The Sunpower solar energy generation graph for this past month shows that March had its bright and sunny days. I missed about two weeks of March in the SF Bay Area spending time with my Adobe colleagues and public sector customers in Brussels, Paris and London.
More often than not, the subject of paper reduction and green would come up in my discussions. The conversation generally starts with a tour of the department or agency followed by a demonstration of a technology solution which was an essential components to an overall change in operations. In each agency’s own manner, they would have estimated the business case for such a transformational change which required leadership, vision and much pragmatic compromises. Hard dollars are saved, staff saw productivity gains…and of course amongst the calculations, paper savings and fossil fuel consumption would poke its head through.
The impact that public agencies can have on the environment make my efforts seem like a speck of sand on the beach. I still see my contribution as important as there are billions of households in the world and minor changes by each can have inspirational impact overall. However, this impact is aggregated in government agencies that serve millions of citizens. Numbers calculated include tens of billions of sheets of paper and in one instance, about 500 truckloads of paper every year because of a stipulation in a law that was written when one could only conceive of information traveling on sheets of paper. Thankfully there is no reference to stone tablets that I know of!
It was good to see that amongst the goals of improving services and productivity, the number of trees saved a year by many of these agencies were also being calculated. To think I have a small part of this effort advising agencies and sharing best practices I see in my travels around the world is very satisfying.
While I was doing this in Europe, the rose bushes, trees and plants in both our front and back yard decided to start sprouting new leaves and branches so that by the time I arrived home, the rose bushes that were practically bare when I left had a full head of leaves.
It will only be a matter of time before we see roses in full bloom, the lemon tree loaded in bountiful fruit and birds start crowding into our water fountains.
