For Justin Tubero, President of Alliance Disaster Kleenup (Wheeling, IL), the commitment to “go green” all boils down to one word: legacy.
“With more and more toxins leaching into our lakes, oceans and water supply, air pollution is still a major problem in our country’s urban centers,” he says. “(With) fossil fuels being the most detrimental source of pollutants, I feel as a company that we can do our part to not add to this growing issue.”
But while Alliance Disaster Kleenup is currently in the midst of carrying out and implementing more eco-friendly initiatives, they’ve found it to be a lot harder than what they originally thought. Back in 2011, the company laid out sustainability initiatives to implement throughout its day-to-day operations. So far, they’ve acted on three main things: alternative fuel, chemicals and recycling.
Tubero said his management team currently has a goal in place to have all its vehicles running on alternative fuel by 2016. They’ve also researched – and have begun implementing – greener chemicals into every day operations.
“When looking at our cleaning agents, we deemed that we use thousands of gallons of chemicals in our company and only a few were actually ‘green,’” Tubero says.
Additionally, Alliance Disaster Kleenup conducted a paper ream productivity survey in order to calculate the amount of paper each employee uses and what it was costing.
“I was pretty much floored by the result,” Tubero says. “With the vast amount of paper that our company uses due to the nature of our industry, we immediately instituted a full recycling program within our company and, wherever possible, we have gone paperless.”
The effort to recycle and conserve more paper has also led to a greater effort to sort and recycle discarded building materials on projects. This initiative actually came from the company’s 30 staff members.
“The most impactful statement that made me agree with this goal was (to) think about how good it will feel to see carpet removed from a location being picked up for recycling rather than rolled up and tossed,” Tubero says. “How can you argue with that kind of simple logic?”
Through DKI, Alliance Disaster Kleenup has been certified as a “Green Risk Professional Firm” by Vale Training Solutions. Currently, they’re searching for more ways to become “greener” and plan to begin communicating their green initiatives to clients throughout the rest of 2014 as well as in the years to come.
“How can we not act responsibly when given the opportunity do so?” Tubero asks. “That’s why we’ve focused on being a greener company.”
Note:
“Restorer’s Perspective” is an occasional feature highlighting how a company is flourishing in a particular area of restoration and/or remediation. If you have a success story you’d like to share with the industry, e-mail R&R Editor Eric Fish at fishe@bnpmedia.com.
