Frameworks and Tools for Sustainability

1. Green Your Workplace Today
Eco-Stream Sustainability Consulting
San Diego Regional Sustainability Partnership 2010

2. Frameworks and Tools
The Big Picture
Triple Bottom Line
The Natural Step
Zero Waste
California Product Stewardship Council
Life Cycle Assessments
EPA WasteWise
CalRecycle
Product Policy Institute
LEED
DOE Energy Star
EPA WaterWise

3. Steps to Success
• Forming a team
• Creating Benchmarks
• Strategic Initiatives
• Tracking and Engagement
• Reporting

4. Green Your Workplace Today
Group A- Green Products and Materials - Create a plan to
increase percentage of green products purchased at a business or in
a community.
Group B- Waste Reduction and Recycling - Create a plan to
identify additional reduction opportunities and recyclable materials
at a business or in a community.
Group C- How to Get a Green Program Started - Create a plan to
start a Green Procurement Program, Recycling, or other Waste
Reduction program at your business or in your community.

5. Sorting through the Greenwash
What are the attributes of
environmentally preferable
products?

6. Environmentally Preferable Product
Characteristics may include:
• Recycled content
• Low or non-emitting
• Bio-based material / rapidly renewable
• Energy efficient
• Safe for human & environmental health
• Sustainably packaged & shipped
• Regionally sourced & manufactured
• Recyclable
• Low embodied energy
• Less material used
• Longer lasting / durable
• Easily maintained & without toxic chemicals
• Non-toxic
• Salvaged material
• Responsibly manufactured
• Social justice

7. Life Cycle Assessment
• Where does it come from?
• How is it made, packaged, and transported?
• How are the workers treated?
• How is the environment protected?
• How is this product used?
• Is it durable, reusable, recyclable?
• Is it non-toxic?
• What do we do with what’s left over?

8. Recycled Content & Recyclability

9. Toxicity
• Being “Less Bad” is still not Good
– “Less Toxic”
– “Reduced chemical use”
• Product lifecycles should not leave a harmful legacy
– Human and environmental health

10. Toxicity Definitions
• Carcinogen
– Cause cancer
• Teratogen
– Cause birth defects
• Endocrine Disrupter
– mimic hormones, often also a teratogen
• Mutagen
– Causes mutation of genetic code, passing on
problems to future generations
• Persistent Biocumulative Toxins (PBT’s)
– Chemical not easily broken down by biological
process
– Accumulates in body tissue

11. Organic Waste
Food and Landscape Waste

12. What happens to all of our stuff when
we throw it away? Where is Away?
What actually happens to all the waste
produced by your business, and all the other
businesses and services in your community,
your home, everyone else’s homes, all the
stores, the parks, the restaurants, the events,
where does it all go?

13. There really is no Away.
California Product Stewardship Council

14. Closed-Loop Cycles
Eco-Cycle / Zero Waste

15. Waste & Purchasing Connection
• Look at what is in your
waste stream
• Talk to everyone along the
“product trail”
• Find ways to reduce waste
with informed purchasing
decisions

16. Remember the Steps to Success
• Form a team
• Create Benchmarks
• Strategic Initiatives
• Tracking and Engagement
• Reporting

17. Thank you!
Barbara Hamilton
Eco-Stream Sustainability Consulting
760-717-6627
barbara@eco-stream.com
www.eco-stream.com