Is Your Workplace Sustainable?

Get recognized for your achievements!

Workplaces are not just the physical (or virtual) locations where we complete our work, but they are also a demonstration of a business, nonprofit, or other organization’s culture, values, and practice. That is why evolveEA is so excited to see our friends and partners, Sustainable Pittsburgh, launch the brand new Sustainable Pittsburgh Workplace Designation program. The Designation evolved from the Sustainable Pittsburgh Challenge, and offers revised and strategic actions that can be taken to achieve third party recognition.

B Impact Assessment Score compared to other companies (2021 recertification)

evolveEA has long seen value in frameworks as an effective tool for sustainable built environments, which is why we don’t only recommend them for our clients, but we use them to advance our internal practices as well. We have been early adopters of the JUST Label, and BCorp certification, we have achieved LEED Platinum O+M certification for our office, and we have been carbon-neutral since 2011. Even with these accomplishments, we see several reasons why pursuing designation through the Sustainable Pittsburgh Workplace program provides significant value to our practice.

It is a new lens to evaluate our practices and our impact

The Sustainable Pittsburgh Challenge has been, and the Sustainable Pittsburgh Workplace designation (SPW) will continue to be, a great opportunity for evolveEA to take a step back and re-evaluate our sustainability and social equity efforts. Each of our certifications provides wonderful tools to evaluate how well your organization is performing, and we see the SPW as another tool in our toolkit to ensure we’re living our company’s commitment to sustainability and social equity as fully as we can.

New strategies and considerations

evolveEA participated in the beta testing for the designation and we found numerous strategies that we are not currently pursuing. There are policies and practices in the SPW that made us realize that we are doing many of these things inherently, but they are not currently formalized and we do not have a system in place to stay accountable. The designation will allow us to develop policies and systems to ensure we are staying true to our values and continuing to do all that we can to have a positive impact.

Participating in the regional sustainability community

If you’re just starting in your company’s sustainability journey, participating in the SPW is a great entry point because it not only provides you with a list of recommendations to create a more sustainable and equitable workplace, but they also provide resources and support to achieve them. If your organization has already implemented sustainability initiatives, this designation could set the stage for LEED O+M certification, it could catalyze future large-scale sustainability initiatives, and/or it could be a good opportunity to engage your colleagues in sustainability initiatives and set the stage for shared ownership of these initiatives. 

Pittsburgh is very lucky to have this unique, regional program and we encourage you to see how the Sustainable Pittsburgh Workplace designation can provide triple bottom line benefits to your organization. In addition to the benefits mentioned above, designated workplaces receive a digital badge and other promotional materials to showcase their achievements, along with a listing in Sustainable Pittsburgh’s online finder. For more information, please visit Sustainable Pittsburgh’s website or reach out to us!