SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--San Francisco based consulting firm Granite Solutions Groupe has announced an ambitious commitment to sustainability in their new 5-point GSG Green Policy.
“GSG has always incorporated green thinking and green practices into our daily operations,” said Chief Client Officer John Henning. “This newly formalized Green Policy includes measurable targets and benchmarks that will facilitate continuous improvement and demonstrate our ongoing dedication to sustainable business practices.”
The firm’s Green Policy includes big picture guidelines like compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations and an enterprise effort to reduce the generation of waste whenever possible. The core of the Green Policy is the five Green Targets that GSG will achieve by 2025:
- Spend Sustainably: Ensure that 100 percent of supplier and vendor spend is with companies committed to sustainability.
- Travel Sustainably: Reduce fossil fuel consumption and air pollution through adoption of sustainable transportation methods.
- Reduce Consumption: Reduce overall materials consumption to reduce employee carbon emissions by 20 percent.
- Reduce Waste: Increase recycling by 30 percent and reduce overall waste in all office locations.
- Conserve Energy: Reduce energy usage in the workplace by 15 percent.
Sustainable Spending
“We know we’re not the only company focused on sustainability right now,” Henning said. “We’re excited to work with and support like-minded corporations, vendors and business partners, and hope to be a positive influence on those who may not have developed their own green policies.”
To that end, GSG has created a “Supplier Declaration of Support” for companies without an existing commitment to sustainability. The Declaration is an adapted version of GSG’s own Green Policy that companies can use to create their own targets and benchmarks, making it easy to define their own commitment to positive change.
“We have a great opportunity to be an agent of change, and we’re hoping the companies we work with welcome the chance to adopt sustainable habits, if they haven’t already,” said GSG CEO Dan L’Abbe. “We see this as a way to put our money where our mouth is and to lead by example.”
Sustainable Travel
With the COVID pandemic, employee travel has ground to a virtual halt. This has provided a unique opportunity to evaluate the firms’ travel practices, and they quickly saw there was room for ongoing improvement even when business travel resumes.
From encouraging public transit and carpooling (once the daily commute returns), to being more strategic with air travel, and adopting a policy of purchasing carbon offsets for flights, the firm is confident they can reduce both fossil fuel consumption and air pollution significantly.
Consumption and Waste Reduction
With four offices in three countries, recycling and waste practices are inconsistent at best. But by committing to both reduce material consumption and increase recycling over the next five years, GSG has begun to look closer at what opportunities are available in each location so that operations can be streamlined and more efficient.
“Things like a ‘Think Twice before Printing’ policy and purchasing office snacks with compostable or recyclable packaging can seem small, but it’s the small things that really add up,” said Henning. “We’re focusing on universal adoption of whatever recycling and composting programs exist in the communities where we work, while also emphasizing reusable products over single-use, and overall working to increase awareness of minimizing waste however we can.”
Energy Conservation
The final tenet of GSG’s Green Policy is focused on reducing energy usage across the board. Again, “little things like turning off your monitor at the end of the day, or unplugging your computer on the weekends, really add up,” according to Henning. “We’re embarking on a comprehensive awareness campaign so that all our employees have the knowledge of energy usage best practices and put them into action.”
With many employees working remotely for the foreseeable future, the first step was assessing energy use at the largely unoccupied offices. When the team returns to work, the goal is to track and reduce energy consumption by continuing the practices that started at home.
“Our motto, ‘Do the right thing, and then do the next right thing,’ informs every decision we make,” L’Abbe said. “I firmly believe that by fostering awareness and partnership with our employees, business partners and the GSG community, we can reduce our energy consumption, carbon emissions levels and our overall environmental impact – living our commitment to doing the right thing.”
