Climate action is defined by the Oxford’s Learner Dictionary as “The act of doing something to reduce or stop climate change and prevent serious permanent damage to the environment.”  

It includes all measures, big and small. 

Here on this blog and on BOAVISTA’s website you have read (and will read more, I assure you) about how using our windows helps saving the world and how we tackle climate change by producing more efficient, durable and sustainable windows. We also compensate for the CO2 emissions that we cannot avoid by planting trees in the portuguese forest. 

But sustainability is not only about industrial and design actions. We have also incorporated the mission into our daily lives: 

We have banned disposable plastic/ paper cups. We have available actual glass and ceramic glasses, cups and mugs. For daily use and also for special events (remember those good old days when we used to invite people over for events?)
We no longer use plastic/ disposable cutlery. We have invested in proper metal cutlery (for our lunches, coffee breaks events..), that can be used and washed over and over again. 
We have banned plastic water bottles. At BOAVISTA there is a purified water fountain for everyone to use. Employees are invited to bring their own glass bottles to refill as many times as they want.
We have a communal table for everyone to use for the meal breaks, as well as a microwave, fridge, coffee machine and water boiler. In this way, our teams are welcome to not drive home or to restaurants and to avoid gas/oil consumption. 
We have digitized most processes and avoid printing on paper. Want to analyse a long list of numbers or compare it with something else? Use an extra screen – available for most computers.
We have a lot of windows in our factory and office! To avoid using electric lighting, just roll up the shades!
When we do have to turn on the lights, we spend less by using exclusively LED lighting, even in the factory. This allows us to save up to 90% of energy in lighting. 
We prefer public transportation: on our regular trips to other portuguese locations, we prefer public transportation. On other trips that are not possible to make using public transportation, we try to maximize the roots and minimize carbon emissions. 
Plants are welcome! I recently found out that there is a great spot in our office for orchidaceae – I have brought a couple of moribund plants and they gain strength! I guess they like our positive vibes and really make the space more welcoming. 
We reduce waste by making samples out of the wasted profiles. Whatever is not good for manufacturing windows is OK for samples! and we do use a lot of samples – for showing our clients how cool this stuff is and to make tests. 

What about you, what are you doing in your office/factory/warehouse to reduce your ecological footprint? Send us an e-mail or share on social networks using the hashtags #ThinkAhead #ThinkBOAVISTA