The state Department of Environmental Services offers an Aspiring Leaders Program: Don’t you think your employer should be a part of it?
Says DES: “The first tier in the Environmental Leadership Initiative – Aspiring Leaders – is for anyone, but especially for small businesses and other organizations like municipal agencies, that want to do better but may need some help and encouragement to get there. Organizations may become members of Aspiring Leaders if, to the best of their knowledge, they do not have any current unresolved environmental, health or safety administrative or criminal enforcement actions against them.”
The applicant must commit to moving toward compliance, moving toward sustainability and cutting its costs through pollution prevention.
DES also offers the Making Your Business Greener Workbook: It consists of “checklists that guide the reader through a series of decisions or considerations for implementing different initiatives. The first initiative, Basic Green Business Practices, can apply to everyone. The others, in an increasing order of complexity, take different outlooks on managing environmental concerns, and may or may not be useful to your business’ needs and goals.”
The checklist, at least parts of it, can be just as useful for a sustainable-minded employee or green office group, to assess what steps need to be taken.