Options for Businesses to Operate Sustainably
Sustainable Purchasing Policy (SPP)
The City's goal is to achieve sustainability both internally and within the community and region. To help in achieving this goal, the City is identifying ways in which firms might show that they operate their business in a sustainable fashion. Listed below are a number of options for businesses to implement to move toward a more sustainable business operation. The measures listed below provide a range of options from less difficult (category 1) to most difficult measures (category 4). If you believe that other items should be added to the list of items or if you have any thoughts or concerns regarding the structure of how the city implements the proposed program, please contact Jennifer Venema.
Category 1 Measures
- Leasing or owning a building that is rated 75 or higher per the Energy Star Portfolio Manager building benchmarking system, which means they are in the top 25% for energy efficiency. Rating must be certified by a professional engineer.
- Leasing or owning a building that is identified as Silver or better under the Sacramento County BERC Sustainable Business Program or other City or County operated green building performance based recognition program. Silver recognition means that minimum compliance levels have been achieved in all 5 rating categories.
- Purchasing SMUD Greenergy or Green-e-certified power for at least 50% of your businesses power needs.
- Signing the Pledge of Support to the California Product Stewardship Council.
Category 2 Measures
- Leasing or owning a building that is rated 95 or higher per the Energy Star Portfolio Manager building benchmarking system, which means they are in the top 5% for energy efficiency. Rating must be certified by a professional engineer.
- Leasing or owning a LEED Certified NC, EB, or CI certified building.
- Joining the California Climate Action Registry or The Climate Registry.
- Certifying your businesses greenhouse gas inventory under CCAR protocols.
- Purchasing SMUD Greenergy or Green-e-certified power for at least 50% of your businesses power needs for at least two years.
- Contracting with waste haulers to separately collect recycled materials, organic waste, and solid waste (with percentages of each reported to firm by haulers on at least a quarterly basis).
- Contacting with the Sacramento Tree Foundation (or other tree planting non-profit) to plant enough trees to absorb carbon dioxide from annual fleet fuel combustion and register the project with the California Climate Action Registry’s Climate Action Reserve program.
- Contract with the Sacramento Tree Foundation (or other tree planting non-profit) to plant enough trees to absorb carbon dioxide from the annual electricity consumption used by the business and register the project with the California Climate Action Registry’s Climate Action Reserve program.
- Contract with a third party provider to offset for a full year of:
- the firms entire fleet fuel usage (for most local office) OR
- the firms entire building energy consumption (for most local office) and register these projects with the California Climate Action Registry.
Category 3 Measures
Category 4 Measures