New Guide Offers Tips For Building A Sustainability Program

If you need help building support for sustainability efforts at your facility, you might want to check out the new “Sustainability 101″ Quick Guide from Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI). The guide offers a comprehensive overview of how companies today are creating business value from sustainability plus guidance to help sustainability professionals develop, manage, and grow their programs.

building-a-sustainability-program“A successful corporate sustainability strategy requires senior management support, and GEMI’s new ‘Sustainability 101’ resource will help environmental, health, and safety professionals facilitate that discussion and earn critical leadership buy-in,” said Roland Mostovy, Sustainability Program manager, Ashland Inc., and GEMI’s membership chair. “Whether a company is talking about sustainability for the first time or wants to better align an existing program with the larger business strategy, this primer will show how to navigate the complexities, gather feedback, research the right opportunities, and set goals and measurements.”

The “Sustainability 101” guide provides a baseline understanding of the subject; offers a simple approach to tackling an often complex, sometimes vague topic; and supports discussion within an organization about how to build greater business value from a company’s approach to sustainability. It charts five important action steps for EHS professionals and executives to consider as they determine how sustainability can bring value to their businesses. It also includes supporting case studies from GEMI members and an index of recommended external resources.

“Sustainability isn’t an easy topic, and that’s why GEMI exists – to collaborate on sustainability solutions, tools, and resources as well as leveraging our own experiences to help others solve these challenges,” said Bill Gill, assistant vice president, Environmental Affairs, Smithfield Foods, and chair, GEMI. “Our organization has been working on this latest resource for three months, and we’re proud to offer it for free on our website.”

The “Sustainability 101” guide is part of GEMI’s larger Quick Guide series that features practices to address real-time issues and sustainability concepts, supported with mini case studies from member companies. Click here to download the free guide.