EF Education has taken great strides over the past few years to reduce its environmental impact on the planet.

Our North American headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., has been designated a “green” building. In fact, EF Center has recently been recognized by the City Council for our “innovative and creative energy conservations,” and EF recently earned the Go Green Award from Cambridge for our energy initiatives.

Some of the initiatives that we have taken at EF Education First include:

• Launching a $2 million energy efficiency improvement project on our 10-story, 250,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters in Cambridge. The project is expected to reduce energy usage by 2.9 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and 63,000 therms of natural gas. Overall greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
• Reducing energy consumption by more than 50 percent and lowering electricity usage by more than 60 percent, primarily due to a new energy-efficient air-conditioning system.
• Installing a new lighting system that includes low-wattage light bulbs and electronic motion sensors.
• Installing energy-efficient appliances in the kitchens, and electronic faucets and energy-efficient air dryers in the bathrooms.
• Improving recycling efforts (including paper, plastic, glass, can, electronics and waste water) by 17 percent—a total of 75 percent of EF’s total waste tonnage is now recycled.
• Assessing the feasibility of adding wind turbines and solar arrays to further reduce electricity usage and installing a grey water recycling system to reduce our total water usage by as much as 50 percent.
• Reducing the amount of copy paper by increasing our email communication and by exclusively using double-sided printing, and also reducing the use of toner and ink with the next generation of copiers.
• Printing day-by-day itineraries (for all of EF Educational Tours’ group leaders and travelers) on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. The FSC Mixed Sources product comes from well-managed forests, controlled sources and recycled wood or fiber. For more information about the Forest Stewardship Council, visit www.fsc.org.
• Applying for certification of our U.S. headquarters building under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Existing Buildings program.
• Creating a “Green Team” consisting of EF employees and managers, a regular program to raise company awareness and employee involvement in our environmental efforts at work and at home.
  

Amazingly, all of this work has been performed to our existing building while occupied without disturbing or affecting our daily work.

We are doing everything we can to positively affect the environment, and we are continually looking for additional ways to save energy and reduce our impact on the environment.

To find ways that you can reduce your environmental impact, including offsetting air travel, please visit the following websites:

Natural Resources Defense Council »
Clean Air-Cool Planet »
TerraPass »
Climate Care »
Energy Hog »