Recently, the Office of Sustainability has partnered with students in the Leadership for Managers and Entrepreneurs course within Pamplin College of Business to relaunch its Green Office Certification program this fall.

The program provides faculty, staff, and students with the tools needed to go green in their office spaces by distributing a checklist of sustainable practices to implement that focus on energy, alternative transportation, event and meeting planning, purchasing, recycling, and waste reduction, and more.

If you are unsure if your office should be participating in this crucial program, read below for 10 reasons why you should contact the Office of Sustainability today to participate.

Here are 10 reasons to become Green Office certified:

1. Help make campus and our community a greener, happier, and healthier place to work.

2. Reduce your personal environmental footprint.

3. Learn something new about how you can be sustainable in the workplace or even at home.

4. Save money for your office. Using resources more efficiently means spending less on office supplies and saving money by reducing energy and water usage.

5. Boost your creativity and innovation. There is an option at every level of certification to innovate, allowing offices to think of creative sustainable solutions for their office space.  

6. Get connected to a network of other Green Representatives. Participants will be added to a listserv of other Green Representatives from offices all across campus who care about sustainability and who they may not have met otherwise.

7. Attract new candidates when posting job openings who may be enticed to work in a green office. According to national research, "76 percent of millennials consider a company's social and environmental commitments when making employment decisions, as compared to 58 percent of U.S. job seekers on average." 

8. Earn a certificate and recognition on the Virginia Tech Office of Sustainability website for all your hard work.

9. Lead by example. Inspire others to care about the environment and create lasting sustainable habits that they may carry outside of the workplace.

10. Help Virginia Tech reach the goals outlined in the Climate Action Commitment.

Click here for complete details on the program.

Employees and departments who would like to learn more about Green Office Certification can contact sustainability@vt.edu to get started.

Written by Christy Myers


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