CMHA: Sustainability Overview

Our earth was endowed with a seemingly endless supply of natural resources that have sustained life on this planet for millions of years. However, we have learned that these resources are not endless and we all must change our patterns in the consumption of these resources to ensure that we continue to meet our needs, and more importantly, ensure that our future generations are able to meet their needs. This pattern of conservation is called sustainability.

CMHA through its Energy Performance Contract took a huge step toward sustainabilty by reducing its consumption of water, electric, and natural gas. Now, we are looking a recycling initiative which will further reduce our environmental footprint and move us further towards becoming a truly sustainable organization.

Annually, CMHA hauls approximately 10,000 tons or 20,000,000 pounds of trash to a landfill. Much of that trash consists of material that could be recycled. It is our goal to significantly reduce the amount of material going to the landfill by diverting those materials that can be recycled to facilities which will process them and ship them to various manufacturers for reuse. It is estimated that it takes 50% less energy to produce products from recycled material than it does to produce those same products from raw materials.

To begin this landfill diversion process, in 2008, CMHA initiated the recycling of paper and corrugated cardboard at all of its administrative offices and at its residential high-rise apartment buildings with the residents. To date, our employees and residents have recycled over 100 tons of paper.

We accomplished this by first running a recycling pilot at six of our administrative offices. We teamed with a national recycling company called Caraustar, who provided us with 96 gallon collection paper recycling bins which when filled are transported to their facility processing and pickup by various manufacturers to be recycled to make products such as paper towels, tissues, and greeting cards. Recycling also provides us with a variable income stream as Caraustar pays us market price for the paper, and we avoid landfill tipping fees.

Each pilot office chose a “Green Team” person. They had the responsibility to communicate and support the program, and to make sure that their co-workers were “tossing in” the right materials into their desk side collection bins. We placed larger 23 gallon "Slim Jim" collection bins at our fax and copier stations and at strategic locations in our offices to collect not only paper, but also newspapers and magazines.

It is important to note that CMHA continues to follow established record retention policies, and continues to safeguard the confidential information provided by our applicants, residents, and employees by destroying documents which contain sensitive information.

Once the pilot ran smoothly, we introduced it at all of our administrative offices. We then met with our residents and asked them to join us in this effort. They responded by pitching in their paper, junk mail, newspapers, and magazines.

We are looking into ways to expand our recycling to include other office and household waste. There are a number of ideas under consideration and we will keep you updated as we move forward.

The idea of sustainability has five major tenets, reuse, recycle, respect, reduce, and rethink. An example of rethinking how we do things was a recent major change in the type of chemicals used by our custodial staff in the cleaning of our buildings.

CMHA worked with State Industrial Products to pilot a new line of “eco-friendly” cleaning agents. Their new line of non-petroleum based biodegradable products is called “Ecolution”. These concentrated products are mixed with water in an automated proportioning station. The mixed product is dispensed into reusable spray bottles or directly into mop buckets. In addition to this system being very economical it has virtually eliminated waste in the form of packaging.

The Ecolution system has proven to work as well as or better than the old petroleum based products. It has resulted in a safer environment for our employees and residents. We are now moving to convert all of our buildings to this new system.

We have made a good start, but we have a lot of work ahead to attain our goal of becoming a truly sustainable organization. We are committed to that end.

CMHA and Community Housing Solutions (CHS) collaborated on a partnership to insulate and weatherize a number of family units and freestanding homes. CHS provided the funding for this comprehensive energy conservation program that addresses the interior and exterior environments of the building, and the operating efficiency of the furnaces and the hot water heaters. CHS first performed an audit of the property to develop the scope of work. Then they assessed the operational efficiency of the furnaces and water heaters. CMHA and CHS made the residents’ homes more comfortable, while at the same time reducing energy costs. CHS will work with CMHA on this project throughout 2010, concentrating on family-unit clusters and freestanding scattered site homes.

Water, essential to support all forms of life is abundant on earth as 75% of the earth’s surface is covered by water. However, we must do our part to conserve and protect it, as the water we have, is all we have, and it is constantly being stressed by population and environmental issues.

As we meet our current energy needs from the earth’s natural resources, we must realize that the supply is not infinite. We must think about the needs of our children and their children.

Children frolicking in new Splash Parks which have been constructed at CMHA’s Woodhill, Outhwaite, Cedar, and Riverside Park family-unit properties.

CMHA, Central Distribution employee, Eric Sorrels stands by as our truck loaded with cardboard is checked in and weighed at Caraustar.

Eric unloads the cardboard. The truck will be weighed again and difference in the loaded and unloaded weight will be the cardboard for which CMHA will be paid by Caraustar.

These bins called Otto’s, are on wheels which make it easy to move them even when filled to their capacity of over 200 lbs.

"Slim Jims" - These containers are ideal because they come with lids that suggest to the user what is being collected. The slotted lid shown discourages anything other than office paper, newsprint, and magazines from being put inside. Another lid with circular openings is available to suggest that bottles and cans are desired. As their name suggests, they fit into tight spaces.

Personnel from each pilot site location volunteered to act as the point person for this initiative. Their responsibilities include communication, education and enforcement.

These small boxes are being provided to all office personnel. The box itself made from recycled cardboard. Our maintnenace staff will periodically collect the paper from these boxes and transfer it to the 96 gallon bins.

The city has a program to collect all recyclables in these containers. They may be an option for capturing recyclables at our family unit properties.