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Who Can Participate

Eligibility

All businesses, nonprofit organizations, colleges/universities, municipalities, and K-12 schools with operations in Southwestern Pennsylvania are invited to participate in the Green Workplace Challenge.

In order to be eligible to compete, you must:

  • Operate in at least one building within Southwestern Pennsylvania
  • Complete actions in one of the following areas outlined in the competition guidebook:
    • Energy
    • Water
    • Waste
    • Transportation
    • Employee engagement
    • Corporate policies
  • Register for the competition on the Green Workplace Challenge website between October 1, 2014 and January 31, 2015.
  • Although it is not required to create and update an EPA Portfolio Manager account to compete in the GWC, it is highly recommended. Many competition points are associated with information regarding energy and water measurement through EPA’s Portfolio Manager.Even if you cannot complete Portfolio Manager actions, there are plenty of other sustainability actions you can take in your organization that will make you competititve.
    • If  your organization has been located in its current facility for less than one year, you will be unable to input adequate utility information in EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager to create a baseline. Portfolio Manager requires 12 months of prior utility usage data to establish a baseline; therefore only organizations that are able to establish baselines are eligible for energy and water measurement actions.
    • Some participants do not have access to their energy and water bills and cannot complete the Portfolio Manager actions.

Renter and Owner Information

The competition is aimed towards participants who occupy space within facilities. This includes renters who do not own their spaces AND owners of properties who occupy the space they own. Occupants can directly control their organization’s everyday practices; however, the property managers have control of the overall building performance. Likewise, property managers can influence the performance of buildings, but they are often limited by the way their tenants operate. This necessitates cooperation between occupants and property owners.

Higher performance in this competition can occur when property managers and building occupants help each other achieve high performance in their respective categories by supporting one another through mutually beneficial actions. Workshops will be organized around this theme to promote such cooperation.

All participants will be recognized based on the points they earned over the course of the competition. Upon completion of the Green Workplace Challenge a winner will be announced for each category and an awards ceremony will be held to recognize each organization’s performance in the competition.

Competition Categories

 Organizations can compete in the following categories:

  • Businesses (micro, small, medium, large)
  • Non-profits (small, medium, large)
  • Municipalities (small, large; by region)
  • Colleges/Universities
  • K-12 Schools
  • Observers for those who want to participate but not compete

Differentiation for Businesses and Organizations:

  • Micro organizations (10 or fewer employees)
  • Small organizations (11 - 75 employees)
  • Medium organizations (75 to 499 employees)                                                                                  
  • Large organizations (500 or more employees)

Differentiation for Municipalities, competing against others in the same geography of North, South, East and West.

  • Small (24,999 residents or fewer)
  • Large (25,000 or more residents)

Click here to register