New Certification Program in Vienna Challenges Businesses, Nonprofits to Go Green

PHOTO: Three of the nine members of the Town of Vienna's Community Enhancement Commission. In the photo, from left, are CEC Chair Susan Stillman, Desiree Di Mauro and Tara Ruszkowski. Photo courtesy of Town of Vienna

VIENNA, VA -- From a financial perspective, businesses and nonprofits often are fixated, understandably so, on whether they’re in the red or the black. In a news release Friday, the Town of Vienna notes that its Community Enhancement Commission (CEC) is hoping that its new Vienna Sustainability Challenge will have local businesses and nonprofit organizations focusing on another color: green.

Following Town Council’s approval of the program in January, the CEC is now launching the Vienna Sustainability Challenge to recognize local businesses and organizations who are taking a lead on sustainability and to encourage other companies to follow their example.

More information about the voluntary self-certification program is available at viennava.gov/sustainabilitychallenge. Information provided includes a checklist of practices that businesses and nonprofits can undertake to protect natural resources for future generations as well as to earn points toward sustainability certification. An organization must earn at least 60 of a possible 119 points to earn certification. Applications for certification, based on 2016 practices, are due June 1. Town Council and the CEC will recognize certified organizations in the fall.

In addition, Vienna’s Town Business Liaison Committee will present the annual Green Business Award to the business that obtains the highest sustainability certification score.

“We’ve been talking about climate change for 30 years,” says CEC member Desiree Di Mauro, who led the effort to create the certification program. “Recycling by itself is not enough anymore. We need to kick it up and set the bar a little higher. Businesses need to model sustainability practices for other businesses.”

The Vienna Sustainability Challenge, Di Mauro says, is designed to be a tool for businesses and nonprofit organizations, providing several simple and some increasingly challenging practices that help sustain natural resources.

Sustainable strategies are provided for five areas: energy, water, waste reduction, purchasing, and transportation. Among some of the practices for which businesses and nonprofits can earn points are:

· unplugging appliances when they’re not in use

· reviewing utility bills

· switching to CFL or LED light bulbs

· encouraging employee carpooling

· creating a rain garden

· implementing a composting program

· using greener cleaning products.

“It doesn’t have to be hard to do,” says CEC member David Steiner, whose company, D+R International, focuses on helping other businesses achieve energy efficiency. “Our certification program offers a broad checklist that goes after sustainability in a lot of different ways. The checklist is a pretty comprehensive way to quickly identify areas that could be opportunities for improvement.”

To achieve recertification each year, businesses will be required to earn an additional 5 points. “We want to encourage businesses to take care of what’s easy for them,” says Di Mauro, “but then each year to take on one or two items that are a little bit more of a stretch.”