Alfred Music Publishing, an educational music print publisher, has launched its "Alfred Cares" initiative, aimed at reducing the company's carbon footprint. The program centers on decreasing the company's natural resource consumption, recycling waste and reusing materials in the production processes.

Spearheaded by Alfred's CEO, Ron Manus, the company's environmental push began with printing about 95 percent of its books on 100 percent recycled paper, which then evolved into a formal corporate initiative. The environment has now become one of the deciding factors in the company's strategic planning.

Alfred's COO Bryan Bradley says all of its eco-friendly investments from the warehouse to the corporate offices and the production process pay for themselves and save the company money.

Other environmental projects include implementing a new voice-picking system in the company's distribution center that eliminates approximately 170,000 pages annually, and installing energy-efficient fluorescent lights, which use roughly 50 percent less power.

The company also replaced traditional bathroom urinals with water-free urinals, which has saved an estimated 40,000 gallons a year per unit.