REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE AT ICICLE!

As a trusted partner of leading brands, Icicle has always been committed to be socially responsible. All of us are trained to advise our clients on using sustainable materials and responsible sourcing.

Because it’s the clients who have the last say, we do our best to only influence and convince them to work in green ways.

However, we are fully committed to introduce sustainable practices in a position where we can make decisions for ourselves. Icicle makes a point to be environmentally conscious not only through our business, but also at our own offices by reducing, reusing, and recycling!

Environmental-Friendly Environment

We care about those little things that may seem trivial, but really do matter. With a recent renovation of our headquarter office in Hong Kong, Icicle has made a green change at our base.

We have completely knocked down all individual offices and partitions, which put everyone in one communal hall. Yes, it encourages face-to-face communication and strengthens teamwork.

But it also allows for sharing of resources amongst and between teams, which leads to a drastic decrease in the need to purchase unnecessary stationery and desk tools.

Regarding to energy conservation, Energy Saving Grade 1 Refrigerator is used at the office, saving 35%of electricity consumption. Energy savings light bulbs/lamps in the office and LED bulbs in the reception area are also placed. We are developing a gallery to display an array of sustainable paper for people to see how beautiful they are too!

In Hong Kong, it is inevitable to have the air conditioning going at most times, especially during the scorching hot summer. However, it is possible to have the air conditioning kept at not below 25C throughout the year. These signs around the office work as a reminder to keep our teams attentive.

Green-Zone

Lots of meetings are held at our office. Meetings equal using various materials. With that said, we encourage the use of biodegradable writing tools, rather than biros and pens that are often made with plastic.

At meetings and office parties, we only use glasses, pitchers, ceramic plates; no paper or plastic cutlery and crockery are allowed! These little things can be easy to miss – but it’s definitely not too hard to pay a little bit more attention to details.

Some may assume that our office is filled with numerous photocopiers and machines, but we have actually cut down the number of office photocopiers by 60%! We hope that by having fewer photocopiers around would discourage unnecessary printing.

More basic activities, such as turning off lights when leaving or powering off computers after office hours, have become daily habits within our workplace culture.

As part of our environmental initiatives inside our office, we also care for water efficiency. We make filtered water by purifier available in the office to reduce consumption of bottled water.

Think Green, Recycle

Icicle is part of “The Ricoh Toner Bottle and Cartridge Recycling Program” for our used toners of our photocopiers. The used toners are not thrown away as they can be cleaned and remanufactured as brand-new toner bottles at Ricoh’s factory. Good job, Ricoh, for offering this option.

Using lots of paper only made us more sensible about recycling – a recycling bin is located at lobby and copying area. Besides the two paper recycling bins, we have another huge recycling paper basket, resembling a cage, in the production area.

Every piece of paper collected in our office is designated to recycling. We are installing a set of recycling bins for paper, plastic, glass and metal in the main office area. There is so much more we can recycle, not just paper!

One new approach Icicle has recently done is putting out a collection bin for used batteries. They contain various chemicals that leave detrimental consequences for both our nature and us, human beings. Therefore, it is essential to properly recycle and dispose used batteries.

We are highly conscious about keeping our workplace green. Our culture supports every member to take initiatives and think greenly. But it’s not only here where this can all happen. It all starts with a small change to make a big difference anywhere. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!

Sylvia Han is the CSR Intern (2015-2016) of Icicle Group