OREANDA-NEWS. January 17, 2011. Oranta in partnership with the Ukrainian Federation of Insurance (UFI) organized a training seminar dedicated to the implementation of the green office practices by the insurance companies of Ukraine. Among the experts of the seminar were Ms. Anna Danyluk, Private Sector Consultant of the UN Global Compact Network in Ukraine, Ms. Olena Maslyukovskaya, Senior Lecturer in Ecology of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ms. Julia Begma, Club A4 Coordinator of the Socially Responsible Business Community and Ms. Alexandra Afanasyeva, Head of Corporate Communications of Oranta.

During the event the participants learned about the benefits of the green office concept for the insurance companies, studied the practical examples of both the Ukrainian and the international experience on how to   equipe the eco-efficient offices, to save the resources and to obtain the image of the environmentally friendly companies.

According to Olena Maslyukovskaya, today the Ukrainian companies do not have a systematic approach to evaluating the effectiveness of the green office practices. Based on a study conducted by the UN Global Compact with the financial support Oranta in 2009, the most common activities undertaken by the majority of companies that declare their allegiance to the principles of green office is the collection of waste paper and re-use of the printed paper, the refill of printer and copier cartridges, setting up the computers in sleep mode and disabling the inactive office equipment at night (economical power consumption).

More "advanced" companies in there programs are beginning to invest in the energy saving technologies, such as energy saving lamps, new plumbing, replacing the old office equipment with the new, more energy-efficient, as well as introducing the electronic document management, teleconferencing etc. The study shows that only a small number of the most progressive "green" companies take systemic measures such as installing software for the preservation of the resources, ecologically friendly procurement, installation of the equipment for the automatic control of lighting, etc.

The necessity to monitor and analyze the effectiveness of the costs allocated to the green office programs is required by the need of the economic justification of these practices for the senior executives of the companies. This is especially important for the non-production sectors, such as insurance, where the companies' activities do not directly affect the environment, and due to this fact have a lack of public pressure from the media, NGOs and other public sector organizations. For this reason, the importance of the strategic vision of the management is difficult to overestimate.

The first step Oranta made towards the popularization and dissemination of the environmentally friendly practices in the company was gaining the support of the senior management and establishing of the initiative group of employees responsible for the green office program implementation. "In large companies the successful implementation of the green office depends primarily on the attitude of the top management," - commented Ms. Alexandra Afanasyeva, - "if your project gets the "green light" from the senior executives, a serious attitude to the project is guaranteed from all company services whose activities are directly related to the effective implementation of the green office, for example, the Administrative or the HR service, as well as from the general employees, who are implementing the program of green office in their routine by saving the resources, etc. "

According to the Director-General of the Ukrainian Federation of Insurance, Ms. Galina Tretyakova, it is only a matter of time when the number of the insurers who are socially and environmentally responsible attains critical mass. "The Federation as a professional organization is ready to show by example to the market participants how easy it is to start the practice of the green office. We are already practicing the collection of the used office paper and today we decided to join the Club A4", commented Ms. Tretyakova.

As the result of the training workshop the participating companies came to the conclusion that the implementation of the principles of the green office does not depend on the scope of the business, company's size or financial condition. The philosophy of the green office is not only to prove company's socially responsible attitude to the environment, but also is an effective mechanism for the cost saving in the long term perspective, which is especially important now in the period of the economic recession. It is also an important element of the corporate culture based on caring about the environment, which in turn increases the loyalty of the employees.