Corporate Sustainability

OUR APPROACH:

Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA) assists corporate clients to achieve increased sustainability practices and environmental footprint reduction through facility and policy benchmarking and analysis. A focused effort of planning, auditing, analysis, and ultimately implementation of more efficient systems can result in significant cost and resource savings which can be realized immediately and yield benefits over the long-term. This process of analysis draws attention to its business management practices, systems and policies, which when altered can reduce consumption of materials, generate new recycling opportunities, decrease energy, waste and water, and cut costs. In addition, the process often results in cross-collaboration between employees who interact outside of their own departments in order to develop environmental footprint reduction practices, which can result in productive partnerships.

The key audit areas include the following:

Energy and water consumption
Waste prevention and recycling
Travel and transportation
Operations and maintenance
Human resources
Information technology
Sustainable sourcing
Financing
Building and remodeling

In addition, SWA analyzes the impacts of the products and services companies provide, and seeks out environmental footprint reduction strategies.

STRATEGIC PLANNING:

SWA’s corporate sustainability services typically begin with a strategic planning session during which the specific areas to be addressed during the audit are determined. The strategic planning meeting brings together key stakeholders in the company who will be involved in the process from start to finish, including identification of areas to be analyzed as well as how to integrally involve personnel in opportunity identification and implementation strategies. The strategic planning meeting often results in the formation of a steering committee and sub-committees. The committees participate in SWA interviews to develop the company’s existing practices. They also participate in facilities audits and the development of a master sustainability or environmental footprint reduction plan.

AUDITS:

SWA audits include visual inspections combined with interviews which reveal existing practices and opportunities for improvements. Simple and cost effective sustainability measures are possible in each of the key audit areas.

Some examples from SWA’s comprehensive auditing process and the related recommendations include the following:

Lighting (install high efficiency lighting)
Water devices (install low-flow devices)
File storage (change from paper to electronic files)
Hard to recycle materials (develop recycling programs for batteries, cell phones, toner/ink cartridges, glasses, and electronics, in addition to basic recyclables)
Videoconferencing and telecommuting (install and approve systems)
Janitorial products (change to green cleaning products)
Paint (change to Low or No-VOC paints)
Landscaping (change to Integrated pest management (IPM) strategies)
Sourcing and procurement (change to recycled content products
Electronics settings (change to energy savings settings)
Training and participation opportunities
Criteria for future build and/or renovate projects

This auditing tool is used to track a company's existing practices and to make recommendations for increasing sustainability.

Additionally, SWA works with clients to reach more difficult goals such as installing variable frequency drive pumps and motors; developing food donation systems for cafeteria and catering leftovers, and food composting systems for food scraps; installing EnergyStar dishwashers and using durable dishware instead of disposables; installing greywater systems for reuse of sink water for landscaping irrigation; and installing renewable energy systems like photovoltaics (solar panels), wind, wave, or ground source heat pumps (after energy loads have been reduced through conservation measures). These measures involve more significant capital investments and/or policy changes, and can often result in major environmental footprint reduction and cost savings.

Implementation:

SWA works with corporations which range from one office to hundreds of facilities across the globe. In one facility, SWA will work with a small team to translate the audit findings into a scope of work. In order to implement global sustainability practices, SWA assists companies to establish green governance structures, including Environmental Footprint steering committees, categorical sub committees (i.e. sourcing, travel and transportation, facilities, human resources, communications and outreach, etc.). Additionally, a team of environmental ambassadors (typically one at every facility) is formed to aid in implementation. SWA develops on-line surveys to be distributed to ambassadors across the world to capture baseline data on their facilities’ existing sustainability practices; surveys are completed again post-implementation to gauge the effectiveness of the program.

This survey tool is used to develop the existing environmental footprint. Annual surveys provide a means to tracking progress.