Ashforth held its 1st Environmental Awareness Week (April 20 – 27) to promote sustainability, conservation and awareness at its owned buildings – 707 Summer Street and Stamford Square in Stamford, CT and Greenwich Plaza in Greenwich CT.

They kicked off the week with their annual Nike Reuse-A-Shoe Drive that was held at these properties and two other third-party managed properties in Fairfield County. The program encourages tenants and their employees to bring in athletic shoes they no longer use that in turn are grounded up and separated into useful materials. Nike partners with industry-leading surfacing companies to turn the ground-up materials into playgrounds and sport surfaces such as soccer and football fields.

On Earth Day, April 22nd, Ashforth held a free e-cycling drive at just its owned buildings. The drive gave everyone working at the buildings the opportunity to bring in electronics from home such as computers, TVs, PDAs and other similar items that are typically costly to recycle. Those who collected contributed to keeping 2,585 lbs of hazardous waste out of landfills; the total collected from all three buildings. Hazardous waste often leaches out into ground water, contaminating drinking supplies.

Ashforth uses WeRecycle!, Inc at its buildings for regular recycling pick-ups. WeRecycle! partnered with Ashforth for this event and provided special recycling containers and pick-ups times as well as discounted Ashforth’s typically monthly rate for this collection.

“Our Awareness Week turned out to be quite successful and we are particularly impressed with the amount of e-recyclables collected. There is only so much a building owner can do independently to recycle and reduce waste so we are very pleased with the tremendous support of our tenants and their employees,” said Brian Heelan, senior vice president and director of operations for Albert B. Ashforth, Inc. – Management Services, a division of The Ashforth Company.

Another component of the week included a gently used book drive. Nearly 700 books for all ages were collected and donated to The Ferguson Library located in Stamford.

In addition, an education awareness table was placed in the building lobbies to help promote the event and feature local sustainable companies and education literature. MetroPool even provided postcards that promote commuting options. The cards are infused with wildflower seeds and can be planted. Each building held a raffle for a “green” basket which held an assortment of sustainable items including eco-friendly household cleaners, CFL light bulbs and recyclable lawn leaf bags.

In May 2008, Ashforth was the first in New England and the first in Fairfield County, CT to adopt BOMA International’s (Building Owners and Managers Association) Market Transformation Energy Plan and 7-Point Challenge. The challenge was launched in July 2007 to reduce energy consumption used in commercial buildings by 30 percent by 2012.