At Hardlines Design Company (HDC), we strive to live up to our company’s mission statement of being good for our clients, the environment, our staff and our community by employing the latest proven green practices. Here are a few of the ways HDC is addressing these goals:
- We replaced old building landscaping with native, drought-resistant plants that provides habitat and food for local wildlife.
- We recycle approximately 50% of our office waste stream from copy paper to food containers to batteries to toner cartridges down to the cardboard boxes we receive supplies in.
- We use 100% recycled paper for all our in-house printing except for report submittals and large-scale printing on our plotter.
- We use 100% recycled paper towels.
- We purchase 30% of our office electricity in renewable energy credits.
- We maintain a “turn it off/down” policy to minimize our use of energy.
- We are moving toward the use of non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning supplies.
- We ensure that fieldwork results in a minimal impact on the environment through the use of bio- and photo- degradable flagging tape and use of digital photography to reduce pollutants that result from processing of traditional film products.
- We used low/no VOC wall paint and ceramic floor tiles containing recycled materials in our recent kitchen renovation.
- We provide reusable plates and utensils and a high-efficiency dishwater with eco-friendly detergent for our staff to use so that we reduce the amount of non-reusable items, such as paper plates, in the waste stream.
- We provide on-site (no plastic bottles) filtered drinking water for our staff and our canine mascots.
- We encourage and actively pursue the use of plants in our office to remove environmental pollutants that are produced by our printers, copiers, office furniture, etc.
- We have a reusable tote made from recycled materials as one of our promotional items in place of traditional items such as plastic key chains and magnets made from petrochemicals.
- We purchased a gas-electric hybrid (Toyota Prius) as our newest company vehicle.
We Believe In Giving Back To The Central Ohio Community
We give back to the community and our professions by providing pro bono or reduced rate services for non-profit organizations. Recent examples of pro bono or reduced rate work include: technical and preservation assistance for the Westerville Shrine (a mid-century replica of an historic Shinto Shrine), pro bono design services for The Friends of the Library, reduced rate architectural drawings for the Delaware County Humane Society and equipment loans to the summer 2007 forensics programs sponsored by the PAST Foundation and The Ohio State University.
We have staff that give back to the community and their professions by volunteering their personal time to serve on professional and community boards such as the American Cultural Resources Association, the Columbus Landmarks Foundation and the German Village Commission.
So not only do we provide “Green” services to our clients but we also follow our own marketing rhetoric. And in the end this is not only good for the natural and cultural environments, our staff, and our community, but also for our clients because we can provide our services at lower overhead rates as a result of our resource conservation policies.