Vectorworks Social Responsibility Statement
Nemetschek North America is taking on an ever-increasing role in embracing environmentally friendly practices to reduce our carbon footprint. We realize that preserving the environment is affecting our customers more and more each day and will be joining you in your preservation efforts. As one important step in this process, we’ve increased our use of FSC-certified papers and material with recycled content, in order to support sustainable forestry, minimize habitat destruction, reduce air and water pollution, and maintain forestry practices that are socially beneficial. We have also increased our usage of organic inks and wind power in our professionally printed materials. While some of our materials require printing, we have chosen to explore options that utilize electronic delivery where it is appropriate. This has impacted several of our communication pieces that you may be accustomed to seeing in printed form.
Packaging Materials
One of our largest changes was in how we produce the packaging to ship Vectorworks. The box is now constructed from FSC-certified papers and papers with recycled content. While this is a similar change to our other materials which you will see below, utilizing FSC-certified E-Flute material is not common in any of the packaging you receive. It is not readily available in the United States, requires a significant amount of effort to source the material, and is more expensive than conventional packaging materials. However, Nemetschek feels that our first step in decreasing our carbon footprint should come with our product.
Manuals
Previously, we printed the Vectorworks Fundamentals User’s Guide and Vectorworks Design Series User’s Guide, totaling more than 1,300 pages in length. This required a larger shipping box and a large volume of paper. We now provide our user’s guides solely online, in two formats for your convenience. Each guide is provided as a PDF, and is available on your installation DVD in the [Vectorworks]\VWHelp\Additional Documentation folder. We also provide a comprehensive, searchable on-line help system which can be accessed from the Help menu in Vectorworks, or by pressing the appropriate function key for context-sensitive help. The online help also accesses chapter-specific PDFs with a click of a button. This change has allowed us to save a significant number of trees and provides our users with quick access to help in the manner that suits them best.
Brochures
In the past, we have printed our brochures and mailed them to clients who were considering using Vectorworks. This piece will now be delivered as a downloadable PDF on the vectorworks.net website, and as a PDF within several of our multi-media pieces.
Additional Marketing Collateral
Many of our collateral pieces have been converted to a multi-media CD or DVD. We now offer a Making the Switch to Vectorworks Kit which includes electronic versions of our brochures, case studies, and other items that were previously printed for our prospects. We also offer Your Guide to What’s New, a multi-media CD that has an electronic version of our What’s New Brochure, the content that was previously called the Upgrade Companion and several helpful tutorial videos. While some of these materials still utilize a paper carrier for the multi-media CD or DVD, we are using FSC-certified papers and material with recycled content to increase our responsible consumption of paper materials.
Overall, Nemetschek estimates at a minimum we have decreased our carbon footprint by the statistics below. In some cases we will still need to print materials for distribution. However, our commitment to printing responsibly will continue and we hope that you will consider using some of these practices in your own business as our environment is the legacy we will all leave our children.
Benefit of Socially Responsible Practices Outlined Above
Wood Use: 1,038 Fully-Grown Trees Saved
Total Energy: 1,838 Million BTUs NOT expended
Greenhouse Gases: 255,694 lbs CO2 NOT released