Emory Report
December 8, 2008
Volume 61, Number 14


Give your office
a break over the holidays
• Consult IT support staff about equipment to turn off over the break, like computers, monitors, printers and copy machines.

• Turn off all lights, including bathroom, desk, display case and overhead lights.

• Close blinds to help retain heat in the building; close exterior doors completely.
• Unplug coffee pots before leaving the office,

Source: Office of Sustainability Initiatives

Have a Bright Idea?
Have an idea that could save time, money or improve the quality of your workplace? Submit it to the Bright Ideas program, an initiative that encourages and rewards employee innovation. Visit the Bright Ideas Web site at www.brightideas.emory.edu to browse the repository of ideas submitted, or to enter your problem-solving proposal. The Bright Ideas Committee reviews all entries, and forwards the most promising ideas for further review and possible implementation.

   

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December 8
, 2008
Staff share cost-saving tips, ideas

By kIM URQUHART

Employees across campus are taking creative and simple steps to cut costs, finding in the current economic climate an opportunity to reduce, reuse and recycle even more.

“We must begin adjusting behavior now as we face the reality of constrained resources,” wrote President Jim Wagner in a letter outlining cost-cutting recommendations and urging the community to “work together
to move forward prudently and responsibly through these uncharted waters.”

Cheryl Torrey, an administrative assistant in the Department of Surgery, is among the many employees responding to Wagner’s call.

Before renewing doctors’ subscriptions to professional journals, Torrey suggests to other School of Medicine
administrative staff, consider sharing them in a central location and carefully check for duplicate renewal payments. “If everybody can cut back a little bit I bet we could save Emory thousands of dollars,” Torrey says.

Print less, conserve more, drive less: Every employee can play a role in decreasing expenses in units and departments.

“Every dollar that we can save on operating costs or discretionary expenses means that’s one more dollar we can put into faculty research and student financial aid and scholarship,” says David Hanson, associate vice president for administration.

Keeping costs as low as possible is important no matter the economic climate, says Hanson, “but this is an opportunity to really dig deep and look at all the ways we spend money and rethink the way we do some things.”

For example: When ordering office or lab supplies, turn first to Emory Marketplace, which has already identified the vendor with the best quality and price, says Associate Vice President of Financial Operations David Thurston.

To save money through volume discounts on office supplies, the tenants of 1599 Clifton have on a voluntary basis decided to consolidate the days they place orders from Staples. In addition, says Thurston, who works in that building, “by cutting down on the frequency of Staples deliveries, we’re reducing traffic on Clifton Road with less trucks coming to campus. When we do things like that to make it less expensive for our vendors to do business with us, it enables us to negotiate better deals with them.”

Thurston recommends browsing the Emory Marketplace at www.finance.emory.edu/procurement to learn about “the tremendous number of values” offered at the one-stop site for purchasing needs. “If you go to our travel section, for example, you’ll find out that we have a contract with Park’N Fly that allows you to park there for $8.50 a day instead of $14 at the Atlanta airport.”

And, notes Thurston, “In these tight budget times, don’t forget about our Sparkfly Employee Discount Program” that offers savings on consumer goods and services such as cell phone plans.

The Music Department has found teleconferencing and videoconferencing to be an efficient way to meet with its faculty members abroad. “Instead of having long-distance charges to reckon with, we installed Skype [the free software that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet] and held a teleconference for free,” says department chair Stephen Crist.

To save on energy bills, this year the Woodruff Library will be shortening its hours on the weekends and during intersession breaks. “We can conserve energy and be fiscally prudent by closing and turning off as many lights as possible during those days,” says Charles Forrest, director of facilities management and planning.

To view the revised schedule for Emory’s academic and professional libraries, visit web.library.emory.edu.
University Marketing has started a Carpool to Campus program for the tenants of 1762 Clifton, Plaza 1000. “Because we’re off-campus, and so many of us go to main campus for various meetings, we thought we could reduce our carbon footprint by creating a shared calendar where people can connect and plan to share a ride,” explains Kendra Price, executive administrative assistant.

The University Senate’s Transportation and Parking Committee is hosting Commuter Fairs on Dec. 10 from11-1 p.m. at the School of Medicine, and Jan. 8, 2009, at 11 a.m. and Jan. 9, 2009, at 5 a.m. in the Campus Services Training Room.

“We hope to get our coworkers to learn more about the options that are available and to sign up,” says committee chair Linda King, who saves on gas, car insurance and maintenance by commuting to her job at Emory Law via vanpool.

Concludes Thurston: “You might need to change your behavior a little bit, but it’s hard to argue with saving money.”