The Pachamama Alliance Recognized as a Green Business
The Pachamama Alliance was recently recognized and certified as a Green Business within the City and County of San Francisco by the San Francisco Green Business Program.
On February 7, 2013, The Pachamama Alliance’s own Lindsay Dyson, front and center in the photograph above, represented the organization at an awards ceremony honoring the 50 new businesses that qualified for certification this year (up from 20 last year).
Keeping in line with environmental responsibility, all new green-business inductees received a plaque made of recycled wood and glass.
The Certification Process
The program, run by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, SF Environment, and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, helps San Francisco businesses operate in an environmentally responsible manner, and recognizes these businesses for their efforts.
To receive the recognition, businesses have to substantively demonstrate they have adopted environmentally responsible practices in four areas – waste reduction, water conservation, pollution prevention, and energy conservation – as well as be in compliance with all federal, state, and local regulations. They also must pass a site-visit.
In order to ensure businesses remain qualified, the recognition is good for three years, and businesses are required to submit a self-report at the end of the first two years.
What We Do to Be Gentler to Pachamama
The efforts The Pachamama Alliance makes to lessen its environmental impact and fulfill its mission of being an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on this planet include:
- Reducing, reusing, and recycling: in addition to the standard paper, glass, plastic, and aluminum, we also compost, print double-sided when possible, buy in bulk, and avoid disposable and non-biodegradable products.
- Reducing, properly disposing of, and avoiding materials with toxins.
- Engaging in environmentally preferable purchasing: e.g., purchase paper products with recycled content, and Energy Star appliances.
- Conserving fossil fuels through the promotion of alternative transportation: e.g., Spare the Air campaigns, turning off lights, using energy-conserving hardware, providing an employee incentive to use mass transit, etc.
- Engaging in employee education and training.
What You Can Do as a Business-Owner or Consumer
We strongly encourage supporters in the Bay Area to consider green certification for their own businesses. Certified businesses can choose to be profiled in two online green business directories:
California residents (and those who shop online) can patronize green-certified businesses via the above websites, as well as:
