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Community Board
Volt Goes Green
by Melissa Krivanek, Director of Operations
For over 50 years, Volt has served as an innovator in the staffing industry. Now, Volt is dedicating its ingenuity and resources to join its “Green” customers and business partners in the global fight to reduce our environmental impact. As Volt grows into a great global organization, we want to ensure that our growth and success is also measured by the positive environmental initiatives that we take as individuals locally and as a company globally.
As Operations Director for Volt, I was excited at the opportunity to join the corporate Environment Initiatives Committee. This group works to increase awareness among employees, customers and vendors, and to implement environmentally friendly initiatives. It gave me a chance to collaborate with people throughout Volt to help spread the "Go Green" movement from our Corporate Park out into the field.
When I joined the committee, our corporate office in Orange, California had already been rapidly making changes. The Committee’s first order of business was to make our break rooms and conference rooms “greener” by switching our supplies to recycled and biodegradable products. Soon after that, we implemented a number of other changes. Here are just a few of the "Green" success stories:
- The Corporate park eliminated Styrofoam and water bottles.
- They added and improved recycling stations at the Corporate office
- They began shifting to recycled paper
- They began the process of registering the corporate park campus as a certified wildlife habitat
- Some Volt locations in California have been planning and hosting E-Recycling Events
- Corporate wide Volt discontinued ordering CRT monitors and began only ordering more energy efficient LCD flat panels.
- Corporate wide, we rolled out the Employee Self Service Program. In addition to being a convenient new service to our employees, the move to online direct deposit advices will save approximately 1.3 million pieces of paper annually!
- We send out weekly "Go Green" tips to educate internal employees on ways individuals can make an impact on the environment.
In addition to participating in these exciting changes through the corporate committee, I have been working on implementing changes in our local offices. One of the first moves we made locally is to eliminate plastic water bottles. With the simple move of refilling reusable containers with filtered water, Volt will save approximately 38,000 water bottles a year in the Redmond area. It's great to see small changes having a big impact. We're also working to reduce the amount of paper through "thinking twice" before printing and encouraging energy saving practices. Our local Regional Operations team (including your Redmond Payroll and Benefits team) held a contest to come up with "Green" ideas that we could immediately implement. We're now gearing up for an Earth Day event. Stay tuned for more details!
Participating in the Volt Environmental Initiatives Committee has given me an opportunity to combine a personal passion with a forward thinking corporate initiative. I have observed many Volt employees shift to thinking "Green" and making numerous small changes to impact the larger overall Volt Environmental Imitative. It has been fun and rewarding to be a part of the rapid change and improvements that Volt has been able to make in the few short months since the committee was created. With all the new ideas currently being discussed both by the committee and individuals throughout the company, I am looking forward to continuing to be a part of positive environmental changes that will be implemented over the next months and years.
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