Going for Gold in Sustainability

By Rose •

From the day ThinkShout was founded, we’ve strived to improve local communities and have a more positive impact on the environment. These values resonate with our team, our clients, and our partners. Historically, much of that positive impact has happened by working with mission-driven clients. It was a natural step to go beyond that and ensure our business practices are also in line with our values. That’s why we became a B Corp in 2015.

This year, as we began to work on re-certifying as a B Corp, we identified opportunities to improve our sustainability efforts. Not only is it the right thing to do, it can help us use our financial resources more efficiently and build a stable business that our team and clients can depend upon over time. Plus, our whole team was excited and ready to help out.

Where We Were

The good news is that thanks to the natural values and efforts of the team to date, we were already pretty sustainable. We learned this when we met with Genevieve Joplin with the City of Portland’s Sustainability at Work program (a great resource for any local organization). To begin the process of becoming certified through the Sustainability at Work program, we answered 61 questions about our business practices.

As a digital business that doesn’t manufacture a physical product, we avoided some of the challenges that other businesses face in reducing waste. Specifically, we already:

  • Use very little paper
  • Clean with green products
  • Recycle, including light bulbs, batteries, and electronics
  • Bike, and take public transportation
  • Use natural light whenever possible
  • Avoid heavily-packaged food for snacks and catering

Taken altogether, we were off to a great start.

Our Goals

Pleased to see where we already were, we set ambitious goals:

  • Become certified at the Gold level as a sustainable business by the City of Portland.
  • Use the metrics established by the City to raise our environmental impact as measured in the B Corp Assessment.

What’s Next

From composting to carbon offsets, smart power strips to bike repair kits, we had much to learn about improving our sustainability. Our next blog post will explore our efforts to meet our new goals. In the meantime, happy recycling!