platinum
762
Points Earned
Completed Initiatives
Initiative Description
Points
Become a completely remote company, requiring no office space or regular transportation to/from work
75
Upgrade from older fluorescent T12, T8 and T5 lamps to LED alternatives
36
Rent or purchase a building that is close to public transportation stops and bike paths
36
Implement a green procurement policy
30
To reduce emissions, 50-74% of your workdays are either remote or employees use public transportation, walking, or biking to get to work 50-74% of workdays
30
Implement a comprehensive recycling program including education, proper sinage, and monitoring
27
Implement a sustainability process and standard for all meetings, conferences, and events
25
Optimize your on-premise servers and business systems by ensuring the hardware is up-to-date and energy efficient
24
Create an executive leadership team with women, minorities, and people from underrepresented communities in top leadership roles
24
After completing the energy audit/assessment, develop a comprehensive energy use and conservation plan
20
Eliminate all single-use paper, styrofoam or plastic cups, plates, and utensils in the kitchen area. Use reusable mugs, dishes, and silverware instead
18
Schedule regular maintenance on company vehicles to ensure each vehicle is operating as efficiently as possible to reduce emissions
18
Provide a product or service, as part of your company’s core strategy, that delivers a social or environmental benefit and/or focuses on an underserved part of the community.
18
Provide a benefits package that meets the needs of employees, and is well-defined, accessible and transparent to all workers
18
Provide a living wage for all employees, at all levels of the organization including both full time and part time workers
18
Purchase and serve 75-100% local, organic, and fair trade food and drink
16
Define, institute, and clearly communicate a policy to prioritize employee diversity, equity, and inclusion
16
Purchase all office paper products made from 50-100% recycled materials
12
Arrange the workspace to take advantage of areas with natural sunlight
12
Purchase or lease used or recycled office equipment and furniture
12
Purchase ENERGY STAR qualified or similarly highly efficient appliances
12
Provide an annual public report or update on your company’s environmental and social responsibility efforts, initiatives, and improvements
12
Install bike racks outside of the office or choose a building with ample bike racks on-site to support the amount of employees
12
Develop an office thermostat policy that maintains internal air temperature within the recommended temperature range, and eliminates A/C and heating usage when the building is not occupied
12
Provide equitable opportunities to ensure women have equal access to employment, leadership roles, and pay
12
Provide fair and appropriate breaks for workers based on hours worked and enforce a strict policy that they must take them
12
Institute a policy for providing training, certification, and professional development opportunities to employees
12
Properly dispose of all hazardous waste materials including batteries, paint and chemicals, lightbulbs, aerosol cans, and electronics
9
Work with a food recovery service to donate surplus meals, stock and other edible food items to reduce waste.
9
Install a filtered water tap or water bottle refill station that provide high-quality drinking water
8
Encourage employee carpools
8
Significantly limit the amount of physical marketing materials you produce
8
Complete a consumption and waste audit to help identify and quantify the items your business acquires, uses, and discards
8
Use environmentally-friendly, non-toxic, bio-based cleaning products
8
Replace regular light bulbs with LED bulbs
8
Establish a paperless billing program for your customers
8
Use concentrated cleaning products
8
Choose paperless billing with vendors, business partners, and suppliers when possible
6
Eliminate unnecessary paper usage as much as possible including forms, contracts, meeting agendas and materials, proofs, and drafts
6
Conduct exit interviews to gain insights on company culture and operations and make improvements based on feedback
6
Give opportunity for all employees to provide feedback of any kind and feel secure and empowered to do so
6
Recycle or sell your used toner cartridges
4
Purchase recycled or remanufactured toner cartridges
4
Develop a paper reduction policy that clearly defines when and how items should be printed
4
Designate carpool, hybrid, and EV parking spaces that are in preferred areas of your parking lot (e.g. closer to the building entrance or covered)
4
Reduce junk mail by removing your organization’s name from national direct marketing databases
4
Eliminate the use of disposable batteries and switch entirely to rechargeable
4
Use air-filtering plants throughout the office
4
Print and copy double-sided only
4
Make your business’ sustainability efforts a central part of your message by filling out and linking to your GBB Public Profile and publishing your sustainability commitment on your website
4
Choose bio-based, reused, recycled, recyclable, or FSC certified boxes and bags for shipping
4
Reuse, sell, or donate used or unneeded furniture, equipment, and office supplies
4
Use virtual meeting platforms to replace travel when possible
4
Communicate your social responsibility initiatives with customers and other stakeholders in a way that clearly defines your company values, policies, objectives and actual performance
4
Eliminate all physical marketing materials, rely only on digital methods
4
Add shades/window covering to reduce heat gain
4
Provide regular formal review, linked to a comprehensive development plan, with clear and constructive feedback to all employees
4
Require all business leaders to be trained in, maintain current knowledge of, and commit to complying with the company’s environmental, social and employee wellbeing policies and practices
4
Provide a trusted, impartial and empowered 3rd party for the remediation of significant conflicts arising between employees and the business/business leaders
4
Create and implement an employee code of conduct
4
Purchase trash liners made from 50-100% recycled materials
2
Commit to inviting, receiving and acting upon customer and community feedback in a welcoming and constructive way at all times.
2
Organize a sustainability committee to lead your organization’s sustainability program
1
Complete the GBB getting started steps
1
Develop a sustainability mission statement for your business and define your company’s core commitments
1
Populate your company’s sustainability accomplishments in your profile
1
Announce your commitment to GBB to all employees
1
Use natural odor elimination
1
Relax the office dress code to allow for attire that doesn’t require dry cleaning
1