environment

It's important to make our customers blissfully happy with their order, to pay our bills on time, and make sure our staff is happy. But there is more to the bottom line than happy customers, money, and happy staff. We must also do our part to preserve our planet for our children's children, so they can enjoy the pleasures of life as well. So we established environmental goals in our mission statement and got to work greening our business:

• In 2008, My Own Labels joined 1% for the Planet. Today we contribute to the land conservation organizations of the Nature Conservancy of Oregon and Western Rivers Conservancy. Our interest is to increase lands set aside for wildlife ecosystems. Our special interest is the Zumwalt Prairie in Eastern Oregon, just north of the Wallowa Mountains, and the John Day River in Northern Oregon.
  
• The My Own Labels building became LEED Certified - silver!! - in 2010, improving energy and water efficiency, waste management, green cleaning, and on-site wildlife habitat.
• Outdoors, some of our ornamental landscaping has been converted into a staff community garden, to encourage "superlocal" food production and gardening fun. We use a system of three compost bins for yard debris, and a worm bin to compost food scraps from the lunch room. To control roof runoff, we built rain gardens. Rain now runs down a little creek on the property, then into a plant-filled low area where it absorbs into the earth, watering the plants, instead of running into the street and down the storm drains.
• We added plenty of bicycle parking, including a covered area outdoors for five bikes, two indoor spots, and enough bike bollards out front for six more. Ten more indoor bike hooks are coming by the end of the summer. We also provide a 'company bike' for staff to borrow for short trips during the day.
• As a U.S. EPA Energy Star Partner, we've pledged to work with Energy Star to reduce our energy use. In line with this committment, an internal Energy Team tracks energy use and masterminds energy reduction strategies that the whole company can get behind.
• In day-to-day maintenance and operations, we use products that are re-usable. Specifically, we avoid plastic and paper products as much as possible - this means no paper towels, and no paper or plastic cleaning products. Use cloth towels for cleaning; white towels for surfaces, windows, railings, counters, etc., blue towels for floor spot-cleaning and dirty jobs. For floors, use a floor wet-mop and dust mop with a wood handle and a cotton yarn head.
• No chemical cleaning products, no bleach. Use natural disinfectants, especially vinegar-and-water and ammonia-and-water.
• No disposable products in the kitchen - no paper plates, paper cups, paper bowls, plastic forks, spoons etc. The only exception is paper napkins. Instead, use real plates, glasses, mugs and flatware, and use a dishwasher daily.
• Avoid buying tea in plastic pouches.
• No paper towels. Each staff member is provided with three towels, clearly marked as theirs by pattern and color, which are hung at a row of hooks in each bathroom and at the kitchen sink. Staff bring their towels home to wash.
• Thermostats are monitored quarterly to be sure they are operating in unison and in accordance with the need of the season. Temperature is turned down after hours to the minimum required for equipment needs.
• Thirteen skylights in the main building allow for natural light. As a result, most overhead lights are off except for specific task lighting. The skylights have summer covers to deflect heat during hot days. The covers deflect 70% of the sunlight which allows for ample suffused light, but protects from the heat.
• Windows are openable for ventilation and fresh air.
• Rolling doors are adjustable to control the amount of heat and sunlight coming into the building in the summer.
• Deciduous trees are planted in the front (the south face) of the building for shade and cooling in the summer, and in the winter with the leaves gone, to allow light and warmth in.
• Electric is powered 100% by wind when wind is available from the power company.
• The truck driveway alongside the building, used by the previous owner as access to the back parking lot, has been converted to a garden with a stone path, a fifty-foot arbor along the wall for climbing hydrangea, corsican mint and sedum ground cover, native Oregon grape and vine maple, and a bench in a secluded corner for staff breaks.
• Packaging - a goal of ZERO PLASTIC in our packaging is close to being met, at 98% plastic-free today. Shipping boxes and envelopes are 100% paper except for the plastic pull tab on envelopes, and tape is paper with water-soluble adhesive. The remaining challenge is to find a replacement for fiberglass-reinforced paper tape (fiberglass does not compost). Boxes for coasters and cards are made of 100% paper.
• Our products are as much as possible earth-friendly in their creation and their disposal. Unfortunately, the only adhesive that works for peel-and-stick labels is petroleum based, and the carrier sheet (the bottom layer which the peel and stick labels are adhered to) must be coated with silicone in order for the labels to stay on securely and come off when they are peeled. There is no alternative to silicone at present, but we are constantly looking for new developments.
• We use recycled products wherever possible. Tags and coasters are printed on 30% recycled paper. Cards are printed on 10% recycled paper and the white card stock is FSE certified. Pub-style coasters are 100% recyclable and biodegradable and the material is PEFC certified.