Sustainable Office Toolkit Awarded

Keep Georgia Beautiful recognized the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division (P2AD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources with the Environmental Stewardship Award for the development of the Sustainable Office Toolkit. This award is given annually to recognize efforts that embody cooperative planning and management of environmental resources in an interest of long-term sustainability.

The Sustainable Office Toolkit is a self-guided, web-based tool focused on reducing the environmental impacts of office-based business operations. This free set of resources and tools help offices of all types and sizes move towards sustainability through practices such as recycling, energy and water conservation, and environmentally preferable purchasing.

“One of the primary goals of the Sustainable Office Toolkit is to help office-based businesses move beyond thinking of recycling as their only opportunity to address their environmental impact,” said Suzanne Burnes, Assistant Director of P2AD and Manager of the Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia. “While we see recycling as a key practice for all businesses, it only addresses one part of the organizations’ sustainability, and we advocate that businesses take a comprehensive approach to understanding their total footprint and implementing practices to reduce it.”

The Sustainable Office Toolkit provides a portal to the best resources on the web relevant to business sustainability in Georgia, organized in a way that guides users from the initial conceptualizing of their sustainability policy through defining program goals; identifying, prioritizing and implementing projects; measuring results; getting management and employee buy-in; and promoting program successes. This free resource is available by visiting www.p2ad.org/toolkit.

Through the Sustainable Office Toolkit, Georgia businesses can join the Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia, a performance-based environmental leadership program. Free and open to any business or organization that operates in Georgia, the Partnership offers a variety of incentives, including cost savings through increased efficiencies, free technical assistance and training, and access to networking and mentoring among peers, state and local officials. The Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia was established by P2AD to foster environmental leadership and recognize superior environmental performance.

P2AD is a non-regulatory division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Since 1993, P2AD has provided free, confidential environmental technical assistance in the areas of water conservation, waste reduction, energy conservation, by-product reuse, and recycling. For more information about P'AD, Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia, or Sustainable Office Toolkit call 404-651-5120 or 800-685-2443 or visit www.p2ad.org.