Our Commitment
We have applied environmentally-conscious concepts and practices to
our own business to align our values with our operations, and have
established a sustainability policy that guides our internal
efforts (available upon request).
Our GHG Inventory
We have delineated our carbon footprint and are in the third year of
compiling a companywide GHG Inventory. Mandatory reporting requirements
are Scope 1 (emissions from metered natural gas, owned company vehicles
and equipment) and Scope 2 (emissions from electricity usage and
nonmetered natural gas). Cameron-Cole also elected to track our Scope 3
emissions Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) from refrigerant usage, employee
commuting and business travel. Our findings were consistent with what we
expected for a typical consulting business. The majority of our emissions
are as a result of air travel, the next largest emission sources are
electricity and nonmetered natural gas usage, followed closely by employee
commuting. Our goal in future inventories is to actively work to address
these issues in order to decrease our total footprint.
In December 2010, Cameron-Cole achieved Climate Registered™ status by successfully
measuring its carbon footprint according to The Climate Registry’s best-in-class program,
then having it third party verified and reporting the data on The Registry’s website.
The Climate Registry is a nonprofit organization that operates the only carbon footprint
registry in North America supported by states, provinces, territories and tribes.
For more information, please visit www.theclimateregistry.org.
Sustainable Engineering Solutions
Cameron-Cole is committed to helping clients achieve the highest level of
sustainability in their engineering designs by evaluation of a wide array
of energy saving measures, material components, and alternative and innovative
technologies. We focus upon considerations including carbon footprint,
water footprint and automated operation that reduce costly technical labor
to service and operate systems. Cameron-Cole has partnered with leading
technology developers and research universities, notably the Louisiana State
University School of the Coast and Environment, Department of Environmental
Sciences to accelerate bringing cutting-edge sustainable technologies to
address client challenges, such as our Targeted Microbial Applications program.
Recycling and Energy Use
Within our offices, we have recycling areas where employees are encouraged
to recycle office paper, aluminum cans, and paperboard. We also provide
ceramic coffee mugs to reduce the need for disposable cups.
In offices with windows, most employees opt to work in natural sunlight.
Energy-saving light bulbs are available for employees that use desktop lamps.
It is common practice in all our offices to turn off lights in unused rooms
and when leaving for an extended period. We also encourage powering off “watt
wasters” (electronic equipment left on standby mode) at the end of the day.
These efforts helped Cameron-Cole’s California office become certified as
a green business in the County of Alameda’s Green Business Program.
As part of certification, the office had to comply with all environmental
regulations and took steps to conserve natural resources, prevent pollution,
and reduce waste.
Paper Reduction and EPP
To reduce the use of paper and other related resources, internal Cameron-Cole
staff communications and products are sent electronically. Recently, we
converted some of our payroll services to a paperless system. For our clients,
many products are also submitted electronically, including our proposals, reports,
and marketing materials. If the client desires hard copies, every effort is made
to use recycled paper and print double-sided.
Environmentally-Friendly Products
On our staff business cards and select marketing materials, we opted to use
FSC-certified paper and FSC-certified printing companies who have qualified
to operate under FSC’s strict guidelines. FSC is a nonprofit organization
established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.
Products carrying the FSC label are independently certified to assure consumers
that they come from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and
ecological needs of present and future generations.
Strategic Office Locations
Locating our offices in areas where walking, biking, carpooling or mass transit
for commuting are options is a criterion in our decision process, and our employees
are taking advantage of this in many of our offices. In cities where mass transit
is feasible, Cameron-Cole subsidizes employee use of mass transit programs.
For example in our Boulder office every employee has the ability to use Eco Pass,
a business program to support the use of Boulder’s RTD service.
Our mission is to continue to improve on our efforts and to look for even more ways
to conserve resources in our operations.