Goh Chin Lian, Straits Times 13 May 08;
CIVIL servant Shayne Prashan signs off his e-mail these days with an image of a small pine tree and a green message: 'Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.'
The 28-year-old associate for social programmes at the Ministry of Finance learnt about this eco-friendly signature in January this year, when the corporate communications department asked staff members to consider putting it in their e-mail sign-offs.
'It's a natural extension of what I do and it's to remind others to also take the step,' said Mr Prashan, who tries not to print documents but downloads them instead on his laptop, which he takes to his meetings.
The Ministry of Finance is not alone in advocating this green message. The National Parks Board's (NParks) 700-plus employees were encouraged early this year to use a similar tagline.
Theirs reads: 'Save our planet. Please don't print this e-mail and/or attachments unless you really need to. Thank you.'
Some companies have adopted variations of the same message, including transport group ComfortDelGro.
Since February, its e-mail messages come with the tagline: 'At ComfortDelGro, we are committed to the preservation of the environment. We encourage you to print this e-mail only if it is absolutely necessary.'
Said its spokesman Tammy Tan: 'It's part of our green movement.' It complements a range of green measures the group has adopted, from rolling out buses that meet Euro IV emission targets, to introducing paper recycling at all its offices.
Multinational companies here, such as marketing agency Ogilvy and real estate provider CB Richard Ellis, have also adopted similar taglines.
A spokesman for CB Richard Ellis said it took on the tagline last June after a directive from its Los Angeles headquarters.
Individual employees are also doing it on their own. Like public relations manager Bernadette Low, who learnt about the tagline from an Australia-based colleague last year.
She had become more eco-conscious after watching former United States vice-president Al Gore's climate-change movie, An Inconvenient Truth.
'I believe in it,' said Ms Low, 33, who does not print most of her e-mail. If she does, she uses both sides of the paper. 'There are a lot of things you don't need to print. But usually people don't think twice and just click the print button. So it's a good reminder.'
The eco-friendly taglines appear to have surfaced en masse abroad last year, and spread further, though detractors say most taglines are hardly noticeable and will be missed by most people.
But Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw thinks it is an important first step to promoting a green office, especially with the public sector - which accounts for one-fifth of commercial activity - also cottoning on.
So far, the only government agencies that have obtained the green office label are the National Environment Agency and Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.
They practise measures like separating paper waste from other waste, and recycling printer and ink cartridges.
Mr Shaw thinks the new taglines in the Ministry of Finance and NParks are a positive start. And while the council does not have a similar tag as yet, he said: 'I'll consider it.'
