the cost of consuming

We ran out of our lovely orange pens this month. We were just going to order a load more but started to wonder if going through around 2000 plastic pens every 6 months really was in fitting with our EP.

We wanted to keep having them though as they're so useful and people seem to really like them, so we found some cardboard versions. There are so many "eco" pens out there made from, amonst other things: recycled CD cases, recycled car tyres, recycled money (I really liked this one) and corn starch. We decided on the carboard ones in the end as they can easily be recycled themselves (and to be honest were a bit cheaper than some others).

We also had to order some new staff clothing this month and, as we have come to do for most new purchases, wondered where the clothing came from, who made it and was it made with consideration for the environment? Our suppliers, Continental Clothing do an "earth positive" range which is 100% organic and 90% lower CO2 so we thought we'd give that a go.

Calling in the experts

Some solutions are fairly obvious when it comes to conserving energy: turn off light switches, switch off computers, close the door to keep out the cold etc but some things are more tricky. Even more so with our Grade 2* listed building that lets in rain and cold through the skylights in winter... and manages to keep it warm and humid in the summer. Helpful.

We do have a few building features that will help us be cooler in summer and warmer in winter such as a huge roof, tall towers creating draughts and nice thick walls but we can't radically alter the look of the building or original features due to our heritage listing. For these reasons we have asked a few people to help us with greening our building. We've commissioned an Energy Options Survey from Fulcrum (a founding member of the UK Green Building Council) and appointed our architects Cook Townsend to project manage the building work.

Hopefully when the building work is done, we'll not only have a building that is much more energy efficient, we'll also have a nicer space in which to climb and work.