Go ahead . . . hug your planet. Everyday. · Apr 22 by Kurt Peterson
As some of you may have heard, today is indeed Earth Day. And I think it’s important to note that what was once just an afterthought of a “holiday,” Earth Day has now become, in the short course of just a year, a very popular day to exclaim one’s green-iness and ecological virtue. Trendy though it may be, I’ll go out on a limb to say—good!
It’s good to see all the hype surrounding Earth Day and the new importance placed on being “green” within many organizations, businesses, and even individuals. It’s become quite popular to plant the green flag of environmental sustainability, and we’re even seeing a marked improvement in large corporations doing their part.
Some of you may remember us mentioning in our Fall 2006 catalog when Blue Ridge took a moment to look in the mirror, and we didn’t exactly like what we saw. Jeff likened it to driving a hybrid and flicking a cigarette out the window.
So in the course of two years, we’ve made some improvements. Our catalog is now printed on FSC certified paper, and we use recycled paper in all our mailers and in our office. Our new store buildouts are more environmentally friendly. We offer an internship program called Greenfields, that gives employees a week’s paid leave to work for an environmental or community organization of their choice. Individually, our stores support many conservation organizations within their communities like the Rivanna Conservation Society in Charlottesville, the Piedmont Environmental Center in Greensboro, and the James River Association in Richmond to name a few. Corporately, we support the Access Fund and Appalachian Voices.
These are just some of the results from a little inner reflection. Is there more that Blue Ridge can do? Yes, and there always will be. We will continue to take new steps towards being a company our staff is proud to work for and our customers are proud to support themselves. And I encourage you to take your own steps of inner reflection and find out how you can learn to lessen your footprint.
Go out and enjoy your Earth Day. From now on, though, consider making every day an Earth Day.
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