14 2012 Corporate Social Responsibility Report Gr eening our Of fce Space In 2012 a r elocation of some employees fr om our T or onto of fce to Peel Region pr ovided an opportunity to incorporate mor e envir onmentally sustainable materials and practices into the workplace In setting up our new Erin Mills location we used r ecycled paint installed carpet made fr om nearly 40 r ecycled content and used sustainable cork fooring in the kitchen ar ea W e actively pr omote r ecycling at all of our locations and managed to fll 99 gr een shr edder bins and 20 r ecycling bins with paper during the r elocation to Peel Region W e also donated binders to a local school and r ecycled the metal fr om old IT equipment Paper Consumption Paper manufacturing is an energyintensive undertaking that uses numer ous r esour ces including tr ees chemicals energy and water OCW A is keenly awar e of the need to conserve these r esour ces which is why we only use r ecycled paper and encourage doublesided printing and r ecycling W e also implemented a new printing system in our head of fce in T or onto that helped us r educe the amount of paper we consumed by 246 W e also encourage our employees to use laptops and tablets to view materials in meetings r educing the need to print documents OCW A s Boar d of Dir ectors r ecently implemented paperless meetings and Executive Management T eam meetings will be paperless in early 2013 Reducing our Carbon Footprint W e encourage our employees to engage in activities that help to mitigate the harmful ef fects of climate change Although we do not yet have an established carbon footprint measur e we have implemented initiatives to help minimize our impact Over the last several years we invested in videoconfer encing equipment at our hub of fces acr oss the Pr ovince r educing the need for employees to travel to meetings W e ar e also adding mor e hybrid vehicles to our feet and r ecently implemented an antiidling policy to help r educe our fuel consumption and gr eenhouse gas emissions Energy Management The Ontario Power Authority OP A has agr eed to pr ovide OCW A with funding to implement energy saving plans and initiatives in the coming years In 2013 the Agency will undertake 20 to 30 energy audit r eviews at OCW Arun facilities and help our clients implement the fndings of the audits For the past thr ee years OCW A has been working with APGNeur os and a number of our clients to optimize their wastewater facilities using mor e energy ef fcient turbo blowers and fne bubble membrane systems instead of conventional blower and aeration systems Energy savings of up to 50 have been r eported as well as r educed maintenance costs for the equipment and lower gr eenhouse gas emissions T urbo blowers are more energy effcient than conventional blowers Envir onmental Sustainability T r ee planting OCW A has a long history of envir onmental stewar dship As part of our commitment to the envir onment in 2012 our employees participated in two tr eeplanting events In Brantfor d employees demonstrated their horticultural skills by helping to plant appr oximately 300 tr ees as part of the celebrations for the New For est in the City Earth Day event W est Highland Hub staf f and family members also participated in the Shelbur ne Community T r ee Plant