Your Green Review

OK, so you’ve decided you’re ready to ‘Green’ your business.  You know what sustainability means to your company, you’ve estimated the scope of the project (after reading YGR’s previous post) and perhaps you’ve got some ideas already stirring in your mind.  So what now?  It’s time to lay the foundation for your Environmental Management System.  But don’t let the long name scare you-again, there are no set guidelines for ‘Going Green’.

The following is a guide help build your business’s EMS program, broken down into steps with relevant links.  At the heart of any EMS plan is the ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’ model, and while you may not be pursuing formal certifications yet, this is a tried and true method to assure quality maintenance and progress.

Bear in mind, however, that your program must be centered on your company’s unique ecological footprint, culture, budget and needs in order to be successful.  For a small company, some of these steps may not apply in full.  Some may prefer to start with one department, or with one area of focus, and branch out from there.  Regardless of where you start, review this and other sources before formally implementing your plan.

STEP ONE: Commit and Plan

1.) Make sure you’re in compliance with all environmental regulations which apply to your business.

• This is the first step recommended by both government and industry leaders.
• Consult the EPA’s Environmental Compliance Self-Assessment Guide for Small Businesses.
  

2.) Determine who supports your environmental program:

• Prior to implementation, discuss the company’s need for an environmental program in staff meetings. Cover your business’s current strengths and weaknesses then brainstorm and gather comments/suggestions to engage all levels of staff.
• It’s important that the program has the support of both upper management (who can formalize and implement policies) and employees (who will be on the front lines of consumer engagement and policy adoption), although an EMS may not be of personal importance to everyone.
• You may want to consider evaluating employee/customer interest to gauge support and areas of concern.  Survey Monkey offers free online surveys-an example.

3.) Form a Green Committee: Those most supportive of a Green program may be the best candidates for these positions.  Members of the Green Committee should include:

• A Green Coordinator who manages projects, tracks performance and promotes the program.
• An Energy Team that works together to design Green initiatives and help train and organize other employees.
• Be sure to assign appropriate duties and create a system to track progress and time invested.  A simple spreadsheet outlining roles,  responsibilities, tasks, time/resources allocated and projects in-progress/completed should provide a starting point.

4.) Create a Written Environmental Policy (or ‘vision statement’):

• This is the foundation for your EMS.  It need not be too lengthy (1 page) but should clear and easy to understand.
• Items typically covered: Adherence to legal requirements; Environmental objectives (including pollution prevention and product/service improvement); Plan for continuous improvement (system of evaluation); Dedication to accountability, transparency and communication (sharing written policies, progress and performance internally and with the community)
• Post the policy in a place where both employees and customers may access it.
• EPA’s Guide to Creating an Environmental Policy
• Sample Environmental Policy Statements
• Environmental Policy Checlist

5.) Analyze your ecological impact and identify environmental hot-spots:

• Energy and Water Audits: Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager helps track energy and water usage.  Some utilities offer free energy audits or you can conduct one yourself (GreenYour.com’s Business Energy Audit).
• Waste Audits: SWACO’s 2 part in-house Waste Audit: Pre-Audit Tasks and Audit Checklist
• Green House Gas emissions: The EPA’s Emissions Calculator
• Create an Eco Map to visually locate areas of improvement identified in the auditing process (ie, areas of high energy consumption or locations of new recycle bins in the office). EMAS’s Guide to Eco Mapping

6.) Baseline and Benchmark:

• Select a base year or determine a baseline based on average performance of several previous years.  This will serve as your starting point.
• Benchmark against similar businesses, industry average or previous performance.  The Portfolio Manager tool will do this for you by comparing your energy performance to similar buildings nation-wide then rating your performance from 1-100.