Vectorworks Social Responsibility Statement

Nemetschek Vectorworks 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 papers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and material with recycled content, in order to support responsible forest management, minimize habitat destruction, reduce air and water pollution, and maintain forestry practices that respect human rights and social standards. We have also increased our usage of vegetable-based 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. We continue to make a conscious effort to reduce our carbon footprint by specifying FSC-certified papers and support responsibly managed forests and labor practices in foresting locations. Additionally, much of our packaging contains some percentage of post-consumer waste. Finishes are water based, and therefore, everything we produce is recyclable.

Manuals
Previously, we printed the Vectorworks Fundamentals User's Guide and Vectorworks Design Series User's Guide, totaling more than 1600 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 in the help system table of contents under the Additional Documentation section. 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. 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.

Product Brochures
In the past, we have printed our product brochures and mailed them to clients who were considering using Vectorworks. The product brochures are now provided as downloadable PDFs on the vectorworks.net web site, and as PDFs 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 currently offer Getting Started with Vectorworks 2010 Products which includes a printed (approximately 70 page) booklet and accompanying DVD providing exercises and movie files to teach the basic skills in Vectorworks 2010 Fundamentals, Architect, Landmark, and Spotlight. It also contains electronic versions of the What's New brochure for Vectorworks 2010 products and Your Guide to What's New for version 2010 and the previous three versions.

Overall, Nemetschek estimates at a minimum we have decreased our carbon footprint and environmental impact 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.

 

Wood use: 251 tons
Net energy: 2,033 million BTUs not expended
Greenhouse gases: 399,985 pounds CO2 not released
Wastewater: 1,510,882 gallons not produced
Solid waste: 129,792 pounds not created

*Impact estimates based on research by the Environmental Defense Fund