Our Green Policy

At The Employers' Choice Inc., we believe that our success as a business relies firmly upon our ability to deliver meaningful services to our clients, at the right time, at the right place, and at the right cost. We believe that as an organization known for best practices, we owe it to ourselves, our clients, and the communities we serve to focus on how best to provide high quality, real time services that address the broader concerns faced by the world today.

To this end, we are taking major steps to change the way we produce our services and work products. We believe that in doing so we will be able to provide services that are innovative, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective. We see our role as not only finding ways to provide "greener" services, but also to focus on the overall health and well-being of the very people we serve.

Our commitment to our policy involves:

Education and Social Responsibility

• Establishing a guiding policy which gives our clients and potential clients an understanding of the reasons behind the structure of our services and to encourage dialogue to find new ways to support our "green" practices;
• Choosing suppliers that are known for providing environmentally-conscious products and for instituting green management practices; and
• Maintaining this policy from the perspective of continuous improvement and updating it as new information on environmental efficiency becomes available.

Expanding Technology Use

• Expanding the use of technology to decrease the time it takes to respond to client needs and also to produce our work products;
• Expanding the use of technology where face-to-face meetings are not required, including arranging for conference calls, web meetings, and videoconferencing;
• Creating webinars and pod-casts for training to minimize travel for participants;
• Creating web-based and self-guided learning tools; and
• Improving our remote access and electronic storage capabilities.

Encouraging Work-Life Balance

• Encouraging flex or work-from-home arrangements with our team where it is feasible and appropriate to do so (e.g. to improve time management, the quality of work, and to reduce costs);
• Encouraging effective project management by discussing roles and responsibilities, timelines and other aspects of the project plan before the commencement of a project in order to avoid creating unnecessary stress and potential waste;
• Monitoring each consultant's client file volumes to ensure they are manageable and discouraging practices which may conflict with this policy (e.g. increased hard or soft costs due to last-minute delivery, etc.); and
• Establishing regular routines/practices for managing e-mail so as not to contribute to the proliferation of e-mail as a time-waster.

Reducing the Environmental Impact of Vehicles

• Arranging for on-site meetings at clients before or after rush hour;
• Reducing the number of days per week that we travel to client sites by scheduling multiple meetings on the same day, in order to reduce the volume of traffic on the roads;
• Maintaining our vehicles to avoid unnecessary emissions and to improve gas mileage; and
• Encouraging carpooling where feasible.

Reducing Waste

• Enhancing our website for easier access and thereby reducing our reliance on paper-based marketing materials;
• Offering materials electronically instead of on paper;
• Converting our paper-based surveys to web-based formats where appropriate;
• Printing all training documents in double-sided formats;
• Reducing our reliance on couriering original documents by improving the quality of our scanning technology;
• Selecting support materials which are reusable such as:
  • Name tags;
  • White boards;
  • Pop-up signage; and
  • Reusable cups and plates;
• Avoiding using bottled water; and
• Maintaining an effective recycling program.

Reducing Energy Usage

• Monitoring the temperature of our offices especially during peak hours;
• Switching to low wattage, energy-efficient lighting in our offices and home office spaces; and
• Turning off lights and computers when not in use.

Ultimately, we are committed to addressing environmental considerations at every stage of the provision of our services and we will include environmental factors to guide our decision-making.