Go Ahead Tours 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 recently become a green building. In fact, the EF Center has recently been recognized by the city for its “innovative and creative energy conservations.”

Some of the initiatives that we have taken at Go Ahead include:

• 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.
• Purchasing environmentally friendly office supplies, such as toner, cleaning supplies and other materials. Also purchase recycled and “post-consumer waste” products, such as stationery, packaging materials, paper towels and other kitchen and bathroom supplies.
• Reducing the amount of copy paper by increasing our email communication, reusing paper and by exclusively using double-sided printing, and also reducing the use of toner and ink with the next generation of copiers.
• Reminding employees and staff to shut down computers and monitors when leaving the office.
• Improving recycling efforts (including paper, plastic, glass, can, electronics and waste water) by 10 percent—a total of 67 percent of Go Ahead’s total waste tonnage is now recycled. Also encouraging employees and staff to use reusable plates, cups and utensils to reduce waste.
• Working to attain as high as possible a rating in the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 reduce our impact on the environment.