TCBA Go Green Meeting November 14, 2008

The TCBA Go Green Task Force made its début this morning at the Tulsa Bar office with Leonard Pataki’s welcome to the somewhat small gathering of lawyers. Vendors from a variety of businesses providing “green” services were available. Michael Patton (a/k/a Recycle Michael), The Met, spoke to the group with humor and wit, explaining the many ways that we can personally and professionally make better choices to help our environment.
Sara Cherry and I attended and came back with the following 4 ‘starters’ to recommend to the Tulsa Office:

1- Corporate Express, a division of Staples, displayed a number of office products, most impressively were the cups and cutlery made from corn based and cane based products. The corn based plastic cups and paper lined cups will compost and the cutlery case-products are biodegradable.
Recommendation: Contact the group for an office assessment of ‘green’ products to match what we are currently using. They will come out and give us an estimate at no charge and generally say that the cost of switching to these “green” products is within 10% of our current costs.


2- Natural Evolution is a company that disposes of all electronics and e-product waste, including hard drives. They use a process to destroy hard drives which is Department of Defense approved.
Recommendation: Billy contact them for disposal of electronics and computers as needed.


3- Show, Inc. presently serves the Tulsa office by providing the copying service at the Social Security Admin for our disability cases. They also provide collection of recyclables for a nominal cost and can pick up monthly, weekly, or as necessary. They employ disabled adults to do the sorting and are a United Way agency from Sapulpa.
Recommendation: Contact them for an estimate of cost to provide recyclable bins for office recyclable as opposed to the multiple boxes we now have in the kitchen and would also relieve Adrienne from her present recycling trips. If the office elected NOT to take advantage of this program, Margaret offered to coordinate a program like this for people to bring recyclables from home in one easy bag, one easy trip, no sorting.


4- Taylor Companies is an office furniture company which refurbishes gently used furniture and offers new furniture made from recycled materials.
Recommendation: New purchases of office furniture be vetted through our normal sources and also through Taylor to see if we can make wise purchases for the same or less funds.

Notes on Green Office Committee Meeting, 11/3/8

1.                   Present were Dave, Judy M., Kimberly, Sara, Adrienne, Neta, and Scott.

2.                   Discussion:

a.       ABA-EPA Law Office Climate Challenge: Scott discussed the ABA’s program to promote energy conservation. The idea is that you sign up for the program, report your results, and then you are recognized for your efforts by the ABA. Most of the programs didn’t relate to us because of practical difficulties (we can’t choose renewable energy sources, for example). But, we might be able to enroll in the waste paper program. We discussed a number of ways we could cut down on waste paper. We are already recycling and using “earth friendly” paper. We discussed ways we could encourage two-sided printing. We also talked about whether we could cut down on printing intake sheets and discourage people from needlessly printing e-mails. Scott will look into the specifics of signing up for the ABA program. Neta will investigate how we can measure our paper usage (do we have records for paper purchases over the past few years?) and if we can use copy paper that is composed of at least 30% recycled paper. Scott will see about cutting back on intake printing. We will also see if we can get someone from the Hotline to attend next time so we can talk about printing intakes and rush cases.

b.       Kimberly reported on green promo items. She had samples of several items, including a water bottle that is made from recycled plastic, a first aid kit made from recycled plastic, etc. Neta will store the items so that we can find them next year, when it is time to order promo items.

c.       Kimberly and Neta have not ordered posters, but they will.

d.       Dave suggested that we look into ordering Kleenex tissues made from cotton. Neta says that we use a little over one 36 box case of Kleenex every year. She will get with Dave and look into the cost of ordering Kleenex made from cotton.

e.       Dishwasher: someone mentioned that the dishwasher is leaving soap on the clean dishes. There were two theories: either there is a problem with the soap, or the water is not getting hot enough. We decided it is most likely the hot water. The next time we wash dishes, we need to check the water in the middle of the cycle and see if it is hot.

3.                   To-Do

a.       Scott

                                                                                       i.      Sign us up for ABA program

                                                                                     ii.      Investigate ways to cut back on paper usage for intake and rush cases

                                                                                    iii.      Recruit Hotline person for next meeting

                                                                                    iv.      Look for easy ways to print two-sided sheets

b.       Neta

                                                                                       i.      find out how we can measure base line for paper usage

                                                                                     ii.      check on use of paper that is composed of at least 30% recycled paper

                                                                                    iii.      Work with Dave on ordering tissues made from cotton

c.       Kimberly: order posters

4.                   Next meeting: Tuesday, January 13^th, 3:00

 

Scott Hamilton