Interview: Best Practices in Government Green Business Programs

Offices are where most of us work. And they are energy, water and paper hogs. The Energy Information Agency reports that offices annually use 676 trillion Btu of electricity and natural gas. Offices are the largest consumers of energy among all of America’s building types

Offices spend $14 billion annually on electricity and another $1 billion on natural gas. On average an office building's energy costs are about $1.50 per square foot compared to approximately $1.10 per square foot for other types of commercial buildings.

The good news is that there are proven best practices for offices to save money going green.

Pam Evans is the Green Business Coordinator for Alameda County’s Green Business Program. This program has an industry-leading certification process that assists businesses seeking to green their operations. The program provides a roadmap for what to do and experts to answer the “what and how” questions.

To-date over 500 businesses have gone through the audit and green certification process. Participating businesses include architects, attorneys, restaurants, dentists and dry cleaners.

I reached out to Pam to identify lessons learned.

She identified these three benefits for a business going through the green certification program:

1. Identification of cost effective ways to reduce waste and inefficiency
2. Cost reductions generate attractive returns on capital invested to achieve a reduction in waste or inefficiency
3. Increased store traffic and revenues resulting from customers seeing the certified green business window-decal provided to graduating businesses.

In the following video interview Pam identifies best practices that work in an office for achieving the triple-bottom-line results of cost reductions, an improved work environment for associates and a healthier, cleaner world.

Bill Roth is the founder of Earth 2017 and author of The Secret Green Sauce that profiles best practices of actual companies growing green revenues. Watch other interviews of sustainable leaders at Earth 2017 TV. Earth 2017 TV.