Green Program

In 2010 Lumenera launched its Green Initiative that included a Green Committee. This team is made up of individuals who are committed to helping and improving the environment and their community.

Lumenera is committed to promoting a “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” attitude within its culture and believes that every effort made by its employees counts. While continuing to initiate green-conscious initiatives, the Green Team also works hand-in-hand with Lumenera’s Community Spirit Committee to facilitate projects that encompass both giving back and recycling. These joint efforts have strengthened employee awareness while giving back to our community and have an element of recycling and reusing materials.

Our main goal is to reduce, reuse and recycle. Here are some of the ways in which we are taking action:

  • Lumenera staff participated in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup event in September 2011. The event was also registered with the City of Ottawa as part of Fall Cleanup the Capital, as the two initiatives coincided. Our location for the cleanup was a modest-sized public area and boat launch along the Rideau River known as Jock River Landing. It consists of a small grassy parking area with access to about 100 m of shoreline along both the western side of the Rideau River and the northern edge of the Jock River. Our results were tallied and submitted to the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup organization. They report that 2,235 km of shoreline was cleaned this year, with over 98,000 kg of litter being removed.
  • Lumenera piggybacks off the City of Ottawa's organic waste program as its industrial park does not currently have one in place. Employees have volunteered to be our "Organic Take Home" champions, recycling Lumenera organic waste by bringing it home for inclusion in their own green bins. The organic waste program not only helps reduce the amount of organic waste that goes into our regular garbage, but also reduces the amount of garbage collected as a whole. Lumenera composts approximately 160 bags of organic material each year from employees making daily conscious decisions to compost rather than simply throw organic waste into the garbage bins.
  • Every person in the building can help reduce energy consumption by keeping lights off during the daywhen they have sufficient natural light to work with, as well as turning lights and computers off when they leave. Lights in the copier rooms, kitchens, hallways, offices, etc. are turned off when the building is empty. Habits are easy to form and hard to break, but we continue to make progress!
  • Lumenera is working to reduce the amount of paper being used by encouraging employees to set their default printing preferences to double-sided, and to not print unnecessarily – every employee should ask themselves if it is really necessary to print prior to doing so.
  • Eliminating the use of styrofoam plates, opting for paper plates made from recycled materials. Additional metal cutlery has been purchased so that we rarely use plastic, however, some of our social events organized off-site do warrant the use of non-metal cutlery. We are looking into the purchase of biodegradable versions instead. Additionally, we are researching ways to recycle our styrofoam plates that come in with outside lunch orders.
  • The industrial park where Lumenera is located has a limited program for recycling corrugated cardboard. In 2008, Lumenera augmented the park's program by hiring a waste management company to recycle plastics, paper, non-corrugated cardboard, cans and glass.
  • Lumenera offers a book and magazine lending library in its luncheon area where employees donate reading materials that can then be enjoyed by fellow employees.
  • Lumenera is proud to have a green payroll: In an effort to support a paperless environment, we are pleased that the production and distribution of paper paystubs and HR forms was discontinued in 2012. Employees now use a secure online system to retrieve their pay records and submit forms such as vacation requests. This initiative not only saves the cost and time associated with tracking and distributing pay stubs and paper forms, but it also reduces the amount of paper and ink used for printing them. This is an ongoing initiative with long-term green benefits.

In addition to the above listed initiatives, Lumenera is also moving towards an increasingly environmentally friendly workplace wherever and whenever it can. The following products have been converted to environmentally friendly products:

  • Cleaning sprays
  • Surface wipes
  • Dish soap
  • Dishwasher soap
  • Bathroom sprays (recyclable only)
  • Napkins
  • Paper towels
  • Toilet paper