Even a firm as successful as Jacques Whitford has to progress. How? By turning its tough environmental auditing standards on itself

Guess how much paper a typical employee uses every year at the office. Hundreds of sheets? A thousand? How about close to 7,000? Jacques Whitford workers were shocked to discover that they were each burning through a staggering 6,885 pieces, a number that was revealed in the results of a company-wide audit.

Everyone knows that paper costs money, but it wasn’t just the bottom line that might have suffered. For a firm whose bread and butter is environmental consulting, Darmouth, N.S.-based Jacques Whitford’s reputation could have been called into question. So Jacques decided to improve its own environmental performance by setting clear targets. By cutting waste and purchasing carbon offsets, the company has committed to going carbon-neutral.

In its massive audit undertaken recently, Jacques learned some important lessons. Travel, including workers’ daily commutes, comprises a full two-thirds of the firm’s carbon footprint. The solution: slash that by as much as one-third by investing more than $1 million in snazzy new video-conferencing equipment. Jacques is now testing the gear; CEO Bob Youden is even using it in meetings. “The quality is fabulous,” he enthuses. "It’s just like watching a plasma TV at home.” Youden expects the company will need time to adjust to the technology before embracing it wholeheartedly. Still, the equation is a no-brainer. While the gear cost more than $1 million, the company is shooting for a $2-million reduction in air travel over the next year.

“You can go to Toronto for two days and spend three or four hours getting there and three or four coming back,”says Youden. “Or you can line up three video-conferencing meetings and accomplish the same thing. Does it replace face time? Absolutely not. But if we take one trip out of three away, or two out of three, it’s going to make a big difference.”

Changing consumer expectations and attitudes are fostering a revolution among environmental engineering firms such as Jacques Whitford. The company was already moving toward that goal, abandoning plastic water bottles and adopting recycled paper. Now more comprehensive measures are in place. Pay stubs are rapidly disappearing, as the company moves toward electronic versions instead of consuming 1,800 pieces of paper every two weeks. An advisory group helps determine the environmental impact of doing business with suppliers from office-supply companies to hotels. Employees, meanwhile, try to outdo one another in friendly commuter challenges.

A gradual reshifting of priorities is allowing the firm to reposition itself in a more preventative role. Starting out in 1972, cleaning up a hazardous-waste site was a typical job. Today, Jacques is also taking on tasks such as calculating carbon footprints for biggies such as Bell Aliant. (The review revealed that the utility’s elaborate telco network was producing its biggest chunk of greenhouse gas emissions.) The Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities (UNSM) asked Jacques to develop guidelines for wind-turbine bylaws.

“One thing about Jacques Whitford is that they recognized ahead of a lot of other companies what was coming down the pipe,” says Peggy Crawford, UNSM’s municipal sustainability co-ordinator. By positioning itself early in the game and enforcing stringent guidelines within its own firm, she says, Jacques established its street cred early on.

Youden, who spent 17 years as a senior executive with J.D. Irving Ltd., is the first to admit that he doesn’t know everything about sustainability. He remembers walking down the hallway of Jacques’ Saint John office a few years ago when a young employee chastised him for drinking coffee from a disposable cup. “That’s a waste,” admonished the cheeky underling, after which Youden was forced to admit that it had never occurred to him to use a travel mug instead.

The average Jacques employee is 37, well educated, and understands the consequences of his or her actions since they are already in the environmental business. “They’re engaged in either cleaning something up or advising companies how they can minimize the impact of a project,” says Youden. “People are already aware, and the kids coming out of school today think this way.”

The company-wide targets flow from a recent audit conducted on all 46 company offices worldwide, all part of the ambitious carbon-neutral plan. Audits are ongoing; any day now, Jacques should know where it stands in meeting its first set of targets. Youden suspects they’re actually going to beat them, not just meet them.

Youden describes his company’s progress as “no big home runs” but rather a lot of small base hits that have added up to big results—and big cost savings. Hence, the “think before you print” tags at the bottom of every e-mail and green teams in every office. The company is also working with suppliers to ensure that they meet its new business-model criteria. Says Youden: “What we do is, we go to our paper supplier and say, ‘We would like forest-certified paper. Give us some options. We would like recycled paper. Give us some options.’ Generally, their hearts are in the same place.”

There have also been discussions with furniture companies that specialize in desks and chairs that last 12 years instead of the typical five or six. When an employer is done with them, you ship them back to the company and they’ll be reused. Executives with the firm’s Saint John office will soon move into a building in that city bearing the highest LEED certification now available. The monthly rent will be higher, but energy costs will be lower. Youden insists that such moves make good business sense. Another example: About 40% of the company’s 160-vehicle fleet is now hybrid; eventually it will be 100%. Hybrids cost more to buy than regular cars but use less fuel, so over the life of the vehicle it costs only marginally more to run it.

Few choices are left unchallenged. When it comes to meetings, employees can no longer check into just any hotel. The company is very clear about what it expects, from sourcing local foods (organic, when possible) or selecting menus that don’t include strawberries imported from Chile in February. And access to public transit is playing a part in selecting new office locations— criteria that wasn’t on the agenda just a few years ago.