The printing company that's proud to be in the dark

On the first Wednesday of each month employees at Complete Colour Printing all pay extra attention to energy usage and make sure that lights aren't turned on unnecessarily. It is a rigorous exercise, but marking coordinator Gemma Harbutt (pictured) is happy to take charge.

"At 8.30am I use the PA system to announce the importance of the day and remind all employees to be extra careful with energy usage for the day," she said. "Then, when the afternoon shift workers clock on at 2pm, I repeat the announcement for their benefit."



The campaign, Lights Off Australia, was launched in February by morning show Sunrise. Complete Colour Printing general manager Geoff Lawyer and his family got involved first, and then decided that employees should too. "As soon as I found out that companies could sign up we did," Harbutt said. "I recognised that participating would further educate our employees about the importance of considering the environment."

As for working in the dark, Harbutt concedes that it isn't as drastic as would appear. "We don't work with the lights turned off," she said. "We just make sure that the ones that aren't necessary are turned off. The initiative is more about raising awareness of environmentally responsible behaviour. We can only leave office lights off for small periods of time, after a while your eyes may start to strain."

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