SME Earth Chat: Go Green with Intimex

2021-04-30| Daisy Chow, Intimex Business Solutions Co Ltd

According to a 2020 report by the United Nations, the number of natural disasters in the world during the past 20 years, has substantially doubled compared with the previous 20 years due to climate change. Going green may be a short-term trend, but in recent years, rising environmental concerns and the widespread success of green enterprises show that companies will do better as a whole by investing more time and resources in sustainable development plans and also bring more positive impacts on the community. As an IT company, Intimex hopes to take this precious opportunity to explain how our company uses our IT products and internal measures to add green elements on the external and internal levels.

Going paperless to protect the forest

One of our partners, Lions Clubs International, adopted our online form system RegnPay instead of traditional paper forms to register personal information for participants while holding large-scale events, such as social service volunteer work activities. Apart from greatly reducing paper usage and manpower time, this system also fully supports cashless payment and reduces receipts containing toxic chemicals that are most immediately throw away. In addition, our TRANSIN smart savings wealth management platform and BuyDong online shopping platform can simplify the traditional shopping process, complete complicated procedures such as invoices, quotations, and signatures in one step, and reduce the use of ink and paper by going paperless.

Intimex also promotes itself as a green company through different social media and voluntary services to let others know that the company emphasises heavily on the environment and encourage customers and citizens to not only care about social issues but also to protect our beloved Hong Kong and contribute to our planet.

Intimex has signed various environmental protection agreements and certificates. In the past, we have obtained the " Excellence Level of Wastewi$e Certificate ". As an IT company, paper is indeed an important resource to us and is part of our daily costs. Through a series of office waste reduction measures, we have gone paperless. In addition, paper documents occupy office space. Compared to using computers, when colleagues need to go through paper documents, it affects the company's operating efficiency and greatly increases administrative costs.

By controlling the amount of paper used, the printing limit, and even the number of pages printed by departments and individuals, can reduce the amount of paper and ink used to achieve better environmental protection. In addition, the printer's scanning function makes it easier for employees to share documents and no longer has to rely on mass printing and distribution, and the security has increased a lot as well. All these have helped Intimex to establish a positive environmentally friendly image and achieve social responsibility for the company. Other green companies can also enjoy the benefits of being environmentally friendly and achieve the vision of sustainable development.

Saving energy by zoning lighting and air-con systems

Intimex also adopts several measures to save energy and reduce emission. The control of indoor lighting and air- conditioning systems is facilitated through zoning office space. By turning off the lighting and air-conditioning in unused areas, electricity can be saved more effectively. For office lighting, conventional light tubes have been replaced by LED tubes which have higher efficiency. As a result, we can turn on fewer lights and have a more efficient lighting distribution. For instance, a group of lights has three tubes, and only one tube is on, so electricity consumption and bill are reduced.

In response to the Action Blue Sky by the Environmental Protection Department, we have set the air conditioning temperature at 25.5∘C to avoid electricity wastage. Furthermore, Intimex has participated in the different environmental campaign by the government. For example, we have joined the "Smoking Cessation Programme in Workplace” for several years. We encouraging employees to quit smoking and pay attention to healthy living, smoke-free workplaces, and maintain good indoor air quality.

Intimex promotes a circular economy by recycling toner & ink cartridges, setting up waste separation bins, distributing consumables through the administration department only, recycling used computers and purchasing secondhand electrical appliances. During anniversary activities and exhibitions, we properly handle and recycle used decorations, display boards and other materials. All staff members have to comply with waste collection and recycling schemes. For example, we only serve water only with recyclable cups during meetings with clients. SMS and email will be prioritized to promote paperless communication. Since every product we purchase will eventually become waste, we make decisions carefully and prioritize products made of environmentally friendly materials. 

To conclude, as one small-sized enterprise striving for sustainable development, we hope that in the near future, different sectors in different positions could work together with Friends of the Earth (HK) to live a green life, with environmental protection as a major goal and principle.

Article source：friends of the earth SME Earth Chat

https://foe.org.hk/NewsDetail.aspx?md=20000&mid=20000&cid=207&id=1815&pgid=1