Suggested Green Star Policy:
Our policy is to improve environmental quality through wise business decisions. These include conserving energy, reducing or eliminating waste, recycling, and properly disposing of the remaining waste. We believe that our responsibility to prevent pollution is compatible with successful business objectives. Improving our productivity, efficiency, and materials handling requires regular review of operations. Our organization is actively working to achieve and maintain Green Star Standards and to be a model for other organizations and our community.

2. Designate a Green Star Coordinator and/or team.
An important component of successfully implementing Green Star Standards in your organization is the coordination, energy, and enthusiasm of at least one person. Ask for a volunteer to serve as the Green Star Coordinator, and consider including Green Star duties in this person’s job description. Encourage other people in the organization to play an active role in the Green Star Program and to pool their efforts and form a Green Star Team. The coordinator and/or Green Star Team ensures management, employees and students know about the Standards and that the organization is striving to meet the Standards. The coordinator communicates with the staff of Green Star, Inc. for information and assistance.

3. Provide three incentives or training opportunities that encourage management and employee participation in the Green Star Program.
As a Green Star enrollee, you recognize that waste reduction and energy conservation do make good economic and environmental sense for your business. Providing incentives can help your business achieve the Green Star Standards. Here are some suggestions; choose three of these or come up with your own incentive or training mechanism:

• Include waste reduction and recycling in performance appraisals, job descriptions, training programs, and/or employee orientations.
• Offer awards such as free bus passes, free or reserved parking for van/carpoolers, etc.
• Post a bulletin board of waste reduction, recycling, energy conservation, pollution prevention information.
• Create a suggestion box for new waste reduction and pollution prevention ideas.
  
• Offer monthly awards to employees or students who identify new areas for waste reduction and pollution prevention.
• Use a percentage of the money saved from energy conservation and waste reduction for employee or student programs and awards.
• Discuss the Green Star Program at staff meetings.
• Include reminders about Green Star Standards in newsletters and post on bulletin boards.
  

4. Notify your customers of your efforts to meet the Green Star Standards.
There are a variety of ways you can let people know you are working to become a Green Star Award winner. Here are a few suggestions:

• Post a sign listing steps your organization is taking to reduce waste and increase energy efficiency.
• Offer a tour of your facility that highlights pollution prevention efforts.

We encourage you to post your "Green Star Policy" statement in a visible location.

5. Assist at least one other organization in becoming a Green Star participant.
You can accomplish this by providing examples of your success to your neighboring businesses, providing information on the Green Star Program to your suppliers, or sharing pollution prevention ideas with members of your trade organization and/or other businesses, organizations, or schools. Consult Green Star for a list of organization that may benefit from your waste prevention efforts and for assistance with publizising your results.

6. Conduct an annual waste assessment specific to the award.
A waste assessment is an evaluation of operating practices to identify ways to eliminate waste through source reduction, reusing, recycling and conserving energy. To conduct a waste assessment, walk through your facility and visually inspect equipment to:

• Identify types and quantities of waste generated (for example, cardboard, office paper, hazardous wastes, etc.)
• If you are working toward your Air Quality Award, remember, emissions are wastes, too! You are encouraged to include all types of wastes in your assessment for your Air Quality Award, but you may focus mainly on emissions. Identify all emission-producing equipment and processes, including vehicles, furnaces, and parking lots (they produce dust from sanding material). Since directly measuring quantities of emissions is complex, use indirect measures. These include tracking vehicle trip miles for company and employee vehicles, assessing the number of employee and company vehicles that are plugging in at home and at work, monitoring utility usage (electricity and natural gas), monitoring fuel usage by company vehicles, tracking the amount and grade of traction sand used in parking lots, and noting the method and frequency of parking lot cleaning.
  

Then, analyze the information you’ve collected to identify ways to reduce wastes. Ask yourself these questions: Are there ways to reduce the amount of material or fuel used in the first place? (For example, purchasing reusable items instead of disposable ones, not leaving machinery running unnecessarily, or reducing vehicle trips.) Can the material be reused? (For example, using scrap paper for internal documents and note paper.) Is the material recyclable?

Read Chapter 2 of Becoming a Green Star for more information on conducting a waste assessment.

DOWNLOAD worksheets to help you conduct your waste assessment:

• General waste assessment, for Green Star Award (64K MS Word document)
• Emissions assessment, for Air Quality Award (64K MS Exel spreadsheet)

Please submit a copy of your waste assessment annually to the Green Star office.