A Deeper Shade of Green: Lessons from a Sustainable Practitioner

Creating a Sustainable Future for your Company, Clients, and Community

CONTENTSCHAMPION THE CAUSE FROM THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE 2

#StandWithWildlife 3Vital Voices of the Environment 3Sustainable Breakfast Series 3

Earth Day Commitment 4

IDENTIFY YOUR IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT 6

Carbonfund.org Partnership 6Carbonfund Pooled U.S. Forestry Projects 7Federal Supplier Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Pilot 7Green Practices Metrics 7

CREATE AN INTERNAL SUSTAINABILITY PLAN 8

Creating Your Sustainability Plan 9Climate Change Adaptation Plan 9

ORGANIZE AN INTERNAL GREEN TEAM TO FOCUS AND ENGAGE YOUR STAFF 10

Green Vision Council 11PARTNER WITH OTHERS TO SHARE RESOURCES AND PLAN FOR THE FUTURE 12

EPA Green Power Partnership 13The Climate, Environment and Readiness (CLEAR) Plan 13Protecting Land for the Future (the Conservation Conveyance) 13Partnering for Success 14The Marstel-Day/Stafford Printing Green Frontier Award 14The Green Gala 15

ENHANCE YOUR ECO-LEADERSHIP 16

NSF P391 16Sustainability Partners 17AWE EcoLeadership Award 17White House Champion of Change 17

IN CONCLUSION 18

Developing a robust, company-wide culture of sustainability requires

passion, commitment, and a well-crafted and carefully-executed

plan. Moving an organization to a culture of sustainability can be done by focusing on a series of activities,

both internal and external. Over time, Marstel-Day has developed

a grassroots sustainability culture, encouraging employees to offer and implement new sustainability ideas,

and passing business decisions and work products through a conservation

lens before delivery to the client. Read on to learn how the building

blocks of sustainability can be implemented within your company.

A Deeper Shade of Green: Lessons from a Sustainable PractitionerCreating a Sustainable Future for your Company, Clients, and Community

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CHAMPION THE CAUSE FROM THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE Sustainability is everyone’s job – especially the CEO’s. People often equate sustainability with “being green,” but in the broader sense, it’s about positioning the company for long-term success. It involves continuously paying attention to the economic, environmental, and social considerations that support a company’s ongoing viability. With change as a constant, sustainability becomes a journey, and success most likely occurs when the philosophy and support originate from the top. Developing a company-wide culture of sustainability requires dedication and leadership focus, and it leads to innovation, vibrancy, and ownership at all levels of the organization. The commitment begins with the CEO regularly communicating the importance of sustainability throughout the company, from boardroom to mailroom to lunchroom.

Creating a culture of sustainability requires an organization to focus its communications and actions. To do this effectively:

R Communicate the business rationale for sustainability. Explain what it means to the company in the long term. RMake sustainability part of every decision process and communicate this broadly. Employees may be unaware that routine business decisions are evaluated through a sustainability lens; building awareness is critical.

DO make your sustainability focus known through staff meetings, e-mails, websites, Facebook, Twitter, or other forms of communication. DON’T delegate sustainability communications solely to your chief sustainability officer (CSO) or the sustainability department.

“It’s critically important that people understand how much the CEO personally cares about the company’s sustainability practices. By consistently including it as a factor in decision making, and empowering our employees to seek creative solutions for sustainability challenges … it’s quite remarkable how quickly it creates an organizational synergy that grows over time.”

- Rebecca R. Rubin Founder, President and CEO

Marstel-Day, LLC

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#StandWithWildlife#StandWithWildlife, Marstel-Day’s wildlife conservation awareness campaign, is a 12–month effort designed to highlight major wildlife conservation issues of our time and provide opportunities for participants to become engaged and take action. The campaign was conceived by Marstel-Day’s president and CEO, Rebecca R. Rubin, in response to the inhumane treatment of the large numbers of elephants that are killed annually for their tusks. To date, the speakers have addressed issues such as the international trade in endangered species, the role of urban wildlife refuges and interactive phone apps in reintroducing children to nature, and the ecological impact of plastics on oceans and seas. Videos of these and other presentations are available on Marstel-Day’s website a http://www.marstel-day.com/media/stand-with-wildlife/.

Vital Voices of the EnvironmentFrom conservation efforts led by the U.S. Department of the Interior, to the effects of climate change on the winter sports industry, Marstel-Day’s Vital Voices of the Environment audio- and videocasts explore the scope and magnitude of environmental challenges facing organizations and individuals today. The ongoing series has included speakers who bring a wealth of experience to the topics at hand, be it environmental security, sea level rise, the origins of Earth Day, or the deadly effect of ocean trash on seabirds. By targeting

multiple aspects of key environmental issues, Vital Voices of the Environment has a relevant message for anyone interested in preserving our planet’s natural attributes for future generations.

Sustainable Breakfast SeriesRecognizing that local sustainability efforts can be as unique as the organizations operating within a region, Marstel-Day established a sustainable breakfast series where community leaders are invited to talk about their organizational practices and how they contribute to a sustainable economy, environment, or a sustainable society. Each event is open to a limited number of Marstel-Day staff, who sign up on a first-come, first-served basis for the sessions in which they have a personal interest. Over breakfast in an informal setting, employees hear about key community initiatives and interact with the presenters. Speakers have represented Rappahannock Goodwill Industries, Community Cloud Forest Conservation, Tree Fredericksburg, Downtown Greens, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Litterati, Walk Oakland Bike Oakland, Back to the Roots, NextGen, the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, and the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Clean and Green Commission.

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EARTH DAY COMMITMENTEach year on the Friday before Earth Day, Marstel-Day mobilizes its employees to participate in environmental protection and conservation projects within their communities. Since 2008, the company has dedicated more than 4,000 volunteer hours to these endeavors. In keeping with the CEO’s commitment to conservation, every employment contract stipulates participation in Earth Day activities. Examples of past projects include the following:

R planting 1,000 longleaf pine seedlings at the Joseph Pines Preserve in Sussex County, Virginia (a satellite location of the Meadowview Biological Research Station) to help restore a rare species in the state R partnering with the Friends of Sausal Creek to help with watershed restoration at the Joaquin Miller Court Trailhead R working with the Friends of the Rappahannock to build 3-D oyster reef structures, which will be seeded and placed in the Rappahannock River or a tidal tributary R volunteering with the Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation in Southern California to remove and dispose of non-native trees species, and replant native trees R cleaning up the historic scenic byway within the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park R extending a multiyear partnership with the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Electronic and Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program to increase the base’s waste reduction and recycling efforts R partnering with Tree Fredericksburg to plant trees within the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, to help increase the urban canopy, bringing to more than 400 the number of trees that Marstel-Day has planted as part of a multiyear effort R participating in a program with Urban Biofilter to build mobile biofilters that collect, sequester, and transform pollutants for use within the city of Oakland, California R supporting trail refurbishment at the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge’s Port Royal Unit R participating in the Lake Merritt Institute volunteer lake cleanup to remove significant amounts of waste that would otherwise pollute the local watershed R building a 2,600-square-foot rain garden with Downtown Greens to prevent runoff of polluted water into nearby waterways during rain events

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“There has to be one moment when you tie it to your community.”

-Rebecca R. Rubin

from a 2013 interview with the Washington Post, “Life at Work: At Marstel-Day, Employees Take Earth Day Seriously”

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IDENTIFY YOUR IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENTPursuing sustainability has evolved from its status as a novelty within the business world to a position tied to shareholder expectation and a company’s competitive advantage. Whether evaluating the need for sustainable operations to meet government regulations, attracting customers who seek more environmentally friendly options, or pursuing sustainability as a cost-saving initiative, the business case for sustainability has moved from the realm of “nice to have” to a mainstream competitive reality.

The first step in determining your company’s opportunities and exposures involves completing a lifecycle assessment of the carbon footprint of your product or service. From the supplies you purchase, the fuel used to heat and cool your facilities, the waste your operations generate, and the business travel of your employees, to the final product or service you deliver to clients, each step in the continuum has environmental consequences. Understanding your product or service lifecycle allows you to assess the impacts most significant to you and your stakeholders, and to map out a step-by-step plan to reduce or capitalize on them. By measuring your carbon footprint and setting goals to achieve measurable reductions, you create a baseline for evaluating your performance over time. Using associated metrics allows you to track progress against your goals. Tools like the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database provide a venue to publicly share your commitment by presenting your sustainability report to a global audience.

Carbonfund.org Partnership

Marstel-Day offsets its GHG emissions through a long-standing partnership

with Carbonfund.org, a nonprofit dedicated to leading the fight against global warming through education, outreach, and carbon offsets, Its

work involves investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy and

methane, and reforestation and avoided deforestation projects, all of which help

to offset carbon emissions.

Marstel-Day has been a Carbonfund.org partner since 2010. The company has offset more than 1,776 metric tons of carbon dioxide

equivalent emissions, which represents the company’s carbon footprint from its largest emissions sources: office

space and business travel. Marstel-Day shares the Carbonfund.org objective for

energy use and emission reduction: Reduce what you can

Offset what you can’t TM.

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Carbonfund Pooled U.S. Forestry ProjectsOne of the Carbonfund.org projects that Marstel-Day invests in is a reforestation project geared toward small- and medium-scale landowners throughout the United States. Projects like this one have helped to pioneer the voluntary U.S. carbon markets by providing a platform for landowners to pool their reforestation activities. In total, the projects have aggregated hundreds of landowners – from Texas and Arkansas to Illinois and Michigan – and sequestered more than 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. In addition to helping to diversify the income of farmers and ranchers, the reforestation activities have provided ecosystem services such as reduced erosion, improvement in top soil quality, improved wildlife habitat, and water filtration and water storage.1

Federal Supplier Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory PilotIn 2011, Marstel-Day joined the Federal Supplier Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Pilot, which was run by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine if small businesses could successfully measure and reduce their carbon footprint. The pilot was initially launched to assist 60–80 small businesses in completing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories through the EPA Climate Leaders Program. The GSA hoped to identify the benefits and challenges associated with inventorying and disclosing GHG emissions data. The GSA wanted to understand what types of outreach, training, assistance, and incentives would encourage the federal contractor community to inventory and disclose their GHG emissions data.

Why focus on small business? According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), small businesses comprise 99.7 percent of U.S. employer firms, 64 percent of net new private-sector jobs, and 49.2 percent of private-sector employment. This often overlooked segment of the economy will ultimately play a large role in driving marketplace sustainability.

During its participation in the pilot, Marstel-Day established a baseline GHG inventory, measured its year-over-year progress with GHG reduction, and offset its carbon footprint through a partnership with Carbonfund.org. When the pilot ended in 2012, the GSA noted that the participants helped “create a road map … to develop best practices and strategies for small businesses who want to reduce their GHG emissions.” The GSA noted the key role that training and expert consulting assistance plays in the creation of a GHG inventory. Today, the EPA maintains climate change resources on its website, providing many useful tools and resources for businesses and individuals looking to reduce their impact on the environment.

Green Practices Metrics In 2010, Marstel-Day created a baseline inventory of its green practices. Documenting its efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle across multiple operational categories (i.e., water, energy, waste, furniture, supplies, technology, and transportation), the company also expanded its measures to outreach efforts. Five years later, the company’s green practices matrix has grown from a consolidated company-wide view of approximately 35 measures to nearly 100 internal and external efforts across multiple offices. The matrix not only provides a record of goals and progress over time, but also allows each employee to see how individual efforts combine to help the company mitigate its impact on the environment.

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CREATE AN INTERNAL SUSTAINABILITY PLANSustainability is not just about reducing costs and increasing your customer base. It’s about addressing all of the factors that ensure your long-term viability – and make your business sustainable. Sustainability is a foundational concept for a company. As the EPA summarizes it, “Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.”2

Sustainability has often been characterized as having three main focuses: social health, environmental health, and economic health, or, in popular parlance, people, planet and profits. Traditional financial reporting speaks to the economic health of a company, while corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is a more common mechanism for addressing a company’s social and environmental performance. The sustainability plan, with its emphasis on environmental performance, is a key component of a high-quality CSR report. By identifying the company’s material impacts on the environment, benchmarking its current performance, and establishing areas for improvement, a sustainability plan allows a company to mobilize its internal resources and engage its stakeholders in support of the plan. The CSR report provides the company an opportunity to update stakeholders on its stewardship, the success of its environmental commitments, and its strategies to address future environmental challenges.

The sustainability plan also encompasses a realistic evaluation of less-traditional threats to a business. Climate change poses a serious and quantifiable risk to operations and infrastructure no matter a business’ location, but especially in or near coastal areas. According to the Risky Business Project’s 2014 report on climate change, some of the most significant effects on business are “damage to coastal property and infrastructure from rising sea levels and increased storm surge, climate-driven changes in agricultural production and energy demand, and the impact of higher temperatures on labor productivity and public health.”3 Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy provided indisputable proof that a single storm can cause billions of dollars of impact.

The importance of assessing and planning for potential environmental impacts cannot be overstated. All businesses face risks due to environmental factors, especially climate change. That assessment of risks and probabilities should inform your company’s sustainability planning. By establishing a policy, creating the plan, setting measurable goals, and reporting on the results, you can not only help to drive organizational change, but also assure your stakeholders that you are preparing for the long term.

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Creating Your Sustainability PlanThe federal government provided guidance in 2011 to help its agencies implement climate change planning. Its five-step process can be easily adapted within the private sector to create a sustainability plan:

R Establish an Environmental Sustainability Policy. R Increase understanding of your company’s material environmental impacts and how the impacts of climate change can affect them.

R Apply this understanding to your mission and operations. R Develop, prioritize, and implement mitigation and adaptation actions. R Evaluate results and apply lessons learned.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions plays a large role in climate mitigation, while the assessment of risks and planning for future events are both primary components of an adaptation strategy. A company’s mitigation and adaptation efforts combine to form the basis of its sustainability plan.

Climate Change Adaptation Plan Marstel-Day’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan resulted from the company’s desire to proactively address the impacts of climate change on its long-term operational planning. In addition, its environmental consulting work within the federal sector provided an opportunity to equip its clients with the tools and insights necessary to incorporate climate change considerations into their planning and budgeting cycles. Given the sphere of influence of many of Marstel-Day’s clients, this practice allows the company’s planning to reach and influence a much broader audience.

The Marstel-Day plan was based on geographic, scientific, and demographic analysis, and then followed by scenario-driven planning. First, an assessment was made of the primary impacts of climate change, and several community-level adaptation strategies were developed. The impacts were then grouped into categories: the built environment (buildings and development, transportation infrastructure, energy systems, and stormwater infrastructure), the natural environment (wetlands, agriculture, groundwater, flora, and fauna), and the social environment (economy, public health, and emergency services). To bring internal planning to a level applicable to Marstel-Day, projected impacts of climate change were correlated to the company’s office locations. Ultimately, Marstel-Day developed a response tool to identify and prioritize actions that leverage opportunities and mitigate the climate-change impacts. Both the methodology and tool follow a replicable process, and the resultant mitigation and adaptation measures are tracked and adjusted over time.

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ORGANIZE AN INTERNAL GREEN TEAM TO FOCUS AND ENGAGE YOUR STAFFEmployees that are involved with the day-to-day operations of the organization have unique insight into both practical and innovative areas for improvement. By providing employees with company-sanctioned opportunities to identify and implement strategies to reduce resource use and share that environmental knowledge via community outreach, an organization can tap into motivated change agents. Even more effective is formalizing the arrangement by establishing a small group of green champions to help drive sustainability improvements within the company and monitor previously implemented initiatives. In addition to their regular work activities, the internal “Green Team” members spend a few hours monthly on this assignment – typically for six to eight months – which allows them enough time to formulate and carry out their initiatives. By keeping the Green Team focused for the relatively short timeframe and on the deliverables that they have committed to, members will deliver projects that have measurable positive results.

Several key strategies can help an internal Green Team succeed: R Rotate membership; it keeps the ideas and dynamics fresh. R Keep team members in their normal jobs; embedded in their current roles, they can more easily share their initiatives and learnings with coworkers. R Empower the team to suggest any ideas that it believes are feasible and desirable; narrow the list only after exploring the rationale for each. R Encourage team members to involve coworkers in implementing the projects, as appropriate, during their rotation on the team. R Share the team’s successes broadly via staff meetings and newsletters or other media. R Appoint a team advisor, who preferably has institutional knowledge and who can help keep the team focused on the end results. R Rotate the team leadership, and use that role to develop and embed sustainability champions back in the organization. RMeet monthly to check the progress of team projects and solicit ideas and assistance for team projects. R Engage company leadership, human resources, and communications teams to encourage all staff to identify and share innovative, green solutions to business challenges confronting the company and its clients.

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Green Vision CouncilIn 2009, Marstel-Day began exploring the idea of bringing together a rotating cadre of employees from all across the organization to promote environmental awareness, reduce the company’s carbon footprint, and increase its sustainability. The team envisioned its role as recommending the incorporation, adoption, and promotion of progressive environmental standards and practices that demonstrate the company’s commitment to being a leader in energy and sustainable environmental excellence.4 That became the genesis of the Marstel-Day Green Vision Council (GVC), a group of employees who, in addition to their regular job assignments, spend six months working on company sustainability initiatives. Each GVC is headed by a chairperson, serving in a rotating position, who along with the company’s CSO, provides direction and guidance to GVC members as they develop and implement green projects. Over the years, the GVC has pursued diverse initiatives – from installing rain barrels and bike racks, and greening the supply chain to putting water-flow regulators on faucets, and growing native plant and vegetable gardens. Its reach has even extended into the community: the GVC created a “Greening Your Business” primer that has been presented at community business forums and Chamber of Commerce events. With each new project that the GVC undertakes, it helps the company reach “a deeper shade of green.”

Clockwise from left: The GVC encourages employees to use reusable water bottles to minimize their dependency on plastic water bottles. The GVC suggested the use of composting bins. Employees use the compost created throughout the year to plant the Marstel-Day vegetable garden. The GVC helps to identify green suppliers and office supplies made of recycled materials. GVC Lead for the 2015 cycle,

John Broughton, holds a Long Leaf Pine sapling during Earth Day activities. Every employee is offered a set of reusable bamboo utensils to use in place of plastic utensils.

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PARTNER WITH OTHERS TO SHARE RESOURCES AND PLAN FOR THE FUTUREResource dependency is a reality of business life. Whether hiring local employees to work in your facilities, acquiring raw materials and supplies to generate your products and services, using the infrastructure that supports your power, water, waste, and transportation needs, or leveraging media outlets that provide publicity – businesses do not operate in a vacuum. Accordingly, forward-looking businesses must cultivate community relationships to support mutual needs. Recognizing this need for interdependency also applies to planning for the future in order to address issues of population migration, extreme weather events, economic vitality, land use, infrastructure maintenance, or the preservation of ecosystem services. A region that is focused on providing for long-term economic, social, and environmental health carries the hallmark of an area with a sustainable future.

Companies can also help drive sustainability by ensuring that their suppliers provide goods that are environmentally friendly (i.e., recycled, and recyclable or compostable), use environmentally friendly packaging, and to the degree possible, are shipped in bulk to minimize unnecessary emissions from transport. For larger companies with the purchasing power necessary to negotiate supplier contracts, contractual provisions for product purchases can move into the realm of economic and social sustainability (e.g., products made with no child labor, living wages paid throughout the supply chain, all local laws complied with).

Yet another way to positively affect sustainability is through the work that companies do for their clients. Whether providing a sustainable product or service, educating clients on the value of sustainability, or helping customers to employ sustainable practices, small steps can turn into noticeable positive results over time.

Chapin Hardy of the Wildlife Center of Virginia introduces Athena, the

barred owl. Marstel-Day partnered with the Wildlife Center, Friends of

the Rappahannock and the Children’s Museum of Richmond (Fredericksburg)

to present a #StandWithWildlife event for kids in the Fredericksburg region.

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EPA Green Power PartnershipThe EPA’s Green Power Partnership program encourages companies to use or purchase green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use. The partnership currently has more than 1,300 Partner organizations, which are helping to support the development of renewable power generation capacity nationwide. Partners range from Fortune 500®companies, and small and medium-sized businesses, to local, state, and federal government entities, and colleges and universities.Marstel-Day joined the program in 2014, and has committed to purchasing renewable energy certificates equivalent to 20 percent of its annual electricity usage through an arrangement with Dominion Power. This purchase guarantees that that amount of electricity from wind, solar, and biomass facilities in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region is delivered to the regional power pool. As a result, the company offset 60,260 kilowatt-hours of electricity use, which equates to planting 1,090 trees, or keeping 14.9 tons of waste out of the landfill.The EPA Green Power Partnership program requires that the purchases be

R for green power sourced from U.S.-based generation facilities that have been installed within the last 15 years;

R for eligible green power (i.e., electricity generated from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, and certain forms of biomass and hydropower); and

R voluntary and incremental to the renewable electricity included in the standard electricity service.

The Climate, Environment and Readiness (CLEAR) PlanSeveral years ago, leaders in Virginia’s George Washington Planning Region – an area which encompasses the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and four surrounding counties realized that many issues affecting the region’s future economic, environmental, and social health could be addressed effectively only if the parties created and executed a joint plan. Conceived by Marstel-Day and the University of Mary Washington, the effort required intense planning and networking to assemble appropriate regional representation. Following a series of community charettes, the initial plan was developed in January 2014, and its action steps are being addressed on an ongoing basis. Areas of focus include environment and habitat; community resilience; emergency preparedness; and economic development. More information about the initiative can be found at http://www.fredclearplan.com.

Protecting Land for the Future (the Conservation Conveyance)Central to Marstel-Day’s land conservation work is the conservation conveyance program. This innovative technique was conceptualized and refined by company founder and President Rebecca R. Rubin, and since its enactment into law in 2002, conservation conveyance has allowed the Department of Defense (DOD) to transfer unneeded and underutilized sites to state, local, or nonprofit conservation organizations. This legislative authority has been used extensively by the Department of Defense (DOD) during its base realignment and closure process. As a result, more than 100,000 acres of unwanted or unused federal lands have been transferred for permanent conservation or recreational use. Marstel-Day has helped its clients conserve tens of thousands of additional acres using similar conservation authorities.

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Partnering for SuccessMarstel-Day has played an instrumental role in facilitating partnerships between U.S. Air Force installations and nearby communities across the nation. Many of these partnerships address the DOD’s need to ensure resiliency against climate change and other environmental risks to the military mission. By partnering with local communities, military installations find ways to leverage limited resources for the benefit of both parties. In many cases, reduced operating and maintenance expenses pay for necessary infrastructure upgrades. Examples of potential partnership projects include the following:

R cooperative police/fire training/support R cooperative medical training R shared golf course and athletic field operations R shared wastewater treatment facilities and other utilities R expanded community bus systems R energy initiatives; utility energy service contracts R waste management/recycling/paving

For example, Marstel-Day created win-win-win partnerships for U.S. Air Force bases nationwide by developing a program that enabled the bases to share water resources with their local communities and save up to $90 million while upgrading base resilience. One base will participate in a regional wastewater initiative that can result in more than $10 million in water-related cost savings.

The Marstel-Day/Stafford Printing Green Frontier AwardHelping to invest the local business community with a desire to employ green practices is the goal of the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Green Frontier Award, which is cosponsored by Marstel-Day and Stafford Printing. The annual Green Frontier Award is open to any business operating for two years in Virginia’s Planning District 16 that demonstrates strong business practices focused on sustainability, resource conservation, and environmental awareness and education. Planning District 16 includes the city of Fredericksburg and the counties of Stafford, Caroline, King George, and Spotsylvania. Stafford Printing was the first company to win the award, and decided to cosponsor it in subsequent years. The award includes a cash prize. Other winners have included Rappahannock Goodwill Industries and LifeCare Medical Transports.

Rebecca R. Rubin and Howard Owen present Rappahannock Goodwill Industries

with the Green Frontier Award.

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The Green GalaCelebrating the holidays took on new meaning when Marstel-Day turned its focus to helping others – not in the traditional sense, but in keeping with the company’s mission of environmental conservation. Since 2012, the company has held a Green Gala during the holiday season to benefit selected environmental nonprofits. Employees enjoy the holiday offerings and comradery, but are now joined by environmentally minded members of the community who are invited to the celebration. A silent auction raises money for the nonprofits, with prizes donated through the generosity of local merchants. The Green Gala has raised over $20,000 each year for its designated nonprofits.

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ENHANCE YOUR ECO-LEADERSHIPOnce you’ve taken steps to become more sustainable, how do you let stakeholders and potential clients know? One method is to obtain certification of your sustainable practices. Certification will validate your business’ sustainability and allow you to make others aware that your claims have been verified by an independent, third party. A third-party certification provides assurance that your practices and performances are being assessed in a measurable and standardized format that allows for comparison with others in the industry. Put simply, certification shows customers, clients, and employees that your company “walks the talk.”

Why is it important to show that your company is serious about sustainability? According to a 2014 Nielsen Report, “more than half (55 percent) of global respondents in Nielsen’s corporate social responsibility survey say they are willing to pay extra for products and services from companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact.”5 Consumers are becoming even more interested in doing business with companies whose practices are not only economically viable, but also socially and environmentally sustainable. Factor in the strong bias of the millennial workforce (projected to comprise 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025) to work for firms that do more to address resource scarcity and climate change, and it becomes evident that publicizing your company’s sustainable accomplishments can differentiate your business.6 Whether through participating in industry forums, speaking at conferences, or applying for industry awards and recognition, each opportunity to share your company’s sustainability philosophy and accomplishments helps you to reach a wider audience. Not only does certification demonstrate to potential employees and clients, stakeholders, and other environmental professionals that you are serious about sustainability, but it allows you to highlight noteworthy performance in one or more aspects of your ongoing conservation endeavors.

NSF P391In 2011, Marstel-Day learned through a GSA announcement that standards development organization NSF International was looking for industry input into its development of a sustainability certification for services and service providers. Although standards exist for sustainable products, this effort was the first of its kind for service providers in North America. Marstel-Day completed the pilot program, and went on to obtain certification to the newly developed NSF protocol P391: General Sustainability Assessment Criteria for Services and Service Providers. The company earned a platinum certification – the highest rating possible – to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability. Afterward, the company’s CSO joined the NSF Joint Committee that is responsible for converting the protocol into an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard. In 2014, the company was recognized for its efforts to help create this sustainability protocol by Governor Bob McDonnell, who awarded Marstel-Day a bronze-level Environmental Excellence Award.

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Sustainability PartnersThrough the Environmental Excellence program, Marstel-Day was named a Sustainability Partner by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in 2014. The Virginia Environmental Excellence Program was established by law in 2005 to encourage superior environmental performance at site-specific facilities within Virginia. The Sustainability Partners track, launched in 2012, encourages organizations across Virginia to make environmental sustainability part of their culture through leadership, innovation, and continual improvement. As a member of the Sustainability Partner Program, Marstel-Day commits to ongoing conservation efforts that lead to measurable improvements in energy and water usage, and/or waste generation, and to engage in collaborative sustainability partnerships.

AWE EcoLeadership AwardFor the past four years, Marstel-Day has won the Alliance for Workplace Excellence (AWE) EcoLeadership award. The award is open to companies across the United States, with a primary focus on the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and is earned by companies for their leadership and commitment to creating and maintaining an environmentally sustainable workplace. Award applicants undergo a rigorous evaluation by an independent review panel comprised of academic and business professionals. Among the practices evaluated are waste minimization, energy efficiency, water conservation, pollution prevention, and environmentally conscious travel. The most recent year’s award highlighted Marstel-Day’s sustainability-focused community outreach efforts and its numerous internal sustainability accomplishments.

White House Champion of ChangeMarstel-Day’s founder and company President Rebecca R. Rubin was named a White House Champion of Change for Community Resilience in 2013 for her work introducing climate change adaptation strategies into sustainability studies for the U. S. military services. The award also recognized the leading role she has played in creating the George Washington Region’s multijurisdictional Climate, Environment and Readiness (CLEAR) Plan.

Rebecca R. Rubin participates in a climate change panel as part of the White House’s Champions of Change.

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IN CONCLUSIONSustainability matters. At the most basic level, sustainability is about using our resources –environmental, social, or economic – in a manner that neither depletes nor permanently damages them. Sustainability helps ensure that a company operates into the future. Securing a sustainable future for your company, employees, and community is important, and consumers vote with their pocketbooks to underscore that sentiment.7 If you are interested in pursuing a more sustainable future for your company, Marstel-Day can help. Contact us.

http://www.marstel-day.com/contact-us

Endnotes1Carbonfund.org Foundation, Inc., Pooled U.S. Forestry Projects, n.d. 2“What is Sustainability?” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed August 25, 2015, http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm.3The Risky Business Project, A Climate Risk Assessment for the United States, June 2014, http://riskybusiness.org/uploads/files/RiskyBusiness_Report_WEB_09_08_14.pdf.4“Green Vision Council” (5 PowerPoint slides presented November 19, 2009).5Nielsen, Doing Well By Doing Good, June 17, 2014.6Deloitte, The Deloitte Millennial Survey, 2014, http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-dttl-2014-millennial-survey-infographic.pdf.7Jennifer Elks, “New Study: ‘Rethinking Consumption’ Finds Consumers Buying Less and Buying Better,” Sustainable Brands, November 27, 2012, http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/articles/rethinking-consumption-finds-consumers-buying-less-and-better.

President and CEO: Rebecca R. RubinPartners: Lee Halterman, Phil Huber,

Sean Donahoe, Jennifer Graham http://www.marstel-day.com

Reaching a Deeper Shade of Green: Lessons from a Sustainable Practitioner

Text: Gail DunnLayout and Design:

Amanda Boccuti and Samantha Giordano

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