Company Green Maps

The charting of the ecology of corporate work-spaces is a relatively new phenomenon. Green Maps made by companies first appeared in Asia in 2005. Created as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, these maps are mostly intended for use in-house to help the company's staff and management make progress toward more sustainable workplace practices. Usually, both indoor and outdoor areas are charted. Overall, the goal of the process is greater personal involvement and tangible improvements in workplace environmental health, resource and energy efficiency.

The first Green Map charting an office was made by corporate staff at Ricoh, an office machine company, in Nagoya Japan in 2005. An original concept of Tomio Shibagaki, a manager in Ricoh’s CSR Department, this small but important map was presented at the Green Map exhibit at Aichi EXPO 2005 and at CSR conferences in Japan. See it online here.

This pilot concept was taken up next by a Taiwanese company that introduced it in all their facilities world-wide! Guided by a network of Green Mapmakers based at Taipei’s Society of Wilderness and Vincent Chen from the company’s foundation, employees at Delta Electronics created several energy-oriented Green Maps charting corporate facilities and factories in Taiwan and China in 2006. Five Green Maps were published and distributed through the company’s special 35th Anniversary packs. The benefits were noted:

"...our colleagues enjoyed a collective creative experience completely different from their everyday work. At the same time, through on-site inspections of each factory, they were able to fully explore their work environment and discover green areas they had never noticed before...” Bruce Cheng, Chairman, Delta Electronics, Taiwan

In 2007, this effort is continuing in Delta’s global factories and corporate campuses. They have even created an animated e-learning tool that extends the principles of environmental care and sustainability discovered in the workplace to the home and communities of Delta's 50,000 staff members! Green Map System’s Director will visit the Delta Electronics facility in Tongli China in June, and plans for additional CSR Green Mapmaking will be developed.

If you are interested in starting a Green Map project in your company, and you already have a sustainability and CSR program underway, we invite you to read over the Mapmakers Registration information, taking note of the special considerations that apply to these projects.

If company Green Mapmaking seems like a compelling first step that you would like to take toward becoming a green(er) business, please contact us. More information on CSR practices can be found through the following links:

Ceres

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (good case studies!)

CSR in the UK

Coop America

Business Ethics Magazine

More at these Ecolinks

Business involvement in sustainability is of central importance!