Greater Vancouver Community Services Society

Greater Vancouver Community Services Society is a non-profit agency that provides home support services and community living services in Vancouver, Richmond and North Vancouver.

Laura Johnson, HR and Operations Officer at GVCSS, provides her perspectives on why the agency is measuring and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.

Why has GVCSS decided to track and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions?

At GVCSS, we believe that being an ethical organization means being environmentally responsible. While we have taken action to decrease our impact on the environment, such as adopting a paperless technology (CellTrak) in our Home Support program, we decided to track and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in order to further improve our efforts. Tracking emissions with GobiSoft gives us the metrics we need to see where we stand in terms of our environmental impact and where we can make improvements.  

What specific actions has your business taken or planned to reduce its emissions to date?

This year, GVCSS created a Green Team, an employee-run committee devoted to meeting our sustainability objectives. In 2011, our Green Team has identified and implemented the following actions to reduce our emissions throughout our organization: in our Community Living residences we have installed energy efficient furnaces, low-flow shower heads and adjusted toilet water flows. We also have a staff education program to encourage turning lights off when not in use and only running clothing and dishwashers when they are full.

At Head Office, we are currently running a staff challenge to reduce paper usage. Our goal is to bring down paper use by at least 10% this quarter. To do this, we have switched our printer’s default setting to two-sided printing, encouraged staff to limit their printing of documents and emails, and have made our newsletter available through electronic distribution. Both Head Office and our residences have recycling programs in place. 

In 2012, we plan to continue targeting our sustainability objectives. We aim to further reduce paper use and review other stationary supplies usage at Head Office and the residences. In Community Living, we will be issuing a staff challenge to reduce electricity usage.

What benefits do you see from tracking and reducing greenhouse gases?

Tracking and reducing greenhouse gases quantifies our environmental responsibility, it allows us to measure our success. By watching the numbers go down, we have black and white proof that our actions are making a difference.

Tracking and reducing our greenhouse gases also benefits us fiscally. For example, the actions we are taking to reduce electricity and paper usage also result in lower expenditures for these resources. So not only are reducing our carbon footprint, we are also reducing our costs. Our organization benefits, and so does the environment.

Why did your business choose the Gobi tool for managing its emissions?

GVCSS chose GobiSOFT for several reasons. Firstly, it comes highly recommended with an impressive list of current users. Secondly, it is easy to use. Entering data and pulling reports is a very straightforward process, and the reports themselves are comprehensive and capture the information we need. Finally, in addition to the tool itself, Gobi offers support and guidance which has been really key for us. We were just at the beginning stages of our sustainability initiative when we started with GobiSOFT. The Gobi team worked closely with us to help us identify our objectives and move to action. This was a very important component of our service package with Gobi.