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Are
you looking for ways to make your business more sustainable and
decrease your energy costs? If
the answer is “yes” we invite you to join this program.
The
Boston
Redevelopment Authority (BRA) is partnering with the Sustainable
Business Network of Greater Boston (SBN) to assist 25 small and
mid-sized businesses that join the new Sustainable Business Leader
Program (SPLP).
Our goal is to meet the
unique needs and challenges of local businesses by providing technical
assistance that is affordable, practical, and actionable.
Here’s
how SBLP works. Twenty-five
local Boston
businesses will be selected for the initial SBLP class.
- Each
business will be assigned an SBLP Coordinator who will:
- Work with management to complete a Sustainability Assessment
of your facilities and operations in six areas:
energy conservation, water conservation, pollution
prevention, transportation, waste reduction, and sustainability
management
- Offer recommendations to reduce your environmental impact as a
business
- Work with management to develop an Action Plan that you can
implement
- Provide ongoing technical assistance and direction over 12
months to help you implement the Action Plan
- At
the end of the program, sustainability performance results will be
published (in the aggregate to protect your privacy rights) to
help other local businesses be more sustainable, environmentally
and socially responsible, and save money.
- Businesses
that complete the program will be designated a “Sustainable
Business Leader.”
We invite your business
to apply for the Sustainable Business Leader Program by completing the
application and returning it to
Jennifer Boudrie by May 23, 2008.
Businesses that are accepted pay an enrollment fee of $250 to
offset technical assistance costs. This
project is funded in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Department
of Environmental Protection.
SBLP
selection will consider a range of criteria to ensure applicant pool
diversity including but not limited to a fair representation of
Boston's 18 neighborhoods and business types (e.g. retail, office,
restaurants, light manufacturing), and a complete application
narrative. Businesses must be based in the City of Boston to
apply and have about 100 full-time-equivalent employees or fewer.
We encourage you to
participate in this program which is intended to have a positive
impact not only on your businesses but also the greater Boston
business community.
If you have questions or need more information please contact
Jennifer Boudrie, SBLP Director at 617-271-1954 or visit our website
at www.SustainableBusinessLeader.org
.
Jennifer
Boudrie
Director,
Sustainable Business Leader Program
617-271-1954
Jen@SustainableBusinessLeader.org
________________________________________________________________________
How
the Program Works
Once your business is enrolled in the SBLP, the program works as follows:
STEP
1... Complete the Sustainability Assessment Form
Please take no more
than two weeks to complete as much of this form as possible. If you
have questions while completing the form, contact Jennifer Boudrie at
617-271-1954 or email Jen@SustainableBusinessLeader.org.
STEP
2... Initial Site Visit
As
soon as the form is completed, the SBLP coordinator will contact you
to set up an initial site visit, tour the business site, help complete
any remaining items in the assessment form, and may verify some
measures listed in your form and take photographs for our files.*
STEP
3... Develop
an Action Plan
Based
on the assessment and results obtained from steps one and two, SBLP
will recommend improvement actions.
In a follow-up visit, the SBLP and you will select the
improvement actions that you commit to, which will constitute your
action plan.
STEP
4... Implementation
You implement the action plan
improvements. SBLP will
provide guidance in selecting the services and vendors you need.
STEP
5... Ongoing
Assistance and Monitoring
SBLP will provide ongoing assistance during the
approximately 12-month lifecycle of the program.
You will prepare quarterly progress reports to SBLP.
STEP
6... Program Evaluation
At
the end of the program SBLP will evaluate the success of each business’s
action plan and prepare an overall report with best practices to help
a great many businesses become more sustainable.
*Individual
company information is confidential. Final
results for 25 companies will be published in an aggregate report.
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