Business Services
Sustainability and Green Business Assessments
Strategy Development and Planning
'Green' Employee Benefits Packages
Implementing Sustainability in your Organization
Sustainability Benchmarking and Metrics
Sustainability Training & Education
Green Building Assessment
LEED Certification Consultation
Sustainability and Green Business Assessments
Where is your organization in terms of sustainability or green business practices and where would you like to be?
Eco-Coach will review the current state of your business operations, including building services and management, if desired. Areas that can be reviewed include procurement (general and industry-specific), waste management, food operations, energy efficiency, and water consumption, among others.
Depending on the type of business and scope of work, this activity can range from a couple of weeks for a high-level review to a multiple month project that involves detailed interviews, process reviews, a cost/benefit analysis and resulting prioritized recommendations. We can also help you with implementing the desired steps once these have been identified.
top^
Strategy Development and Planning
What is your organization's vision for sustainability? How will you incorporate sustainable practices into your business' strategic framework?
Many companies try to incorporate sustainability processes into daily operations without taking into account the need for developing a sustainability strategy first. A strategy will help you identify your organization’s current sustainable practices (or lack thereof), strengths and weaknesses, and desired direction. Once the strategy has been defined, the parameters of sustainability for your business can be determined.
Developing the strategy includes a review of the vision and mission as well as a stakeholder assessment, to determine the key players impacted internally and externally. If developed and implemented correctly, the strategy will enable your organization to incorporate sustainability as a consideration in daily business operations and guide the prioritization process for future projects.
top^
'Green' Employee Benefits Packages
Would including green living consultations as part of your benefits package or greening existing benefit improve employee retention, morale and productivity?
Providing your employees with the opportunity to consult an eco-coach to help them make healthier, more eco-friendly decisions in their daily life can positively impact their health and well-being, their perception of your organization, and subsequently, their morale and attendance at work. We will sit down with your Human Resources representative(s) and determine the optimal level of support for your business. Packages vary from a specific number of consultations per month for the entire company to unlimited consultations for all employees.
Another alternative is to review your company's existing employee benefits package and determine changes that can align it with sustainability principles. This could include offering employees carbon offsets for travel, providing time off for volunteering, helping your employees finance a hybrid, or providing preferred parking for fuel-efficient cars.
top^
Implementing Sustainability in your Organization
What are the tasks and milestones needed to accomplish your sustainability goals and who should be involved?
We will meet with you and key stakeholders in your organization to review your sustainability strategy and goals, identify top priorities and potential roadblocks, and create a plan that ensures that these are successfully addressed. Key steps of the plan might include: a review of current processes and operations as these relate to, and impact, sustainability; identification of gaps between the current state and the ideal; formulation of the desired future state; designing the revised processes (as needed); and implementing the changes in the organization.
Often, businesses try to implement changes in one area of the organization without taking into account the indirect impacts the changes may have on other groups, internally and externally. An important, and often overlooked, step of implementing sustainability is change management. Namely, taking into account the different reactions that employees will have to the change, and the possibility that some may be resistant to it. Our approach addresses this and works to increase buy-in from individuals impacted by the change across the organization.
top^
Sustainability Benchmarking and Metrics
How do you measure sustainability and tie it to the bottom line?
Whether you have just begun thinking about making eco-friendly changes to your organization and would like to have a baseline to identify where you started from, or have already implemented a sustainability plan and would like to start monitoring its progress, benchmarking is an important step of the process. Benchmarking enables your organization to identify practical indicators of sustainability and helps you understand how these can be measured over time to monitor progress. It can also facilitate decision-making in the sense that actions can be prioritized based on the impact they will have on the metrics.
We will work with you to understand your current situation in terms of sustainability and identify issues that are important to key internal and external stakeholders. Once this has been determined, we will identify key objectives of the benchmarking process and key performance indicators(KPIs) that will determine what to measure. The metrics will be based on the KPIs and will be developed in collaboration with your team. Once the metrics have been finalized, we will work with you to gather data to form a baseline for these metrics. We will then help you identify actions your organization can take to improve the baseline and, as needed, help with the implementation of these actions.
top^
Sustainability Training & Education
Who, in your organization, needs to know about sustainability, and what do they need to know?
Even though changes and new processes may be announced by management and could have a positive impact on people and the planet, as well as the bottom line, these changes may not necessarily be accepted or implemented by the rest of the organization. At times, this is due to a resistance to the change on the part of the employees, but many times it can be due to a lack of training and education.
Sustainability education, when done correctly, helps the employees understand how it will benefit them as well as how their actions impact their peers and the planet. Education also involves addressing any resistance to change and generating enthusiasm for the change. Some examples include information posted on internal forums, lunch sessions, and games and contests. In some cases, the changes implemented may require employee training, which can be either straight-forward or extensive. Training and subsequent monitoring ensures that the employees are not only aware of the change, but make the appropriate adjustments in their actions and daily workflow to ensure that the change is successful.
top^
Green Building Assessment
What steps can you take to decrease your energy use and water consumption?
Improve the internal air quality of your building and determine the environmental impacts of current operations. Many times, simple and relatively low-costs steps can be taken to improve energy efficiency and reduce consumption. Other times, this may involve the replacement of the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system or other major changes.
Our approach identifies opportunities to decrease costs and risks in resource consumption and environmental impact (land, air, water). The end goal is to develop and implement sustainable practices and goals that positively impact the bottom line.We will work with you to determine your goals and conduct an assessment of the current building, including management and operations. Once this has been completed, we will identify areas for improvement and conduct a cost/benefit analysis. This will help to prioritize changes and identify those will the biggest impact.
top^
LEED Certification Consultation
Could your building or home be LEED certified? What would it take to get there?
We can provide you with information on the LEED rating system and process and assist you in meeting your LEED certification goals. This involves an assessment of the current building, including site location, water and energy practices, materials used, and other considerations. Once the assessment is complete, we will provide a report of items that could count toward LEED certification for the building, and recommend additional steps that can be taken to achieve certification.
We can also be part of your team and help you prepare and submit the documentation to obtain certification for your building or home. This may include working with project managers, architects, consultants and other professionals to identify the optimal way to earn LEED credits for the project and determine means of offsetting expenses with savings in other areas.
top^
|
