Employees at Bell Canada participate in the organization’s National Tree Day planting events with Tree Canada.Supplied
Joel Butler has long had a personal interest in environmental issues. So, when the local waste management commission in Saint John, N.B., announced a composting program, he and his fellow employees of Bell Canada started their own grassroots initiative aimed at recycling organic waste.
Such employee-led initiatives are an integral part of Bell’s long-standing commitment to environmental protection. “We have green teams that are organized around online collaboration,” says Butler, senior manager, corporate responsibility and environment. “We want people to share their ideas. When we can support them, we create programs that run across the country.”
Bell has been setting corporate environmental sustainability goals for three decades, says Butler, adding that the corporate responsibility team reports annually on the company’s progress. “We were the first communications company in North America to set up an ISO-certified environmental management system.”
The company’s business units work collaboratively to ensure that environmental objectives are met, says Sunny Saini, a project manager with Bell’s network technology services. “We look into our equipment and explore opportunities to reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions,” he says.
Last year, for example, network technology services replaced conventional heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units used to protect sensitive equipment inside shelters at the foot of 50 cellphone towers in Nova Scotia.
The company installed what are known as free cooling units, which led to substantial savings in energy consumption. “HVAC systems were typically consuming over 2.3 kilowatt-hours of hydro per site,” says Saini. “We reduced hydro consumption to about 0.35 kilowatt-hours per site. We estimate that we reduced CO2 emissions from those sites by 500 tons annually.”
Bell also works with vendors and suppliers as part of its responsible procurement program. “Any time we onboard a new supplier or sign a new contract with an existing supplier, we put them through a process where we analyze their organization and the products they’re supplying,” says Butler.
“When it comes to plastics,” he adds, “we want to make sure that they are locally recyclable, and we want to minimize packaging. It’s about reducing waste and ensuring that they do not contain hazardous materials.”
Bell is also making changes at some of its larger office locations to reduce energy costs. The company has more than a dozen reflective roofs on buildings in urban centres. “The roofs reflect sunlight, lowering the temperature inside the buildings and reducing the cost of keeping the building at the right temperature.” says Butler.
Bell has also eliminated bottled water in some buildings in favour of filtered tap water, which eliminated the need to refrigerate bottled water 24 hours a day, says Butler.
As well, the company has partnered with Tree Canada to support the organization’s National Tree Day, which is held every September. Bell donates money to help cover the cost of tree planting events and employee volunteers plant trees in a few cities across the country.
“Employees wanted to get involved in planting trees in their local communities,” says Butler. “We thought it was a great idea because trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and they help cool the environment.”
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Advertising feature produced by Canada’s Top 100 Employers, a division of Mediacorp Canada Inc. The Globe and Mail’s editorial department was not involved.