platinum
1,081
GBB points earned
Completed Initiatives
Initiative Description
Points
To reduce scope 3 emissions, become a completely remote company, requiring no office space or regular transportation to/from work
75
To reduce scope 3 emissions, 75-99% of your workdays are either remote or employees use public transportation, walking, or biking to get to work
55
Use high-efficiency plumbing fixtures, like high efficiency toilets (HETs) and urinals (HEUs) to minimize water use and waste
48
Upgrade from older fluorescent T12, T8 and T5 lamps to LED alternatives
36
Provide 20 weeks paid family leave policy accessible to all employees
36
Compost your home food waste
36
Have a composting program for your business food waste
30
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
Plant native, regionally-friendly plants to minimize water use and impact on local habitat
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
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
Eliminate all physical marketing materials, rely only on digital methods
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
Have a four-day work week
18
Properly recycle all household waste according to your local regulations
18
Define, institute, and clearly communicate a policy to prioritize employee diversity, equity, and inclusion.
16
Arrange the workspace to take advantage of areas with natural sunlight; design future spaces with natural lighting opportunities in mind
12
Purchase offsets for the travel emissions and in-person work days that can’t be reduced
12
Purchase or lease used or recycled office equipment and furniture
12
Philanthropically donate a percentage of your revenue or profits and/or company time to an environmental cause
12
Reserve at least one day a year when your company volunteers for local environmental or community projects (e.g., Habitat for Humanity, Earth Day, Save a Tree)
12
Construct a vegetable garden on roof, facility grounds, or a communtiy garden in close proximity to the office
12
Provide an annual public report or update on your company’s environmental and social responsibility efforts, initiatives, and improvements
12
Use a carbon calculator tool to measure your current carbon footprint. Reassess quarterly as you meet energy use goals
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
Grow an at-home or community food garden
12
Purchase produce in-season from local farmer’s markets or co-ops
12
Keep corporate accounting accurate and up-to-date, enabling operation decisions to be made about investing, hiring, and project management
12
Install water catchment systems to collect rainwater for use in home garden irrigation
10
When working from an alternative location (not home office) walk or bike
10
Properly dispose of all hazardous waste materials including batteries, paint and chemicals, lightbulbs, aerosol cans, and electronics
9
Properly dispose of all household hazardous waste materials including batteries, paint and chemicals, lightbulbs, aerosol cans, and electronics
9
Install a filtered water tap or water bottle refill station that provide high-quality drinking water and encourage employees to use them in place of bottled water
8
Ensure all windows and doors are properly installed, functioning, maintained, and weather-stripped, etc.
8
Encourage employee carpools
8
Significantly limit the amount of physical marketing materials you produce and limit amount of paper used (envelopes from marketing materials – use fold and mail when possible)
8
Use environmentally-friendly, non-toxic, bio-based cleaning products
8
Replace regular light bulbs with LED bulbs that last longer and save energy
8
Install timers on non-essential electrical appliances and reduce “vampire loads” by unplugging them when not in use to reduce business scope 2 emissions
8
Establish a paperless billing program for your customers and encourage use by creating incentives
8
Use concentrated cleaning products
8
Have accessible green space somewhere onsite or in close proximity to grounds including a garden, walking trail, or courtyard
8
Regularly evaluate employee satisfaction through interviews, surveys, or calculation of employee net promoter score
8
Weatherize your home by ensuring all windows and doors in your home are properly installed, functioning, maintained, weather-stripped, etc.
8
Use concentrated home cleaning products
8
Conduct investigations of ethical violations, and when substantiated hand out fair and reasonable consequences
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
Administer company-wide employee training on sustainability efforts both at work and at home
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
Replace all traditional bulbs with LED bulbs throughout your home work space
6
Use eco-friendly, bio-based, non-toxic home cleaning products
6
Use reusable cleaning products such as sponges or towels instead of paper towels throughout your home
6
Stop using all single-use plastic kitchen utensils, plates, bowls, and cups
6
Use reusable bags instead of plastic bags when shopping
6
Administer company-wide employee training on sustainability efforts related to home offices and general life practices
6
Use natural light throughout 75% of the day instead of overhead lights
5
Locate home office in room with ample windows to take advantage of daylighting
5
Become an active member, either by serving on the board, donating or volunteering time for an organization that continually works to improve the environment nationally or in your area
4
Recycle or sell your used toner cartridges
4
Develop a paper reduction policy that clearly defines when and how items should be printed to significantly reduce paper usage and consumption
4
Reduce junk mail by removing your business’ name from national direct marketing databases
4
Eliminate the use of disposable batteries and switch entirely to rechargeable
4
Use reusable cleaning products such as towels and sponges, eliminating paper towels
4
Use air-filtering plants throughout the office to improve indoor air quality and employee wellbeing
4
Print and copy double-sided when possible, to significantly reduce paper use and waste
4
Make your business’ sustainability efforts a central part of your message by filling out and linking to your GBB Member Profile and publishing your sustainability commitment on your website
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
Provide regular formal review, linked to a comprehensive development plan, with clear and constructive feedback to all employees using a well-defined, fair, and consistent process.
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
Add shades/window covering throughout your home to reduce heat gain
4
Reduce vampire loads by unplugging non-essential electrical appliances when not in use
4
Use smart power strips throughout your house in areas of high plug loads
4
Plant native, region-friendly plants in your home garden to minimize the impact on the local habitat and limit the amount of irrigation water needed
4
Opt out of receiving home junk mail
4
Stop purchasing single-use plastic waterbottles. Install a water filter if necessary
4
Create a board that is diverse and inclusive, made up of members with differences in thought, perspective, cultural and geographical background, age, ethnicity, race, gender, knowledge & skills–representative of the community and stakeholders
4
Create and implement a policy for protecting sensitive information
4
Conduct regular cyber/data security checks
4
Include a specific commitment to a positive social and environmental impact in your corporate mission statement
4
Accept and evaluate employee’s feedback about violations of your corporate ethics and conduct policy
4
Create and implement an employee code of conduct
4
Create and enforce a policy for preventing and addressing discrimination and harassment
4
Minimize air conditioning usage through natural ventilation by opening windows
3
Train employees on your cyber/data security policies and what to do in case of a potential breach
3
Designate your office as a smoke-free working environment with outside smoking areas 25 feet away from building entry areas and common walkways
2
Use ceiling fans in place of air conditioning when possible
2
Assist at least one other business in learning about sustainability, social responsibility, and green business efforts and encourage them to join the GBB
2
Commit to inviting, receiving and acting upon customer and community feedback in a welcoming and constructive way at all times.
2
Use ceiling fans and windows in place of air conditioning
2
Donate used clothing and furniture
2
Communicate pricing and services transparently, authentically, and consistently to all customers
2
Organize sustainability committee or green team to serve as your company’s leading advocates for greening efforts
1
Complete GBB’s Getting Started steps, including filling out your company’s Member Profile and the GBB Assessment
1
Develop a sustainability mission statement for your business and define your company’s core commitments
1
Populate your company’s green accomplishments in your EcoProfile
1
Announce your GBB Membership to all employees. Share the company green mission and commitment to become greener.
1
Use natural odor elimination
1
Relax the office dress code to allow for attire that doesn’t require dry cleaning
1
Eliminate the use of disposable batteries throughout your home and switch entirely to rechargeable
1