rally in Philadelphia on the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, I have been inspired to do my part to “save the Earth” in whatever ways I can and I’m glad the company I work for helps to support those efforts.

Did you take part in the first Earth Day?  Or, are you planning to participate in this year’s “Billion Acts of Green” campaign?  Let us know your memories or current activities — we’d love to hear about them!

Peace,

Deborah Holland

Executive Vice President

PCH Publishers Clearing House