Sustainability and the Impact of COVID 19

While the challenges presented by COVID 19 have been unprecedented, RIM’s Sustainability Group would like to highlight some of the positive sustainable outcomes we have witnessed within our firm. While it’s easy to understand how RIM’s carbon footprint has drastically decreased with less commutes to the office, less business travel, and a hunker down lifestyle, we were surprised to learn how our office supply use changed.

A few data estimates from each of our locations are described below.

Alaska’s office ordered 75% less supplies than budgeted for in 2020.
Hawaii’s office ordered 65% less supplies than 2019.
Guam’s office supply purchases were down 50% compared to 2019.
Tustin’s office supply usage is at 10% of their normal consumption.
San Francisco’s paper printing has gone down 95% on documents due to use of Bluebeam Revu.
Travel expenses for the Results Group saw a 69% decrease in 2020.

As we slowly return to the office and into the new normal or continue to work from home, how do we plan to improve our sustainable practices? Our accounting department in Hawaii has made an effort to go paperless with the majority of their files. Working from home without a printer has forced many of our staff to learn to use technology for redlines and other day-to-day office tasks. RIM intends to continue the trend of reducing our footprint in 2021 and beyond.