As we advise on sustainability, we take the subject seriously for ourselves. Below, we’ve outlined the steps we’ve taken and hope to take in the near future. We welcome feedback (negative as well as positive) on our approach.
Recycling & Re-use
Our ‘desks’ are doors made of FSC-certified timber and recyclable steel saw-horses. Every desk and work-station has a recycling bin next to it. We recycle paper, plastic (#1, #2, #4, #5, #6), aluminum, grocery bags, batteries, coat hangers, ink cartridges, CFLs, cork, coffee bags, potato chip & snack bar wrappers, cellphones and electronics waste. We have a Goodwill station in Studio for donation and charitable resale of personal items.
We use 100% post-consumer recycled paper for all our printing and copying. We re-use our paper, printing on both sides (simple but having a 50% impact in efficiency). We use whiteboards and digital cameras rather than flip charts where possible.
Our stationary is 100% PCW, manufactured with hydroelectricity generated on-site at the French Mill on the bank of the St. Joe River, avoiding the use of fossil fuels and an estimated 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, by French Paper Company. It’s also really pretty. If you receive a package from us, there’s a good chance it will be in a re-used mailing box from Staples or Amazon. Forgive the re-use. We’re not just being cheap…
Bottled water is not available in the studio. We provide filtered water and reusable Sigg water bottles.
Our bathrooms and kitchens are stocked with 7th Generation cleaning and paper products. Our cleaning service, River City Cleaners, uses only non-toxic cleaning agents and travels here by bike (hardcore, we know).
Cardboard tubes, paper grocery bags, egg cartons, shoe boxes, #3-7 non-recyclable plastics are all collected and dropped at the local Childrens Museum Art Studio for kids to use as art materials.
organics & composting
The fruit we purchase to feed the grazing team at the Studio is purchased from our local Farmers Market.
Our in-office coffee is fair trade and organic, from locally-owned Blanchard’s Coffee Company.
We have switched to burning 100% natural soy candles in the studio purchased from Pure Light Candles at the South of the James market here in RVA. Soy is a great alternative to paraffin wax candles since they are created from a renewable material.
We have just switched to our visitor chocolate bowl with Endangered Species Chocolates.
When catering for workshops or client meetings, we purchase locally grown food from local caterers wherever possible and serve on reusable or compostable serverware.
Our catering waste and coffee grinds, along with shredded confidential documents, compostable serverware and used paper towels from kitchen and bathrooms, are all composted.
ENERGY & TRAVEL
We carbon offset our flights and car rentals.
We’re corporate members of Zipcar, a proven, holistic transportation program for business (and personal) travel which results in our reduced use of rental cars while traveling on business in the US and Europe. When shuttling around in NY we like to use OZO Car Service, New York’s first hybrid private car service. To tote clients around RVA, we call up BioTaxi, a fleet of converted cars fueled by recycled fryer grease or Groome Taxi’s hybrid fleet.
Our studio is in a downtown urban location, ensuring a low average commute for our team. The studio is conveniently located three blocks from Richmond Main Street Station, providing direct rail links to Washington DC and New York. You’ll frequently see our team shuttling by Amtrak between our studio in RVA and our NY footprint in Jersey City. We offset our rail travel, as well. Richmond is now served by Megabus (luxury, wifi coach-service) from Main Street Station, with direct service to D.C. and Raleigh, NC.
We also finally have a bike cupboard located in the studio so that all of our cyclists can safely store their ride at work. We offer subsidized gym membership, providing showers for our bike-commuters a block away from the Studio. We also have shower/changing facilities in the Frontier Apartment above the Studio (assuming Manoush or Kirsten aren’t in town from NY…).
The Studio is lit with CFL energy-efficient lighting and we use rechargeable batteries for the all electronic equipment. We utilize LED-powered computer monitors (they use less than 50% of the power required by LCD monitors.)
We can now open the windows in the new space allowing us to take advantage of the natural ventilation provided by nature when the Richmond climate allows. While, sadly, we’re not responsible for the energy provider in our building, on evenings and weekends all blinds are closed and A/C / heat shut down for energy black out. We have a “white-roof” to our building, reflecting all those heat-rays rather than air-conditioning them away.
Urban Regeneration
We’re vested and committed to our downtown neighborhood in Richmond. Our Studio is based in a converted warehouse in the Shockoe Bottom neighborhood – an urban, regenerating neighborhood.
Social Projects
We aim to apply 15% of our chargeable consulting time to social pro-bono projects.
We integrate social projects as business challenges for our corporate programs, allowing non-profits to benefit from corporate learning resources and corporate executives to benefit from working on real issues instead of hypothetical business cases.
Frontier Sessions
Read about upcoming and past sessions here. From one of those Frontier Sessions came the idea for River City Reads, a community “book club” that we now sponsor.
An Evening With…
Our series of public discussions with renowned thought-leaders across business, arts and politics. For each we partner with a non-profit who then benefits from the proceeds of the event.
Community Art
The walls of our studio showcase the work of local artists. We rotate exhibitions every few months (and encourage clients to purchase any piece they love from the artist).
If you would like to view any of the work featured in the studio, throw a line to Bailey at bailey@thefrontierproject.com.
On the list for improvement…
Installing ceiling fans to reduce air conditioning and heating use. Moving to renewable energy sources (we’re slowly working on our landlord on that one). Persuading Zipcar to place a car in our neighborhood.
If you think of something that will improve your experience with Frontier, or if you have any criticisms, please email Carra.
