Wind Power
Five Ultimate headquarters are 100% powered by wind generated in Washington and Oregon. We’re doing this through Seattle City Light’s Green Up program, a “voluntary green power program for residential and business customers. By enrolling in Green Up, customers purchase green power for a portion [[for Five, this is 100%]] of their electricity use and demonstrate their support for wind power and other new renewable energy projects in the Northwest. Choosing green power reduces our reliance on fossil fuels, improves air quality and helps reduce the growth of climate-warming emissions. The Green Up program is Green-e certified and fulfills LEEDTM Project green power requirements” (Seattle City Light).
Law in Washington state requires the utility company to purchase any energy generated from renewable sources that are hooked up to the grid. The rate they pay is the market rate. However, for producing energy in a sustainable way, the clean energy producer also receives RECs (Renewable Energy Credits). Five can then purchase these REC’s from the power-producers *through* Seattle City Light. In this way the clean energy producer is effectively selling power at an above-market rate (which makes sense because clean energy is more expensive to produce). To learn more about REC’s, go here.
Why wind? Well, about 90% of the power currently generated in the Northwest is hydropower. While this method of generating electricity doesn’t result in extremely high carbon emissions, it does result in some serious environmental impacts relating to river and stream ecosystems, fish, and other animals relying on fish for sustenance. In addition, there is a long history of clashes with Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest regarding the damming of rivers. As a result, we’ve chosen to switch our power source.
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Worm Bin Composting
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| A worm bin resides in our kitchen. In it, are some powerful, composting worm machines. The nutrient rich dirt they produce goes straight to our office plants. They’re a key part of reducing Five Ultimate’s waste, and we love them for it.
Worm composting or more technically put, vermicomposting is an easy way to be environmentally friendly and feed your plants the best dirt around. The worms eat all your vegetable and grain scraps and poop out extremely nutrient-rich manure. All you need is a bin with ventilation holes in it, some shredded paper/dead leaves, some worms (Red Wigglers (Eisenia foetida) or Red Earthworms (Lumbricus rubellus)), and organic matter (your food scraps minus the meat and dairy). Layer them in the bin and voila! In no time you have nice dirt, happy worms, and are reducing your waste! |
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Public Transportation
Our headquarters are located in Belltown, Seattle. It’s a 15 minute stroll to Pike Place Market and a minute-long jog to the Seattle Sculpture Park. We’re right next to the heart of downtown, where parking is hard to find. As a result, Five Ultimate issues every employee an ORCA pass that lets you ride any public transportation in King County for free. Well over half of Five employees bus to work, a few bike, and the rest carpool. Our commutes result in minimal C02 emissions, and the Seattle air is that much cleaner as a result. Yeehaw! |
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Shipping on the Slow Boat!
Shipping has a smaller environmental impact when you don’t rush it. We ship as much of our gear as possible from production to our offices by sea instead of by air because it’s better for the environment. It takes three and a half weeks to get from Beijing to Seattle by sea, versus a day by air, but saves over a ton of CO2 emissions. All it takes is a little planning ahead, but saves over a ton of C02 emissions for every 198 kg shipped. |
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Reused and Recycled Headquarters Decor
All the furniture in our work space is second hand–it gives our work space a homey feel and funky flare. We love the extra character that our used furniture gives our offices, and (duh) it’s cheaper and more environmentally friendly than buying things new. In addition, all our computers are bought refurbished; it saves us money AND they are just as functional! |
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Reusing Discontinued and Misprinted Gear
We don’t throw away any misprinted or discontinued gear. Instead, we donate it to various programs and organizations that are working to grow Ultimate. We are proud that each and every piece of Five Ultimate gear will find a good home where it is loved! Check out our Initiatives section to learn more.
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Do YOUR part
Some small things you can do to reduce your environmental impact:
- Carpool to practices, tournaments and anywhere else you’re headed (it’s more fun to be stuck in traffic with a friend anyway – and you’ll need to re-hash your game strategy sometime!).
- Get a reusable water bottle to rock on the sideline (bottled water is L-A-M-E).
- Wash your uniform in cold water. It preserves the color and uses less energy (90% of the energy used by your washing machine is to heat the water!)#.
- Line dry your jerseys and shorts instead of putting them in the dryer. This could significantly reduce your energy bill (not to mention dryers are bad for Five gear anyway, and that’s your whole wardrobe, right?).
- Take shorter post-game showers.
Two slightly bigger things you can do to decrease your environmental impact:
- Offset your carbon footprint at Native Energy
- Choose to change your power source through your utilities company. (We did it–it’s not that hard.) |
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Places to browse and learn more
Treehugger
Environmental News. Sign up for the daily or weekly newsletter–it’s awesome.
Climate Counts
Evaluates the carbon footprint of consumer product companies around the world.
Native Energy
A place to learn about and offset your carbon footprint
Reverb
An organization that reduces the carbon footprint of concerts and music tours across the country. Maybe someday they’ll do ultimate tournaments, too….
SHFT
A website of environmentally inspired art. |
