Orange County Register

Acquity Group, a digital consulting firm with an office in Irvine (hq is Chicago), is a fairly small company that is doing its bit for conservation.

Most people want to be responsible stewards, but individuals and small companies may think they can’t do much.

However, there are plenty of simple, inexpensive steps even a small business can take, says Jennie Chien (right), the Irvine representative on the Acquity Green Team.

The company’s six offices have one or two people like Chien to rally their co-workers to look for ways to conserve, reuse and recycle.

“It started with the simple idea from a few employees that we should recycle,” Chien says.

The company’s first initiative was to give employees travel mugs to use for coffee or other beverages instead of Styrofoam cups.

“I think our use of Styrofoam cups is down 60%,” Chien says. “We have posters throughout the offices to remind people to be green, but mostly it’s enforced just by word of mouth.”

Chicago headquarters actually kept count, recording monthly savings of:

• 50% on paper cup usage
• $100 on Styrofoam custs
• $572 on printing paper
• $83 on paper towels

“You don’t have to spend a lot of money; in fact, you can even save money by going green,” says Melissa Vurdelja, another Acquity employee. 

Some other ideas from the Green Team that will save money in future months, Chien says, include installing motion detectors and automatic off switches for lighting and buying disposable utinsels made of corn material, which is biodegradable and costs less than plastic.

Once individuals and individual companies start thinking about stuff they use and how they do business, all sorts of ideas for saving — and saving the planet — come up.

 Brandi Cummings in this article, gives some additional ways for  businesses to conserve:

• buy recycled paper
• reuse file folders
• replace incandescent bulbs and halogen lights with compact fluorescent lights
• buy Energy Star certified copiers and other office equipment

Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Energy to share ideas about saving money while saving the environment.

Clean technology has become one of the hot areas for venture capital investment, as I noted in this post. And in the first six months of ‘08, these invetors poured another $8.4 billion into clean tech efforts worldwide.

It’s such a hot topic, that OC Innovation, the annual effort to showcase local companies’ cutting edge creativity, is all about “going green” this year. Toshiba will honor the local company that best exemplifies green innovation in the O.C.

One of the keynote speakers (11:30 a.m. Oct. 1) will be Andrew Winston, co-author of “Green to Gold: How Smart companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value and Build Competitive Advantage.”

Share with us how your business is environmentally friendly or conserving and saving in the comments field below.

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• Greening your business
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• O.C. eco-friendly mover wins $25,000
• Energy storage for hybrid cars wins Fast Pitch competition
• California venture capital craves clean tech deals

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