Earlier this week, the Portland Business Journal published an article about fellow Oregon companies who have signed the Ceres BICEP Climate Declaration, a nonpartisan statement from the business community asserting that “tackling climate change is one of America’s greatest economic opportunities of the 21st Century.” We’re excited to see this list continue to grow. We signed the Climate Declaration on Earth Day earlier this year to affirm our commitment to a Sustainable future. 

At Emerge, we believe that sustainability goes far beyond the triple bottom line and is a catalyst for the next era of unprecedented economic, social and environmental innovation. Companies like Unilever, Microsoft, Patagonia, and Starbucks have also signed the declaration in support of all businesses taking a stand in lowering emissions & waste, and generally acting in the interest of the planet. We call it Corporate Courage. Here are a few ways we are accomplishing our goals:

• 70% of our team members walk or bike to work, use public transportation or telecommute. Besides being healthier and less stressful than sitting in traffic, it cuts back on pollution and gas consumption. And honking.
• Carbon offsets cool our electricity and fuel use, and we buy renewable energy credits for the servers that power our clients’ websites 24/7. These sites support wind farm construction.
• We diligently recycle our metals, plastics, and glass–and we minimize paper waste. As a digital experience company, we prefer to keep our files in the cloud and our PDFs on the screen.
• When you have a natural light source, why block it? Our office has eight skylights that let nature’s light bulb do its thing. We keep the lights off from Spring to early Fall, saving energy and cutting bulb waste.
• Learn more about our Citizenship and other goals at http://emergeinteractive.com/about.

If you are interested in signing the climate declaration, you can visit their website at http://www.ceres.org/bicep/climate-declaration.