Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge

Announced at the July 27 Green Workplace Challenge workshop, three “bonus actions” have been added to the Green Workplace Challenge in support of the Breathe Project. Completing all three actions will earn a participating organization 7 points for the GWC. Click to see the action list.

Find out more about the Breathe Project and get involved at http://breatheproject.org/

The eleventh of twelve Green Workplace Challenge workshops is taking place on Friday, August 24, at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. This workshop focuses on the basics of LEED certification (particularly LEED EBOM certification), and features speakers from the Green Building Alliance, the Sports and Exhibition Authority, H.F. Lenz, and RCx Building Diagnostics.

For full details on the workshop, and to register, click here.

evolveEA, the current Small Business category leader, recently posted a short piece by employee Steve Hockley on their company blog which speaks to evolveEA’s experience with the GWC.
An excerpt:

“Competition” is simply defined as a contest between individuals or groups for resources and/or prestige. It is the opposite of “cooperation”, and has been shown to be a powerful motivator. No matter what the goal, people and businesses alike are intrinsically motivated by what their peers are doing. Everyone wants to win, and nobody wants to fall behind.

Due to timeline restrictions, the topics for the December and January Green Workplace Challenge participant workshops have been switched, although the dates for each month’s workshop remain the same. The “Upcoming Events” section of the GWC website has been edited to reflect these changes.

December 8
Decision-making – how to choose which strategies are best for your business.

January 27
Leader celebration, including a keynote speaker, competitor panel, and update on the Green Workplace Challenge’s impact.

Please mark your calendars – we hope to see you at an upcoming workshop!

Matthew Mehalik (Program Manager, Sustainable Pittsburgh) and Benson Gabler (Manager of Corporate Sustainability, PNC Financial Services Group) recently appeared on “Our Region’s Business” and were interviewed about the Green Workplace Challenge by host Bill Flanagan. Check out the segment below, and register your business to compete in the Green Workplace Challenge by October 31!

Green Workplace Challenge on Our Region’s Business

A full list of the workshops being offered to Green Workplace Challenge participants has been finalized and posted (with dates) on the GWC website in the “Upcoming Events” section. Workshop topics range from Portfolio Manager usage (Oct. 28), to alternative energy (May 18), to decision-making (Jan. 27). The first workshop is being held on October 28, and is free for registered GWC participants – full details can be found here.

Released today on the GWC website, registered businesses may benefit from using the official Green Workplace Challenge Action Checklists (XLS/PDF) to identify and plan goal actions for the competition, and to project and track point totals throughout the year.

Just under two weeks remain for businesses to register for the Green Workplace Challenge! Register at http://greenchallenge.c4spgh.org/register by October 31. If you’re already registered, refer another company to the GWC! Each new registrant who names your business in the “Referred By” field at registration earns your company 1 point (4 points maximum)!

In order to participate, all you need to do by the end of October is create an account on the GWC website (contact name, email, company name, and location) – utility usage and other information can be entered after the registration deadline. Registration takes less than 5 minutes – what are you waiting for?

Today marks the official start of the 2011-2012 Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge! Beginning today, registered participants may submit documentation of their completed green actions to the GWC by sending the appropriate verification materials (found in the GWC competition manual) to gwc@sustainablepittsburgh.org.

Please read more about the GWC’s launch in the official press release.

If your business has not yet registered for the GWC, it’s not too late! Businesses have until October 31, 2011 to register for the competition on the GWC website at http://greenchallenge.c4spgh.org/register.

Version 1.2 of the Green Workplace Challenge Competition Manual has been released and is now available to download from the GWC website. Several action descriptions have been modified to improve clarity, and Property Manager actions have been updated. If you have already registered for the competition, please be sure to download the updated manual at http://greenchallenge.c4spgh.org/GWC-Competition-Manual.pdf.

Additionally, in order to better accommodate the sometimes lengthy process of approvals that many potential GWC participants must go through in order to register for the competition, the registration deadline for the Green Workplace Challenge has been extended until October 31, 2011. The official start date of the competition remains Wednesday, September 14, 2011. On this date, all registered participants will be able to begin submitting completed actions to the Green Workplace Challenge.

Note – Those companies who register for the Green Workplace Challenge in the month of October must still use September 2010 through August 2011 as their baseline reporting period for utility usage, and are able to report actions completed as early as September 1, 2010.

The first 12 registered organizations for the 2011-2012 Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge have been announced on the Who is Participating? page! Check out the list, and get a jump on the competition by registering your organization today! Registration is open through October 31, 2011.

If you have already registered for the Green Workplace Challenge, promote the competition to your clients, family, friends, and colleagues! Each new participant who lists your organization in the “Referred by” box at registration earns your organization 1 point (up to 4 points maximum).

Version 1.1 of the Green Workplace Challenge Competition Manual has just been released, and some important changes have been made. Please read on for a summary of the changes.

A change has been made to the eligibility requirements. Now, instead of requiring access to all types of utility bills (electric, natural gas, water) dating back to September 2010 in order to compete, access to bills dating back to September 2010 is required for at least one utility type in order to compete. Due to this change, utility usage baselines entered into Portfolio Manager are now awarded points separately – 8 points for entering a baseline for electricity usage, 4 points for entering a baseline for natural gas usage, and 4 points for entering a baseline for water usage. (In the previous version of the manual, 16 points were awarded in a single action for entering all baselines.)

Lastly, a new “Demand Response” action appears in the updated competition manual. Participating businesses are able to receive 3 points for enrolling in a demand response program — a conservation program that pays electric consumers to reduce their electric usage in response to high prices or emergencies on the electric grid.

If you have already registered for the competition, please be sure to download the updated manual at http://greenchallenge.c4spgh.org/GWC-Competition-Manual.pdf