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At GTM Payroll Services, we have made the commitment to sustainability and implementing these initiatives throughout the office inspired by many of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. (SDGS).
By 2030, the United Nations aims to accomplish all 17 of its SDGs. In the past, these sustainability initiatives have primarily seen growth throughout private sector non-profits and organizations.
With less than eight years to meet those goals, environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions must transcend intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations such as the UN and its subsidiaries and gain an increased presence in the businesses that make up much of the private sector.
Corporate Sustainability at GTM Payroll
At GTM, we are working to bring corporate sustainability to our business and serve as a model for other local companies in the Capital Region.
In 2019, GTM Payroll Services’ founder and CEO Guy Maddalone attended the International Entrepreneurial Summit hosted by the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) and held at the United Nations. The interactive summit gathered entrepreneurs to discuss how to spark change on a smaller scale in their local communities, specifically in supporting four of the 17 UN SDGs including quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, and decent work and economic growth.
Following Maddalone’s involvement in the summit, sustainability initiatives were implemented at GTM’s offices in Clifton Park and Glens Falls, including paper-saving solutions.
The Push for Paperless Payroll
The push for paperless payroll started in February 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Before this, GTM’s wrap-up room, which is responsible for most of the printing in the office, bought, on average, eight boxes of paper per month. Since the push for paperless payroll, this has been reduced to five boxes per month. This savings of three boxes of paper per month saves roughly 15,000 pieces of paper.
GTM’s paper-saving solution includes:
- paperless checks
- a push to direct deposit
- web-based vouchers, check stubs, reports, and W-2s
- inclusion of isolved services, which allows for all employee onboarding to be completed online
At the start of this initiative, about five percent of GTM clients requested paper reports each week. On average these businesses requested 40 reports of around 20 pages each. Since then, 88% of these clients switched to paperless, which drastically decreased the amount of paper waste that came out of the wrap-up room every week.
We encourage all organizations to consider the shift to paperless payroll and become involved in the push for sustainability and decreasing paper waste.
Reducing Single-use Plastic
To limit the amount of single-use plastic, there are water filter systems throughout the office, making it easy for employees to use reusable water bottles. If there is a need for one-time water bottles, Just Water and Boxed Water are available.
Recycling efforts cannot be missed in the office. Bins – information on what can and cannot be recycled – are located throughout the building, in the kitchen area, by coffee machine stations, and throughout all workspaces. The wrap-up room, responsible for most of the printing and payroll shipping to clients, has added additional recycling efforts for confidential information and paperwork.
Paper Recycling and More
The service 3N allows for the destruction of confidential documents in an environmentally friendly way. The company collects the bins from offices, shreds the papers, and sends them to a paper mill which hydro pulps the papers to be recycled. This helps the wrap-up team effectively push recycling efforts. The paper in the office is either recycled by traditional methods or through 3N. Alongside paper recycling efforts, we have begun to properly recycle old laptops and monitors through this service to help reduce the excess of harmful chemicals and materials in the environment
The Impact of COVID-19
Although these initiatives have begun to make a change at GTM’s office, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic presented a setback in terms of one-time plastic use such as plastic utensils. After the one-time-use plastics that were purchased at the height of the pandemic are used up, GTM’s Sustainability Committee plans to order biodegradable cutlery for office use. Even with a limited amount of plastic utensils available in the office, we employees are encouraged to bring their own reusable utensils.
Supporting Local Farms
With our partnership with Hayner Farms, GTM Payroll supports farms in our community and promotes sustainable agriculture. Our fresh produce initiative provides fruits and vegetables for employees each week throughout the summer.
Corporate Sustainability at Your Company
Have you discussed corporate sustainability with your employees? Pushed for sustainable changes from paper-saving initiatives and increasing the number of recyclables in the office? There are plenty of other solutions inspired by the 17 SDGs.
By implementing these changes, your business will be on track to achieving corporate sustainability and doing your part in acting locally to help make global change.
