Last week more than 500 million people in over 175 countries celebrated Earth Day on April 22. It was a day to celebrate our planet’s unique and diverse environment, and increase public awareness of the world’s environmental issues. Vogel Bros., Earth Day is more than just one day. It’s our continual commitment to sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint that directly aligns with our mission of improving our services in order to enhance the lives of the people in the communities we serve.

Earth Day was designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the natural environment. While it might not see like it directly correlates to employee wellness, it’s important to understand how much environmental factors can impact a healthy and happy lifestyle. Vogel Bros. believes people are key to our success, so it follows that we value making our workplace sustainable and “green” throughout the year.

There are lots of simple changes you can make to raise awareness of environmental issues, create a more sustainable workplace and encourage co-workers to make sustainable choices. In the field, Vogel Bros. has been implementing green building and sustainability practices for years from project site recycling to building facilities that meet LEED certification standards. In the office we’ve made some adjustments as well such as:

  • switched to energy efficient equipment
  • reduced paper use by going digital as much as possible
  • minimizing paper waste by unsubscribing from catalogs and mass mailing lists
  • adjusted the timing of our motion-sensored lights to reduce energy consumption
  • reduced our use of plastic by providing reuseable glasses to fill at the drinking fountain in lieu of buying water bottles
  • replaced our disposable utensils and plates with reusable dishes that we clean in lieu of throwing away

Encouraging sustainability is at the core of our business efforts and helps us perform better in all kinds of way, produces resource efficiencies and increases financial performance. Our business approach creates long-term value not only for our employees and our customers, but for our world as well. Our actions do make a difference. Happy Earth Day: today and every day.