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NeighborWorks Affiliates' Green Projects
Organizational Improvements
Neighborhood Development Services, Ravenna, OH
Sustainability Consulting
Some staff members at Neighborhood Development Services (NDS) in Ohio are now certified sustainability consultants, after taking extensive training on assessing an organization's environmental performance and identifying cost-effective ways the organizations can go green.
After training, the group implemented sustainability solutions for their own organization, including moving to a four-day work week to help its employees save on high gas prices. (See media mentions:
Reuters | Christian Science Monitor).
NDS also established a service to conduct carbon footprint audits for other companies. The NDS audit consists of several components including analysis of utility bills, travel history, daily commutes, recycling, interviews and surveys with staff, data collection, computation with a special carbon measuring calculator, analysis of data collected and final reports that can lead to follow ups with organizations.
NDS staff were certified by Strategic Sustainability Consulting, a Bethesda, MD-based company. The company focuses on helping staff at nonprofits with limited resources to become certified strategic sustainability consultants who can perform carbon footprint audits not only for their own organization, but also for other organizations concerned about their carbon impact.
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Montgomery Housing Partnership, Silver Spring, MD
Green Team
In an effort to reduce their carbon footprint, staff at Montgomery Housing Partnership (MHP) located in Silver Spring, MD implemented a “Green Team” to recognize their deficiencies in carbon emissions and to establish goals on how to reduce them. The “Green Team” consists of seven member rrepresenting each of MHPs seven departments.
Recognizing that their organization did not have an organized method to educate their staff about carbon footprint impacts or on how to implement carbon reduction measures MHPs “Green Team” sought out to do just that. The green team meets every three weeks to track what progress has been made, strategize on green goals, and to decide what new practices should be implemented next.
The most immediate actions that the team decided to pursue were: cutting back on paper usage, reduction in power consumption, increase in office recycling, reduction in commuter miles via car vehicles, withdrawal of cleaning products that are not environmentally friendly, disposal of outdated computers by recycling them, elimination of plastic disposable utensils in the office, and most importantly staff education.
To reach these goals, MHP established “pre-green team” baselines, creating a starting point of implementation for the organization. Next, they decided on what actions should be taken from the goals that they decided upon from their baselines. Finally, they agreed to chart their results every three months to ensure that they were on track to meet their goals. Currently, MHP is on target to meet the goals that they have established are making head way in reducing their carbon footprint.
Learn more about MHP.
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