Section 3: Preventing Waste for Customers
Narrator
 Involving customers in the waste prevention process can reap dividends for the environment and for the bottom line.
Norm Thompson Catalog Representative
Thanks for callling Norm Thompson. My name is Anna how can I help you? Okay now since one of the items that you ordered is not in stock today we'd like to do is ship them all together when it does arrive. This is convenient for you because you only receive one box with all of your items. And it helps us reduce our environmental impact by minimizing packaging material and conserving energy used to ship items. You'd like to do that then?
Great …that's what we'll do.We'll ship all your items together….
Derek Smith-Norm Thompson
We did some quick calculations and we found the one event of packaging including the material cost., the labor cost and shipping cost of putting a package together actually costs us $8.00. So anything you can do to reduce the number of events …packaging events will save…contribute directly to the bottom line. We figured out that if we hit a 20 percent goal…one out of five opportunities to do that…annualize that will contribute over three hundred thousand dollars directly to our bottom line.
Narrator
With operations internationally, Wilsonville-based Mentor Graphics keeps an eye on the waste prevention possibilities of new media.
Roger Williams-Mentor Graphics
No too many years ago for a set up of a computer this was the documentation required. It was in excess of a hundred pounds to ship it to a customer. Customers with multiple systems would receive multiple copies. Thus it could result in pallets of documentation and manuals going to a customer. Today this is what we ship it has three three ring binders and media.
Narrator
With about 3,000 members, First Alternative keeps an eye on the waste it sends home with the groceries.
Jonathan Carroll-First Alternative Grocery
At First Alternative we try to promote the use of non-paper bags. We do this
in a couple of ways. We have canvas bags we supply at cost for
people to use. We also have a bag lending program. A volunteer
has made bags out of recycled curtains and other fabrics. And
people can use these reuse bags if they forget their canvas bags.
And we also give people a nickel off for every bag they reuse
for their groceries.
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