As establishing environmentally conscious corporate policies and ideals becomes a standing priority for many organizations across Canada in 2020, Admiral Halifax has ensured it is remaining focused on its efforts to run a large office, sustainably.

Our Green Committee hit the ground running in early 2020 with the employee driven group holding its first monthly meetings aimed at creating new initiatives that can benefit the environmental footprint of the Halifax site.

With a large office space, being conscious of ways we can improve overall environmental mindfulness is the main goal of the newly formed committee.

“Where we are a larger company and (have) a fairly large presence in the community here in Halifax, we thought it was kind of our duty to reduce our environmental impact,” co-chair Nevan Dowe said.

Dowe leads the Green Committee of six volunteer employees along with Kirk Desrosiers. Both were motivated to spearhead the group given their day-to-day roles in the Facilities department where they are reminded of the various usage needs that comes from running an office of close to 500 staff.  

While getting the committee off the ground in January was benefitted by the suggestions and knowledge passed down by Admiral Halifax’s sister sites in the UK, the local committee remains focused on ways to improve the Halifax site specifically.

“We want people to be able to approach (our committee) members. We want them to know who the members are so they can come to us if they have any questions or concerns,” Dowe added.  

Member Heather Fraser says there are several new ideas being explored by the committee, in addition to implementations made by Facilities team before the Green Committee formally came together.

“We are looking to reduce the amount of lighting that we use. We stopped using disposable cutlery.  We even installed low-flow toilets in the bathroom,” Fraser mentioned of the committee’s successes thus far and what they’ll be focusing on in the short term.

She notes that any steps an organization like Admiral can take to mitigate its impact on the environment, will ultimately lead to positives in the long run, on a larger scale.

“How do we reduce the amount of paper that we use? How do we reduce our electricity consumption that reduces our impact on our province as a whole?” Fraser contemplates.

The Green Committee meets on the second Thursday of every month. Employees are encouraged to speak to the team’s co-chairs to raise a suggestion.