Sustainable Office Program

The Sustainable Office Program (SOP) aims to incorporate sustainable behaviors into the workplace, foster a culture of sustainability across Lafayette, create an opportunity for offices to showcase and share their sustainability efforts, and work towards Lafayette’s sustainability goals and commitments (carbon neutrality by 2035, 40% waste diversion from landfills by 2030, and 60% waste diversion from landfills by 2035).

SOP helps lead offices operationalize the College’s sustainability commitments through tangible everyday actions in key areas such as consumption, waste reduction, and carbon emissions.

For the purposes of the Sustainable Office Program, we define an office as a workspace shared by full-time and part-time faculty and/or staff employed as part of the same department. This can include an entire building, a floor, multiple office spaces, or one single office space, as well as the accompanying kitchens, bathrooms, meeting rooms, and other areas shared by the office. Offices in leased spaces are also included in this definition.

The certification steps include 

1. Register: Fill out a registration form. Once your registration is submitted, a member of the Sustainable Office team will contact you.
2. Baseline Survey: Complete the baseline survey.  You can view a Google Docs version of the baseline survey before you begin. 
3. Review:  Meet with the Office of Sustainability’s Sustainable Office Program team to go over your baseline survey, discuss office improvements, and determine next steps.
4. Checklist of Actions: Complete the checklist of actions. You can view a Google Docs version of the checklist of actions before you begin.
5. Certification Celebration: Receive certification and recommendations to reach the next level

The baseline inventory asks you to record your office’s assets under the categories of Energy and Waste and Recycling. We will use your inventory to quantify your office’s environmental impact and improvement. See a copy of the inventory here.

The baseline checklist assesses current actions that your office does, or can, take across seven different categories. See a copy of the checklist here.

The baseline inventory takes anywhere from 15-25 minutes to complete. The checklist of actions, being slightly longer, takes about 30-40 minutes.

The levels of certification are Bronze (10 pts), Silver (35 pts), Gold (60 pts), and Platinum (95 pts).

1. Filling out the baseline checklist and inventory, and recertifying the office yearly
2. Disseminating sustainability information to office members via the Sustainability newsletter and  Sustainability website
3. Reporting Sustainable Office Program success and participation to the Office of Sustainability at least once a semester (report your numbers here)
4. Hosting or encouraging your team to attend Earth Month or Campus Sustainability Month event/activity (optional)
5. Attending monthly Sustainability Community Meetings (optional)
6. Joining the Sustainable Office Ambassador Slack channel (optional)

Yes, offices can recertify every 12 months to attempt to achieve a higher level of certification!