Working Green

Florida’s workplaces big and small are getting greener as conservation efforts to reduce energy, fuel, water and waste rev up.

Consider:

• Office Depot, the Delray Beach-based office supply company, buys and sells paper products from certified eco-friendly providers.
• Fusion Pizza, a Fort Lauderdale-based startup, uses organic ingredients, bio-degradable pizza boxes and hybrid-delivery vehicles.
• To combat rising nitrate levels in the Suwannee River basin, the Florida Farm Bureau joined forces with the Suwannee River Partnership to create the County Alliance for Responsible Environmental Stewardship.

  In less than two years, Publix has decreased miles traveled by more than 28,000 miles per week and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 2,500 tons.

  CARES includes 60 federal, state and local agencies, along with private organizations and businesses, whose purpose is to highlight efforts by farm owners to protect and save water. CARES recognized 29 Suwannee River basin farmers and ranchers in 2008. The program is now in its eighth year.
• The Florida Farm Bureau also is working with Agra Gate, a subsidiary of the Iowa Farm Bureau to encourage Florida farmers to take part in a voluntary, incentives-based, carbon credit program.
• The Sarasota County Commission — perhaps the state’s premier leader in sustainability — has implemented a host of sustainability initiatives, including those that have reduced the county’s per-capita use of water to 90 gallons per day, far below the state average of 174 gallons.

Such efforts can pay off in a big way. Seven years ago, Publix launched its company-wide “Get Into a Green Routine” — a program for “environmental responsibility.” The Lakeland-headquartered supermarket chain reports that it has saved almost 643 million kilowatt hours by using new lighting and refrigeration technologies. In 2007, Publix recycled 216,772 tons of cardboard and 7,469 tons of plastic, the first year that recycling revenues outpaced waste disposal expenses.