Alright, here's the thing.

I'd like to collect some information on the whole Environmental sustainability thing. I know CSR is a very broad subject that has a lot of aspects to it, but for the purpose of this I'd like to focus on the environmental side.

Why?
I did my thesis on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), and it's gotten me interested in the subject.

In what way interested?
Not in the "let's be green in everything and talk and talk and save trees and destroy cars" way, but in a smart, responsible way that doesn't negatively affect our way of life.

What do I want?
There's so much out there in this field, and 90% of it is bulls**t. There's just too much nonsense going on and people doing stupid things.
I'd like to see what REAL things are out there and what the real movements are.

Do any of you have anything to share on this subject?

I'm assuming in your thread that CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility? It's not clear in your post because you seem to be talking about the average Joe in his everyday life and not about how companies approach environmental concerns.

Many of the projects I am part of follow USGBC/LEED certification and outlines. Much information there.

Yes, I meant Corporate Social Responsiblity.

Well my focus (in my head) at the moment is on the way a company does it, but office style. So what do companies do in the office to "make a difference". I often question these green things, as often they just don't make sense.

For example recycled paper. Sometimes using recycled paper is worse than using regular paper for the simple fact that more energy goes into recycling the paper than just buying paper from a company that compensates with new trees. -A simple example, but I think it proves where my concerns come in.

Yes I care about the corporate view, but that's a different discussion altogether.

Thanks for the link. I know the LEED certification, but I've never seen this site, which is quite ironic. I'll have a look at that a bit.

I know many offices that have a "paperless environment". Is this the type of thing you're talking about?

Yup this is a huge topic. Two areas of interest to myself are reducing plastic waste (check out the pacific garbage dump) the other is how our ewaste is recycled (check out ewaste recycle in china videos)

I keep clicking this thinking it's going to be something else.

*scurries away*

If you're saving paper, you're saving trees. I've actually helped convert a few offices over to more electronic forms of documents from e-mail instead of written notes or simply using the network to pass files instead of printing and sending the paper itself.

I don't know how much benefit it has over a day, but a day at a time, a month at a time, a year at a time and if those same practices I left in place ten years ago are still around... that's a Great deal of paper.

Paperless is hard, often counterproductive. Finding ways to smartly reduce your use of it can add productivity and benefit the environment.

Small things add up I guess.