An important part of going green is telling your story to others, so they may recognize what you are trying to accomplish. Perhaps they may learn from you, and, most importantly, hold you accountable.

As our members begin to promote the fact they are the original green industry, we thought it important that the LO office walk the walk as well. So, staff members in Milton are working to green our office practices. A working group, including staff from LO, CNLA and Vanden Bussche, has met several times to discuss the issue. It was decided the first task is to reduce waste as much as possible.

To begin the process, the LO board decided to hold paperless meetings from now on. LO executive assistant Kathleen Pugliese notes that she doesn’t always receive RSVPs from meeting participants, and so often prepares too many information packages that end up in the recycle bin. To avoid duplication and waste of paper, all future agendas, minutes and any other information needed for meetings will be sent electronically to all board members in advance. Each member may decide whether to print the information and bring it to the meeting.

The next project is that building recycling practices are going under the microscope. The Milton office hosts a number of seminars and meetings throughout the year, and generates a great deal of meal-time waste through food, paper plates, plastic cutlery, cans and bottles. Recycling and composting bins have been ordered and we look forward to reducing the amount of garbage generated here.

Some small green initiatives have been in place for a while. LO uses grey water for our toilets and hand washing, and we have switched from Styrofoam to recyclable paper coffee cups.

The group is also looking into other exciting initiatives, such as collecting and recycling rainwater to irrigate the annual trial gardens. Stay tuned for more details on how we at LO are walking the walk.