Become a completely remote company, requiring no office space or regular transportation to/from work

Upgrade from older fluorescent T12, T8 and T5 lamps to LED alternatives

Rent or purchase a building that is close to public transportation stops and bike paths

Implement a green procurement policy

50-74% of your workdays are remote

Implement a comprehensive recycling program including education, proper sinage, and monitoring

Implement a sustainability process and standard for all meetings, conferences, and events

Optimize your on-premise servers and business systems by ensuring the hardware is up-to-date and energy efficient

Create an executive leadership team with women, minorities, and people from underrepresented communities in top leadership roles

After completing the energy audit/assessment, develop a comprehensive energy use and conservation plan

Eliminate all single-use paper, styrofoam or plastic cups, plates, and utensils in the kitchen area. Use reusable mugs, dishes, and silverware instead

Schedule regular maintenance on company vehicles to ensure each vehicle is operating as efficiently as possible to reduce emissions

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.

Provide a benefits package that meets the needs of employees, and is well-defined, accessible and transparent to all workers

Provide a living wage for all employees, at all levels of the organization including both full time and part time workers

Purchase and serve 75-100% local, organic, and fair trade food and drink

Define, institute, and clearly communicate a policy to prioritize employee diversity, equity, and inclusion

Purchase all office paper products made from 50-100% recycled materials

Arrange the workspace to take advantage of areas with natural sunlight

Purchase or lease used or recycled office equipment and furniture

Purchase ENERGY STAR qualified or similarly highly efficient appliances

Provide an annual public report or update on your company’s environmental and social responsibility efforts, initiatives, and improvements

Install bike racks outside of the office or choose a building with ample bike racks on-site to support the amount of employees

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

Provide equitable opportunities to ensure women have equal access to employment, leadership roles, and pay

Provide fair and appropriate breaks for workers based on hours worked and enforce a strict policy that they must take them

Institute a policy for providing training, certification, and professional development opportunities to employees

Properly dispose of all hazardous waste materials including batteries, paint and chemicals, lightbulbs, aerosol cans, and electronics

Work with a food recovery service to donate surplus meals, stock and other edible food items to reduce waste.

Install a filtered water tap or water bottle refill station that provide high-quality drinking water

Encourage employee carpools

Significantly limit the amount of physical marketing materials you produce

Complete a consumption and waste audit to help identify and quantify the items your business acquires, uses, and discards

Use environmentally-friendly, non-toxic, bio-based cleaning products

Replace regular light bulbs with LED bulbs

Establish a paperless billing program for your customers

Use concentrated cleaning products

Choose paperless billing with vendors, business partners, and suppliers when possible

Eliminate unnecessary paper usage as much as possible including forms, contracts, meeting agendas and materials, proofs, and drafts

Conduct exit interviews to gain insights on company culture and operations and make improvements based on feedback

Give opportunity for all employees to provide feedback of any kind and feel secure and empowered to do so

Recycle or sell your used toner cartridges

Purchase recycled or remanufactured toner cartridges

Develop a paper reduction policy that clearly defines when and how items should be printed

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)

Reduce junk mail by removing your organization’s name from national direct marketing databases

Eliminate the use of disposable batteries and switch entirely to rechargeable

Use air-filtering plants throughout the office

Print and copy double-sided only

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

Choose bio-based, reused, recycled, recyclable, or FSC certified boxes and bags for shipping

Reuse, sell, or donate used or unneeded furniture, equipment, and office supplies

Use virtual meeting platforms to replace travel when possible

Communicate your social responsibility initiatives with customers and other stakeholders in a way that clearly defines your company values, policies, objectives and actual performance

Eliminate all physical marketing materials, rely only on digital methods

Add shades/window covering to reduce heat gain

Provide regular formal review, linked to a comprehensive development plan, with clear and constructive feedback to all employees

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

Provide a trusted, impartial and empowered 3rd party for the remediation of significant conflicts arising between employees and the business/business leaders

Create and implement an employee code of conduct

Purchase trash liners made from 50-100% recycled materials

Commit to inviting, receiving and acting upon customer and community feedback in a welcoming and constructive way at all times.

Organize a sustainability committee to lead your organization’s sustainability program

Complete the GBB getting started steps

Develop a sustainability mission statement for your business and define your company’s core commitments

Populate your company’s sustainability accomplishments in your profile

Announce your commitment to GBB to all employees

Use natural odor elimination

Relax the office dress code to allow for attire that doesn’t require dry cleaning