Whether it is because your company has decided to do the “right thing” and become certified sustainable to protect the environment; or because you have read about the more than $1 trillion in consumer/corporate spending looking to move to certified sustainable organizations, and you want to get your share; or because you have seen the studies that illustrate certified sustainable organizations are out-performing their non-certified peers in sales, profits and valuation; or you want to improve your brand image; or you want to increase productivity, health and happiness of your employees; or you want to lower costs—you have decided to become a certified sustainable organization!
Now what?
It is reported there are over 400 sustainability certification programs around the world.
How do you evaluate and pick which will be right for your organization?
First, it is important to address why a “certification” is needed at all. Why can’t a sustainability program be pursued internally? The simple answer is, the market is skeptical of organizations that self-certify sustainability. Even if everything is done right, brand recognition is extremely difficult to obtain, as are revenue-side benefits, if a company self-certifies.
Therefore, if you wish to maximize becoming sustainable, use a certification standard that meets the below criteria:
- Employee Performance and Health Enhancement—Sustainability is not just about energy savings or “Greening Up.” It is about people, and how people grow and prosper in the environment—without destroying the environment.
If a program, claiming to be a sustainability certification, does not have a “people piece” that quantifies improvement of the performance and health of the employees in the business, it is not a true sustainability program.
Every organization in the world suffers from the Big Five: employee insomnia, stress, anxiety, physical pain and mental acuity. Studies show the cost of the Big Five to U.S. organizations is $7,000-$12,000 in lost sales per year, per full-time employee. Similar studies have been conducted, with similar results, in Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, Japan and France. For example, a company with 100 employees loses between $700,000-$1,200,000 on average per year due to the Big 5.
- Certify the Business, Not the Box—People care about things that affect people. Building-centric certifications are seldom sustainability programs, as they focus on reduction of the building (aka box). They seldom concern themselves with what goes on inside the box, which includes human-centric concerns, e.g., the Big Five, water, waste, safety, community, vendors, clients, etc.
Furthermore, building-centric programs are hard to promote and tie to sales/revenue. It is difficult to grow sales by advocating for the product as the building itself; However, by obtaining a certification and involving office employees, the pitch transforms because it is a product made by a sustainable company. This approach is far more attractive because it highlights the direct connection between an organizational entity (the brand) and positive impact of sustainability on people.
- Third-Party Audit—Regardless of the industry, any certification or accreditation program must have a third-party audit process to maintain credibility. Just like standardized tests in public schools that verify student aptitude, an independent party verifies that the organization pursuing/receiving the certification has truly accomplished the conditions required to acquire the certification. Without the audit, an organization can make exaggerated claims and the certification loses credibility and value to the marketplace.
- Use a Global Standard to Maximize Credibility—In order to maximize the market’s positive response to your organization’s receipt of a sustainability certification, select a standard that is globally recognized in multiple countries, or, at least, used and respected in the countries you expect to have exposure to. A local, regional or even national certification may meet all the requirements on its face, but if it is not recognized and respected globally, the company will not maximize the brand-building or revenue-side benefit of having it.
- Promotion of the Certification—Many people in the sustainability industry follow the three Ps of sustainability: People, Planet and Profit. To those, add “promotion” (i.e., People, Planet, Promotion and Profit), because if a company’s sustainability program isn’t promoted, the market will never provide returns.
- Continuous Improvement—Some programs establish a very high bar. These can be expensive, time-consuming, frustrating and, in many cases, unattainable. This may be intimidating for those in the company. So find a program that does not push for too much initial change and follows the concept of continual improvement. Like the tortoise and hare, it may take the organization longer to see big changes, but this process will also create stamina for the long-term goal of changing attitudes and behaviors.
- Annual Update—Sustainability should not be a static process; it should be a continual process. No matter where an organization starts, it can always seek to improve. So, every year a company needs to audit its certification to reflect that annual change and improvement.
- Cost—Cost is always a factor. Cost includes:
a) the money paid for the certification;
b) the money paid for the improvements to qualify for the certification;
c) the cost of the audit (if it is a legitimate program); and
d) the cost of staff time.
Companies need a certification program that delivers on the seven critical criteria above without giving into the pressure from the four components of cost.
The good news is there are sustainability certification programs that deliver on all of the above standards. If contractors follow this guide, they will find a program they can be happy with.
