The Office of Sustainability recently certified the Department of Chemistry with a silver Sustainable Office certification! This is the first academic department to become certified in the program. A silver certification indicates that the office has completed over 60 of the sustainable office actions. These actions are categorized by ‘Participation & Engagement,’ ‘Climate & Energy,’ ‘Food & Dining,’ ‘Purchasing,’ ‘Community Building & Social Equity,’ ‘Transportation,’ ‘Waste,’ Water,’ and ‘Events & Meetings.’ In order for a department or office to be certified, they must complete actions in each of these categories.
Each certified office appoints a Sustainable Office Representative. Jennifer Cummings is the representative for the Department of Chemistry. Jennifer is committed to this program and is even looking for ways her department can improve from silver to gold. She said, "We are very excited to be the first academic department to become certified in the program. It was fairly easy to obtain the Silver Certification as we had already initiated sustainable practices. We hope to continue to find ways to be environmentally friendly and obtain a gold certification."
The Sustainable Office Program was launched in the Spring of 2015. It now has certified 7 offices (3 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze) and there are multiple offices in the certification process. Notice that there are currently no platinum certified offices. My challenge to you is to register your office for the Sustainable Office Program and go for platinum! I look forward to seeing more offices and departments join the program!
Let us know your office is interested in the program by filling out the registration form. A Sustainable Office team member will further discuss the program with your office before beginning.