Environmental Leader

Recently, the president of Chicago’s Paylocity, a payroll-services firm, sent an email to the company’s 157 employees asking for volunteers for a “green team,” The Chicago Tribune reports. The 14 spots on the green team were filled 5 minutes after the email landed in employees’ mailboxes.

The leader of Paylocity’s green team spends two to five hours a week on the company’s clock, plus some of his own time, researching environmental projects and conducting green-team business. The team meets once a week for about an hour.

To help reduce carbon contributions, the green team found 55 employees who agreed to work at home one to four days a week. Averaged over a year, the work-at-home program will save 15,287 gallons of gas and 804.6 barrels of oil and keep 305,740 pounds of carbon from entering the atmosphere.

In addition, the team has applied to the “Adopt A Highway” program, is looking for quickly biodegradable plates and napkins, as well as fair-trade coffee, to stock the company lunchroom, is encouraging car pooling, and plans an internal recycling program for glass, plastic and aluminum.

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