A Story Recycles

Companies from your corner hair salon to Wal-Mart are all on the sustainability bandwagon.  When you walk into a shop, it's now common to be bombarded with signs bragging how "green" a company's "recycled" and "eco-friendly" products are.  Professional services firms are riding this wave as well, creating "green" committees and including "sustainability" sections on their web sites.

  Try selling this to Margie Pabigian, the facilities manager of a West LA law firm, and she'll just shrug her shoulders and laugh.  Sustainability, recycling, and living simply has been her family's story for a long time.

  Margie's story is the typical Armenian American success story that is easily repeated, yet has its own unique twists and turns.  When her grandfather's family had to leave what is now Eastern Turkey, they knew they wanted to come to America, but the logistics were not exactly clear.  A Mexican consular officer told them that spending some time south of the border would be easier than Canada, because they could easily enter California from Tijuana.  Well, that was a lie.  Margie's grandfather and his family had to live in Tijuana for a few years while their paperwork was processed.  Eventually they settled in Los Angeles.

  The years went by and Margie's father, Charlie, started his own business, United Paper Stock Co.  He bought a truck, and traipsed all over Los Angeles, making deals with store owners to pick up their cardboard and other paper that the businesses otherwise would have disposed in the trash.  What started as a part-time recycling gig really became an empire, with Charlie Pabigian's business taking over two and a half city blocks along 25th Street and Santa Fe Avenue in south-central Los Angeles.  Charlie knew all the store owners, all about paper, how to make a deal, and treated his employees so well that they voted out the union to make his company a closed shop.

  The result:  Charlie and his wife were able to buy a house in San Marino for their 5 children.  Yes, that San Marino, which was then probably one of the most "white" neighborhoods in LA.  While Margie's and her siblings' peers were driving slick cars and tallying up the Christmas gifts, the Pabigian family lived simply and frugally with everyone contributing to the house's upkeep as well as the business--Margie, in fact, spent a couple of years helping her father in the office.

  Fast forward years later.  Margie has worked at her law firm for 21 years, watching many trends come and go.  The younger lawyers at her firm are urging her to adopt more sustainable and eco-friendly products and services in the workplace--some out of advocacy, others because they want to build up a "green" practice and see the financial green that hopefully will result.  Meanwhile, you have attorneys who have been at the firm for decades resisting any change.  So what is the facilities manager to do?

  Some want stricter recycling.  Margie has assured them that she's visited the sorting facilities and yes, all that garbage gets sorted, even if there's no green bin.  Others plant-based eating utensils, and Margie has to remind them that you have to compost because those forks made from corn cannot be recycled.  There's a move to get rid of bottled water and replace it with pitchers and glasses, which Margie is all for, but she cannot follow staff around two floors and make sure all rules are followed without any lapse.  She has been assured trainers will be brought in to explain all these new processes, but trying to get lawyers focused on billable hours away for 30 minutes is not the easiest task.  So with any new procurement policy, Margie must do a cost benefit analysis to explain why all these new rules--in an office resistant to change--can be a positive change.

  Some forces are beyond Margie's control.  Construction companies do not build energy efficient offices because they are not the ones who will pay the utility bills.  Tenants are often not concerned because they are more focused on the leasing terms, location, and perks such as the view.  And dealing with the city or county is not often easy because trying to find a great point person involves a lot of phone calls that go no where and emails that are ignored--or bounce back.

  In the end, making steps toward a more sustainable workplace require a lot of cajoling and employee engagement tactics that leave most HR professionals clueless.  But in the end, taking the right steps can make good business sense.  After all, Charlie Pabigian was a success story, building a life for his family by getting involved in sustainability before anyone ever used that word.