Archive for the ‘Press Releases’ Category

Why Water bottles? Because they make sense and cents. We installed a water filtration system in our office to reduce waste and cost. Just another step in our quest to be environmentally and economically responsible. We are also a Salt Lake City certified e2 Business.

Our philosophy is that making money and preserving the environment are not mutually exclusive ideas, in fact, they can go together. This allows us to be very competitive on pricing for our customers and still provide the services you need. Your company will reduce its environmental impact by doing business with us.

Here are a few of the things Granite Office Supplies is doing right now to GO green:

1. Paperless invoicing and statements – less paper, less mail, less resources used for delivery and quicker retrieval by customers

2. Natural Gas Delivery Vehicles – significant reduction in emissions, reduced delivery costs which allow us to provide free delivery and maintain our free same day delivery policy (once you go to same day delivery you will wonder what you did without it)

3. Rocky Mountain Power Blue Sky Business Partner – in May of 2009 Granite Office Supplies committed to offset at least 50% of our electricity with wind power credits (granted, this one does cost us more, but we want to reduce our environmental impact)

4. Free pickup of empty toner cartridges – toner cartridges are very easily recycled and should never be thrown away, just have them available for our drivers the next time he brings a delivery

5. Free pickup of used cardboard boxes – we use a lot of them for deliveries and it keeps costs down if we don’t have to buy them

6. Updated Recycling program – we are proud to announce we now recycle most of our waste at work. We have a recycling dumpster similar to what most people use at their home. Our landfill waste has been reduced drastically with this new change.

7. No more bottled water at our warehouse – we purchased reusable water bottles for all our employees (and for promotional purposes) along with installing a water purification system. Tasty water, less waste and less cost. So on our checklist to see if a practice makes sense that’s win-win-win. That’s a keeper.

What is e2?

e2 stands for:

1. environmentally sustainable
2. economically sustainable

We are committed to providing products that meet our customers needs and meet the e2 criteria. With Granite Office Supplies you won’t have to pay extra to help the environment. We will continue to search for and offer products that help you get your work done in an e2 way.

Granite Office Supplies is honored to be part of the Salt Lake Chamber’s 2013 Public Policy Guide. We are featured alongside UPS, Overstock.com and Parsons Behle & Latimer for our efforts to improve air quality in our community.

As a Salt Lake City certified e2 business we are committed to business practices that are environmentally and economically sustainable.

We are proud to announce some exciting changes to our company that will help us better serve our customer needs:

• There’s an app for that: Proof of delivery via an app for smartphones. Customers are able to see who signed for an order anytime and instantly online. This also reduces our environmental impact and has significantly improved operational efficiency.

   

• Introducing Sela: Sela joined Granite Office last year and has now moved into a full-time customer service position. Sela’s primary focus is to help customers save money. She specializes in rebate programs and business reviews all with the purpose of helping our customers ensure they are purchasing products the right way. You would like Sela even if she wasn’t calling to save you money, but now you will love her!

   

• Introducing Steve: once upon a time a man called us to find out if we were hiring drivers…and so began the history of Steve with Granite Office. Steve started as a driver and we soon realized that he was in the wrong position. Steve is a natural born salesman! Steve will help potential customers realize what a great solution Granite Office is for their office supply needs. We are very excited to have Steve help grow our company to become the largest local office products company in Utah.

The Salt Lake Chamber recently announced a program for businesses to be recognized for efforts to clean up the air pollution. This program and the Salt Lake City e2 business programs are no-brainers for us as we constantly strive to run a business that is environmentally and economically beneficial. We applaud the efforts of Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake Chamber for recognizing the importance of sustainability.

So what is Granite Office Supplies doing to make us a Clean Air Champion? We’re glad you asked:

1. Every vehicle owned by Granite Office Supplies runs on natural gas – this significantly reduces emissions, saves money on fuel and supports domestically produced fuel (win-win-win)
2. Paperless invoicing and statements to customers reduces fuel usage and emissions that would be produced by the postal service or other delivery methods
3. Implementing best practices to help customers recycle old electronics, cardboard boxes and used toners. We will either pick up used electronics when our drivers bring a delivery or help you to get our friends from SBK recycling to pick it up from your business.
4. Making customers aware of environmentally friendly products that are SFI certified or contain recycled content.

Join us in helping improve the quality of air in the Salt Lake valley. Help your company become a Clean Air Champion. Let’s all make a difference together. One of your goals to be a Clean Air Champion could be to use environmentally conscious suppliers for your business needs. If you need help finding such a source for office supplies and furniture just give us a call and we will point you in the right direction (hint: it’s us).

At Granite Office Supplies we like to think we have a business model that works well for our customers. Occasionally, we receive feedback that verifies this and we would like to share it with everyone. This email comes from Julie and was sent to Robin (our customer service manager) and Julie says everything better than I can so here it is:

“You know, I recently had one of your competitors come to me and ask if
they can give me prices and possibly win my business. I said yes because
I knew they couldn’t do it. They sent me an email with their “best
prices” and were almost double on some of their items. Plus, they don’t
offer free same-day delivery and free brownies. Also, they were not nearly
as delightful to work with as you (Robin), Garth, and Lee.

Moral of the story: thanks for being my favorite office supply company!!”

Thank you Julie for providing valuable feedback. It really is good to know what our customers think of us.

If you would like to share any stories or feedback with us we would love to hear it. You can reply to this post on our website, do a review on our facebook page or you could even tweet it to the world (we do plan on joining the twitterati at some point).

Granite Office Supplies is proud to be a part of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and was recently presented on the KSL Newsradio Metro Business Report. Lucky for everyone this announcement is presented by Lane Beattie, President of the Salt Lake Chamber and not me. This is the radio version of our Virtual Fliers Announcement. To listen to the audio file please follow this link KSL Metro Business Report – Granite Office Supplies.

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This Press Release was originally published on May 13, 2009 and was aired on the KSL Metro-biz-report-5.22.09-Granite Office

Salt Lake City – Granite Office LLC is proud to announce that they have signed up to

participate in Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky Program. Granite Office has

committed to offset at least 50% of their energy consumption with Blue Sky credits. Blue

Sky is a renewable energy program offered for businesses and residential consumers to

offset their energy consumption with wind power. Customers can purchase blocks of 100

kilowatt hours for $1.95 per month. The money generated from this program is

guaranteed to go towards the purchase of renewable energy from newly developed

facilities in the western United States according to Rocky Mountain Power’s website.

“This is one of the steps we are taking to reduce our impact on the environment and offer

added value to our customers,” says Lee Mercer, Manager of Granite Office.

Granite Office, a local office supply and furniture dealer, is also a certified e2 business in

Salt Lake City. e2 business certification can be attained through the Salt Lake City

Green program under the direction of the Division of Sustainability in the Mayor’s

office. To be certified a company must meet goals that are economically and

environmentally sustainable each year. For Granite Office their goals include

implementing an office recycling program, replacing all cleaners with environmentally

friendly cleaners and educating employees on Environmentally Preferred Purchasing

(EPP) practices. The benefits should be 2 sided: decreased operational costs and reduced

environmental impact.

So is it difficult to become an e2 business? “Getting certified isn’t scary at all. The

process is really a service that will help improve your operations and reduce your carbon

footprint,” says Warren Lloyd of Lloyd Architects, an e2 business for 4 years. As such,

their firm has enjoyed the additional benefit of free networking events hosted by e2

members. Recent events were hosted by Squatters Pub Brewery and Hotel Monaco. Good

food and good company, not a bad reward for going green.

e2 businesses can also help other companies reduce their carbon footprint. “Our research

of delivery vehicles revealed that Natural Gas vehicles could reduce emissions by a

significant amount and allow us to provide the services our customers need,” says Granite

Office Owner Garth Hood. This has worked out so well that all of their delivery vehicles

run entirely on Natural Gas and they are able to offer free same-day delivery. Research

shows Carbon Dioxide is reduced 22-25%; Carbon Monoxide 94-95%, Nitrogen Oxide

70-96% and NonMethaneHydroCarbons 92-96% with Natural Gas as compared to

gasoline engines. Considering that smog (ground level ozone) is comprised of Nitrogen

Oxide and Hydrocarbons these vehicles have a major impact in reducing pollution on the

Wasatch Front. “Our delivery vehicles are constantly moving and so are our competitor’s.

We can let our customers know that they are directly improving the environment by

choosing to do business with us,” concludes Garth.

Granite Office Supplies and Furniture, a Salt Lake City, UT based office supply and office furniture company, will begin publishing sale fliers online. There will be two categories of sales: Local and National. The fliers will be published online. There will also be an embedded link on all pages of the Granite Office company website.

Local Sales flyers will be available to customers located in the Wasatch Front region of Salt Lake City, Utah (North Ogden to Spanish Fork and Tooele to Park City).

National Sales flyers shall be available to all customers.

“Publishing sales online fits well with our company goals as a Salt Lake City certified e2 business. We are committed to reduce our environmental impact while offering an improved buying experience for our customers,” says Garth Hood co-owner of Granite Office.

e2 business certification can be attained through the Salt Lake City Green program under the direction of the Division of Sustainability in the Mayor’s office. To be certified a company must meet goals that are economically and environmentally sustainable each year. The benefits are 2 sided: reduced environmental impact and implementing economically sustainable business practices. Granite Office is now in their second year as an e2 business and is proud of the progress made.

“Our philosophy is that making money and preserving the environment are not mutually exclusive ideas, in fact, they can go together. This allows us to be very competitive on pricing for our customers and still provide the services you need. Your company will reduce its environmental impact by doing business with us.”  A pretty bold statement taken from the Granite Office website.

Granite Office Supplies has developed a business model that focuses on excellent customer service and, therefore, can provide services and pricing to local customers that exceeds expectations. They provide Free Same Day Delivery, Free Electronics Recycling Pick-up and a Recycling Program for used boxes and toner. They have partnered with Hewlett-Packard to offer PurchasEdge, a rewards program that enables customers to earn points that can be used towards future equipment purchases.

Granite Office is headquartered at 1745 S Milestone Drive Suite B-1 in Salt Lake City. They are open Monday through Friday from 8-5. Their phone number is 801-505-4050.

We received an interesting letter in the mail today from Google. They reported that Granite Office Supplies has been searched around 800 times during the 2nd quarter and because enough people searched for driving directions to our warehouse we have become a Google Favorite Place. They included a label with a barcode to place on our window that people can scan using an app and the camera on their phone and it will take them to our Google Local Business listing. We are excited to participate in this program and to see these little signs that we continue to grow as an office supply and furniture dealer.

We are proud to offer Western Nut products to our customers again this holiday season. We will be including the Western Nut 2009 gift catalog with all orders beginning December 1st. You can order these gifts through us at the prices found in the catalog and we will deliver them to you free of charge just like any other office supply or furniture delivery. We can also deliver to multiple destinations to your clients for a small fee.