USC Green Office Certification Program
OVERVIEW
The USC Green Office Certification Program is designed to engage students, staff and faculty in implementing sustainable practices in their workspaces. The program provides a simple methodology to gauge how "green" a particular office is and implements ranking system to quantify these efforts. The program focuses on "green actions" that individuals can practice, but does not address larger infrastructure changes like building retrofits and energy systems over which individuals occupying offices have no control.
Offices at USC are highly encouraged to participate in this program to become certified by the USC Sustainability Office. This program serves as an important educational tool and the actions taken by each individual office, in aggregate, will create large-scale change. This is especially true in an area like office purchases, where general supplies and IT equipment add up to large amounts at the university-scale. Over time, our offices at USC can become more sustainable and serve as an example for other institutions.
HOW IT WORKS
Offices are awarded a Green Office Certificate when they meet the necessary standards outlined in the next section and are audited by the USC Office of Sustainability. Certificates are awarded based on a point system that will rank each participating office as a Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. Some of the materials required to implement the various green actions will need to be purchased by the office requesting certification and others will be provided by the Office of Sustainability. Don't worry...it won't cost you very much at all!
GREEN OFFICE RATING SYSTEM
The point system for the USC Green Office Certification Program is organized by the following categories:
- Green IT
- Networking & Awareness
- Recycling
- Food & Beverage
- Transportation
- Energy Management
- Office Supplies
- Innovations
Within each category, you will find numerous points (i.e., “green actions”) for which your office can qualify. Certification levels are based on the percentage of points that an office receives out of the total points for which they are eligible. If a particular green action is not available for an office (e.g., no shredder in use), they will not be penalized. The certification ratings are as follows:
- Bronze: 50%
- Silver: 70%
- Gold: 80%
- Platinum: 90%
In addition to completing green actions, each office must fulfill the prerequisites indicated in each section. Lastly, one contact person is required of each office that will be responsible for submitting the checklist and will be the contact for updates from the Office of Sustainability.