The green initiative goals of MMSA include the following:

1) Reducing our paper usage and paper waste by 10%. These are the steps we are taking to work towards this goal:

• We are monitoring the amount of paper we order.
• We are using a local Maine company to pick up our paper waste for shredding and recycling.
• We are reducing handouts at conferences in favor of posting materials on our website.
• We are printing on both sides of the paper and/or printing two pages per side.
• We are printing fewer documents, asking ourselves if a hard copy really necessary.
• We are using a white board rather than chart paper whenever feasible.

2) Reducing our electricity consumption by 10%. This will be trickier to monitor since we share our building with 2 other companies. An individual electric meter may be an option. These are the steps we are taking to reduce our electricity usage:

• We have worked with Maine Energy Education Program (MEEP) and Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and conducted a Greenhouse Gas Survey. We will continue to monitor this quarterly and post on the green page of our website.
• Each desk has a power strip/surge protector with the electrical devises plugged into it. These include computer towers, monitors, printers, laptops, cell phones, etc. The power strip/surge protector are located in easily accessible places and we turn them off at the end of each work day.
• Printers in the mail area are on a power strip and the last person leaving the building each evening turns it off.
• We push the “energy saver” button on the copier when we are done our copying. We will not shut the copier down at the end of the day because it causes major issues.

3) Other areas that MMSA is addressing–

• We have stopped the delivery of plastic water cups that accompany the water bubbler.
• We are using a compost container to collect food waste such as vegetable peelings, fruit, coffee grounds, pasta, and bread products. It is located under the kitchen sink and employees take turns taking it home to their family compost piles.
• We have a large box in the kitchen for the packing materials that comes in packages. Employees are free to take and use these supplies.
• We collect and recycle paper, plastic, glass bottles, and yogurt containers.
• We have included an area on our MMSA website which states our conservation efforts.