This is the first in a series of stories about local companies working to make a difference in our community and abroad. If you have a story about your company that you’d like to share, send it with images to kristi@encoreatlanta.com.
Being a publisher of printed magazines like the one you’re holding in your hand, Atlanta Metropolitan Publishing (AMP) and its employees are very aware of paper, particularly its cost and impact on the environment. So it was only natural that the company would start looking at ways to reduce the amount used in the office and recycle the rest.
In spring 2008, after running several articles about how to green meetings and events for Encore Atlanta’s sister publication Plan Your Meetings, the management team decided it was time to start operating more sustainably. “We wanted our company, because it’s small and family owned, to be able to walk the talk,” remembers Chief Administrative Officer Claudia Madigan. “We wanted to mirror our editorial within our office.”
The first step was to form an internal “green team” that brainstormed about ways AMP could reduce, reuse and recycle materials. The team created corporate policies and best practices that were communicated to all employees. Over the next several months, the disposable plates, cups and silverware were replaced with reusable ones from the local Goodwill; the job of taking glass, paper, aluminum and tin to the Morgan Falls recycling center was added to the list of kitchen sign-up duties; and harsh cleansers were replaced with more eco-friendly options. In the first year, 230 gallons of plastic, glass and metals were diverted from landfill, thanks to the recycling initiative, as well as countless bins of office paper, cardboard and magazines. And there was a profit-enhancing side effect: Reusing event materials such as signage and name badges, bringing office supplies to off-site Plan Your Meetings events, proofreading digital rather than printed copies of Encore Atlanta and printing double-sided whenever possible not only reduced the amount of waste the company produced, it also saved the company money.
And it inspired the employees to think about broadening their scope of corporate responsibility, from paper to people. At a culinary-themed Plan Your Meetings event in July 2008, AMP encouraged attendees to bring canned food and exhibitors to recycle leftover food from displays they brought to the trade show floor. The response was enthusiastic and unexpected: More than 240 pounds of food was raised and donated to the Atlanta Community Food Bank during a time when most people aren’t thinking about feeding the hungry.
At the start of 2009, AMP’s management team proposed adopting both a local and a global charity to support on a more regular basis. Encore Atlanta Publisher Sherry White suggested UNICEF be the global charity of choice. “UNICEF has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world, and that was my personal draw, being a mother,” White says. She joined the board of the charity, and AMP became advocates of the organization, both through exposure given in Encore Atlanta and donation stations, which they set up at all Plan Your Meetings events.
“UNICEF has a Web site called Inspired Gifts, and it’s allowed us to really make a difference,” White says. “You may think, ‘With $200, what can you do?’ But for $257, [on the site] you can buy a school in a box that helps UNICEF set up a temporary school in times of emergency … For $28, you can buy polio vaccine; $67.79 buys water purification tablets that can purify 50,000 liters of water; and for $80, you can buy oral rehydration salts. Every day, approximately 3,500 children a day die of dehydration. That’s what I love about the Inspired Gifts Web site: You can spend money and truly see what its impact is.” With money raised at Plan Your Meetings events, AMP has been able to purchase multiple measles vaccinations (measles kill more than 600 children every day in developing nations) and support UNICEF’s relief work in Haiti.
“It’s been perfect to be a part of a company that’s not only so supportive of my work on the UNICEF board, but is really doing something about it and figuring out how we can get all aspects of the company involved in how we can help,” White says.
For its local charity, Madigan proposed AMP adopt the Dorothy Benson Senior Center, which is around the corner from the company’s headquarters in Sandy Springs. “It fit into the lives of our employees because everyone can relate to a senior center; we all have grandparents,” she says. “They have recreational, educational and social programs. We participated in the St. Patrick’s Day luncheon this year and served up to 200 seniors. As a company, we signed up to do the set-up and decorating, serve lunch and clean up. Our employees were extremely proud of what they were doing and the seniors … were fascinated that we came out and did that.”
Going forward, Madigan says, she hopes to find at least one day of service activity for AMP employees to participate in each quarter. And the company continues to look for ways it can improve operations and minimize its environmental impact by partnering with like-minded small businesses. For example, Encore Atlanta’s printer, the Auburn, Ala.-based Craftmaster Printers Inc., is a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) “chain-of-custody” certified printer, which means that they support the highest level of industry conservation, responsible management and community-level benefits for people who live near the forests where FSC-certified paper is sustainably grown and harvested. Working for planet, people and profit — that’s something everyone can feel good about.
For more information about Atlanta Metropolitan Publishing Inc., visit encoreatlanta.com/core-values.
