ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & ENERGY USE

Continually Evolving

We are committed to monitoring and improving our environmental performance, reducing environmental impacts, incorporating environmental factors into business decisions, and increasing employee awareness and training. The same attention to detail that we apply in the design process is brought to bear on every aspect of our operation, so that our actions can match our values. We have established rigorous environmental goals that comply with and exceed all relevant regulatory requirements.

In practice, this means that we want to reduce our reliance on plastic. We are working to eliminate use of plastic in our shipping materials by choosing alternatives for bubble wrap and other plastic lined materials. We are also requesting that vendors move away from plastic and styrofoam when they ship to us. When we do need to use plastic, we seek to treat it carefully as reusable material.

As far as our daily practices in the offices and studio, we are moving towards changing our daily behavior and habits to reduce our own individual impact - from replacing a plastic water system with a Berkey Water Filter that sustainably filters tap water to eliminating the use of single use plastic food utensils and containers. We are reaching out to urge outside food vendors to move to recyclable and compostable containers. We are examining all paper-packaging materials to make sure they are made from recyclable or compostable materials. At the same time, we are generally moving to reduce use of paper in favor of keeping purely digital files. We also manage our studio’s energy consumption with attention to temperature control and an eye toward supplying all the required elements of our work – such as AC units, copiers and printers, kitchen appliances, etc. – with efficient and environmentally friendly products wherever possible.

Given its carbon intensity, we restrict our transportation to necessary trips only, and when we can, we rely on e-mail or video conferencing to communicate with our extended network of vendors, artisans, and clients around the world. When local travel is required, TSC employees make every effort to travel on foot, use public transportation or bicycles. Just as with our office devices, when we must rent or lease vehicles, we opt for ‘green' vehicles whenever possible.