Some of you have asked for a bit more detail on green practices. That's a tall order for work where each good green choice depends upon so many variables: suitability for your organizational culture, effectiveness for the processes or products involved, and appropriateness for the geographic region you live in. Green may be mainstream now, but it certainly has nothing generic about it.
Still there is great value in getting started with some universal actions - reducing plug loads, managing computer power use, and cutting back on office materials. And the experience you develop with those activities will make it much simpler to tackle the more complex decisions later on.
So, in response to all the questions of "Where do we start?" I have prepared a 52-week checklist to help you get started planning green changes at your institution. You don't have to start at the beginning, in fact Week 46 with the energy audit is a great place to start, but since most organizations need some in-house conversations to get to the point of scheduling an energy audit, starting off with creating a green bulletin board (Week 1), making smarter soap choices (Week 25), or ending the practice of buying Styrofoam (Week 3) is just grand! Or maybe you're interested in starting or re-energizing a green team and need some ideas (Weeks 2 and 27). Or maybe someone has been bugging you to think about carbon offsets (Week 20)....
What matters is that you get going!. I hope The Green Nonprofit helps you make it a good start.
This is some great information on Energy benchmarking. Appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteIt is really important for all the business to take on Energy benchmarking that helps to control the expenses and contribute towards Environment too.