limelight: Le Moyne College Greening Le Moyne!
Michael Sgro, Assistant Director for Marketing & Family Programs at Le Moyne College
 At Le Moyne College, we understand the importance of eco-awareness and are continually looking for ways to up the environmental consciousness in our office. With “going green” on the mind of many, we realize that taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint not only saves the environment, but also helps us build even greater relationships with our alumni.
Many of our green initiatives have been focused on gathering new e-mail addresses for our alumni and parent communities. From a business standpoint, gathering these working e-mails saves us thousands of dollars a year on print and mailing charges.
Read more about Le Moyne's green campaign.
blog: Green matters to donorsBuilding Relationships, One E-mail or Recycled Postcard at a Time
Part 1: Research shows being green matters to donors
Preserving the environment…cutting down on direct mail costs…creating a more sustainable operation in your organization... If these aren’t compelling enough reasons to adopt earth-friendly policies in your office, then take notice. Going green can create more meaningful relationships with your constituents and ultimately boost donations. Just how big of an effect does going green have on your relationships with donors? Research shows — quite a big one.
A 2009 Mintel study found that, in general, nonprofit donors place a significantly higher importance on preserving the environment than the average American who doesn’t donate. Nearly 70 percent of donors believe that packaging and direct mail should be recycled, and more than half believe that people (and organizations) have a social responsibility to use recycled products.1
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news: Sizzler goes greeniModules goes green to cool global warming and heat up Sizzler
iModules staff and clients enjoyed some local Kansas City BBQ and three jam-packed days of captivating presentations, discussions, and hands-on help at the third annual iModules Summer Sizzler user conference. And, continuing the commitment to our green initiative, iModules took some noteworthy steps to host a more environment-friendly conference.
Read the details about our greener Summer Sizzler.
news: iModules’ green initiativeIntroducing a new, improved, and greener iModules
 This spring marked the kick-start of our green initiative here at iModules. So far, the progress has been exceptional as employees are taking part in a number of different activities to be more environmentally friendly in the office. iModules’ new Green Committee, a 12-member team in charge of the initiative, has been very busy developing new ways for our organization to “go green.” Our most recent progress includes a reorganizing our recycling process; getting rid of all paper, plastic, and Styrofoam in the kitchen; and using 100% recycled paper in all of our print media.
Read more about what iModules is doing to go green.
blog: Green alumni officesBeginning with an internal audit
Mike McCamon, iModules Marketing Consultant
 More and more organizations are re-examining long-standing practices when it comes to consuming natural resources as part of their day-to-day business. This trend is impacting the way many view air travel, commuting to work every day, what some eat, and for some alumni and admissions offices, how much paper they ship out the back door.
Withstanding definitive research on the topic, I would suggest admissions and alumni relations to be the two departments at educational institutions who have the greatest carbon imprint. These activities have normally included an aggressive outreach effort to solicit commitment to your institution. For decades the proven strategies of these offices have been the handshake and the envelope.
Think there's not a problem? Look at the facts. Industry-wide, 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce direct mail. Creating and shipping direct mail produces more greenhouse gas emissions than 2.8 million cars. And finally what about the beloved printed alumni paper directory? Using published statistics from a single vendor in the education market, I estimate its print directory business alone destroys at least 120,000 mature trees each year and would fill 227 shipping containers with paper. Development, advancement, alumni and admissions offices of today are well positioned to become best of class examples of efficient modernization and automation by reducing their carbon imprint and being good stewards of our planet. But where do you start? Just raising your offices' consciousness of the problem is the first step.
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