We are very excited to announce that In Balance Green Consulting is officially Green Business Certified through the SLO County Green Business Program! The SLO County Green Business Program is part of the statewide California Green Business Network (CAGBN), which aims to recognize small- to medium-sized businesses for implementing business practices that improve operations, cut costs, and reduce their environmental impact. While our day-to-day work typically focuses on green building in a project’s design, going through this certification process helped us assess our current operations, and find some gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Similar to other green building checklists, like LEED or GreenPoint Rated, the Greenbiz Tracker takes teams through categories including energy, pollution prevention, solid waste, transportation, wastewater, water, and community. To comply with the checklist, teams must meet the applicable core measures and select elective measures to reach a points threshold.
Many measures on the checklist were already part of our regular office operations. Some examples include installing LED lighting, using reusable dishware in the break area, using ENERGY STAR appliances, and sourcing previously used furniture. Some of our current practices are energy efficient but don’t align with the program suggestions. For example, while many spaces benefit from lighting controls like occupancy sensors, our office benefits from ample daylighting, so most of the time we are in the office, our lights stay off! Using an occupancy sensor in our case would result in higher energy use. The program allows flexibility in measures like this, accommodating the unique circumstances.
In addition to accounting for our current practices, we also made some changes. We switched to 100% renewable energy through Central Coast Community Energy (3CE)! Now, not only is our office all electric, but we are also supporting a cleaner California grid by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our operational energy use.
As an office within a larger building, there were certain measures within the scope of our office, while others addressed more building-wide policies. Instead of marking those as “not applicable”, we sat down with our building manager to understand some of the current building operations and see if any changes could be made. One measure that we discussed was regularly scheduling HVAC maintenance, including routinely cleaning and replacing filters. Ironically, this is something that comes up in many of our projects to ensure clients know that filters need to be accessible. Because of our meeting with the building manager, regular maintenance became a policy for every office within the building.
A big thank you to ECOSLO and everyone who came out to our Open House and Green Ribbon Cutting to celebrate In Balance becoming a certified Green Business!
The SLO Green Business Program provides a great opportunity and free assistance for businesses to assess and optimize operations to meet overall climate goals. Check out the California Green Business Network website for more information and to find other local green businesses!
