Brent Barbara, one of my colleagues at M5, posted this blog on “Being More Green” back in September challenging all of us to take a few small actions to help the environment.
I winterized my apartment in Brooklyn, but to be brutally honest, that was more about not freezing my arse off than going green.
We all have opportunities to dramatically change the way we do everyday tasks. To make change stick though, it needs to be good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end.
Richard Aguinaldo, the M5 Controller, has wanted to stop sending thousands of paper invoices for years now. M5 has a client portal and our invoices were posted there. So, to rise to Brent’s challenge, Rich and I decided to stop sending paper invoices to our clients.
We’ve contacted over 1700 clients. 20 requested to continue damaging the environment (aka send me a paper bill please). One pointed out that he still has to send payment back through the mail, so we weren’t helping the environment at all. Ahem.
The immediate impact of this decision will be 1700+ less deliveries next month. A day and a half of tedious and mind-numbing printing and envelope stuffing will be reduced to half an hour. And customers will receive their bills on average 2 days more quickly than they did before. A two day improvement in cash collections will make my co-conspirator Rich very happy. We also noticed that our Service Portal was very busy after we made the announcement that M5 was Going Green.
Whether this initiative is good in the middle and good in the end will remain to be seen.
It sure feels good going green.
February 28, 2010 at 8:31 pm |
There’s certainly The Ripple Effect of Going Green http://www.rickywong.com/home/2010/2/24/the-ripple-effect-of-going-green.html