Guide to Greening Your Business

This Guide provides checklists, tools, references, and other suggestions that can help a small to medium sized commercial business improve its environmental practices and image in a manner appropriate for the nature, size and location of the company.   Additional guidance is also provided for those who want to go further to address the so-called Triple Bottom Line of sustainability—environmental, as well as social and economic responsibility. 

The Guide is arranged so the company can assess its current situation and opportunities, and then select those steps it wants to take to improve its programs.  For example, a company may start down the green path by buying green products and focusing on some aspects of climate change and energy conservation—say, through cutting the use of electricity and improving the efficiency of travel and shipping.  Later, it might take up diversity, waste prevention, recycling, and over time address other issues. 

By following this Guide, your company should not only be able to enhance its reputation as a responsible corporate citizen, but better meet the needs of customers, improve efficiency and productivity, and make the organization more attractive to talented new recruits. 

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

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