Green practices at Sigler Companies began with the adoption of a few key business practices. In November 2007, Sigler Printing earned green printing certifications from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the two organizations which set the standards for responsible forest use, management and sustainability. In line with those certifications, green printing practices, like the use of more natural soy inks and concentric printing (which uses 25-35% less ink than the traditional process printing) helped bring the green bug to Sigler Companies as a whole.

Eco-friendly of the People, for the People

Sigler Companies has taken an original approach to its green business practices - it gave the power to the people. In early 2008, Sigler formed a Green Committee, an internal group charged with examining how the company could take more a sustainable approach to business, one person at a time.

Since its inception, the committee has helped change company practice and influenced co-workers to be more environmentally conscience.

A Starting Point

Green initiatives at Sigler Companies started with a "Be Green to Each Other" campaign. Elements included:

• Signage for recycling bins/desks/offices
• Tips/Facts about reducing waste posted at light switches, faucets and printers
• New organic apparel offerings for employees to order
• Energy audit at the 125,000 sq. ft. Sigler Printing/Signify production facility
• Lighting changes to minimize usage and improve the work environment
• Replacement of regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)
• Plates, glasses and silverware at each location to reduce waste

Focusing Our Green

The Green Committee has pinpointed 4 specific areas of concentration when implementing change: reducing, reusing, recycling and rethinking how we work.

Recycling:

• Company-wide recycling started in March of 2008. Paper recycle boxes were placed near every desk and have included toner cartridges, plastic, newspapers, cardboard and magazines. Recycling has become so widespread that pick-ups have increased to twice a week.
• Recycling is made available at every employee event possible. When events are off-site, Green Committee members collect and recycle items at local redemption centers.

Reusing:

• A Sigler Companies Recycle-A-Thon was held to celebrate Earth Day 2008. Over a one week period, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, eye glasses, magazines and more were collected to be reused throughout the community.

Reducing:

• Sigler used National Bike to Work Week to encourage employees to use alternative transportation (including bikes, buses and carpooling) to get to work for a week. More than 50 employees answered the call and participated.
• Sigler has committed to reducing the carbon footprint of its employees by purchasing and installing bike racks at specific locations.
• When new appliances are purchased, we purchase Energy Star-rated units to reduce energy consumption.
• Employees are also reducing the amount of plastic bottles entering the garbage by placing water purifiers on sinks to fill glasses and water bottles instead of drinking bottled water.
• Energy usage has been reduced with the utilization of low-energy wallpapers and screensavers on Sigler computers.
• Whenever possible, meetings between offices are performed via teleconference or video conference to reduce wasted fuel between locations.
• When employees do travel, they use company-owned cars and carpool when possible.

Rethinking:

• Our mission to spread the green is furthered by featured eco-friendly tips and ideas in our weekly employee publication (which is distributed electronically to minimize paper usage.)
• We're spreading the green gospel with additional education with the purchase of several topic-related books in our shared library, lunch and learns and other events.
• Green-minded employees have researched alternative office supplies, from copier paper to cleaning supplies, to replace less environmentally friendly choices.
• The Green Committees have leaders in each company location who spearhead local efforts for more sustainable practices companywide.

Fruits of our Labor

Our work toward being more sustainable is the number one goal, but awards are also nice. Some of them include:

• Mid America Recycling's Recycling Excellence Award (2 years). In 2007, Sigler conserved more than 903 tons of resources, a 35 percent increase from the previous year's 670 tons, and saved an equivalent of 15,000 trees, over six million gallons of water, nearly 53,000 pounds of air pollution, over three million kilowatt hours of electricity and nearly 3,000 cubic yards of landfill space.
• Des Moines Earth Day Trash Bash "Best Group Effort." Participation in events like this one helps support our green ideals. Once again, employees took the idea and ran with it which resulted in Sigler earning "Best Group Effort."
• Metro Waste Authority - Des Moines "Environmental Stewardship Award." - This honor was awarded to Sigler Companies for top-down recycling and waste-reduction efforts. Contributing factors for the award included the FSC and SFI certifications; electronic prepress equipment and processes that saves plates, paper and ink; ink-saving concentric printing process; soy ink usage instead of petroleum-based ink; and grassroots initiatives starting from the Green Committee.