ThinkProgress commented this week on why reducing waste can have a huge impact on the environment. Small steps can have a large impact—if five percent of the food we currently waste was recovered, we could feed four million Americans. Green buildings can use 90 percent less energy than conventional buildings. Smart business practices can greatly reduce waste and water usage—and both of those are part of our commitment to reducing our environmental footprint. This year Microsoft was honored by the Washington State Recycling Association for reducing waste, including diverting 80 percent of Microsoft’s waste from landfill disposal in 2011.
In other news, GreenBiz published an article examining FedEx’s successes in reducing emissions—not an easy thing to do for a company whose business is global shipping. FedEx has been able to increase vehicle fuel efficiency by 16.6 percent over the past seven years, recycled 6.4 million more pounds of waste in the last year and offsetting the emissions from shipping more than 200 million envelopes each year. They have focused on reducing inefficient technology, replacing outdated vehicles, and planning for the future of new fuel technologies. We applaud them for their efforts to make the logistics industry—and the global supply chain that many businesses depend on—increasingly sustainable.