Standards & Ratings System
With our extensive years of screening experience, along with input from thought leaders and sustainability stewards in a variety of industries, we developed a certification methodology that is measurable, comprehensive, educational, and transparent.
Standards
GreenGain focuses on key factors that define Green America’s standards for a socially and environmentally responsible business. We break these down into key categories in three broad areas: Social Justice, Environmental Sustainability, and Accountability.
Out of these factors, we specify initiatives and assign points to each to measure their impact. There are both general initiatives that apply to every business, and hundreds of initiatives customized to specific industries.
Categories
We define Social Justice as the health, fair treatment, and well-being of any stakeholder—anyone who is impacted by your business, including workers, customers, and communities.
We define Environmental Sustainability as the conservation and preservation of our planet’s natural resources, void of pollution, depletion, and toxicity caused by human activity.
We define Accountability as actively supporting good governance and implementing holistic, intentional, and transparent approaches to create positive change. Within these broad areas, we classify initiatives in the following categories.
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1 Environmental Sustainability |
2 Social Justice |
3 Accountability |
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Initiatives
When designing the initiatives, we focus on specific actions that can be operationalized within a company to yield a concrete social and environmental benefit. Currently, our tool contains over 800 initiatives. We encourage businesses to offer feedback for how we can evolve the initiatives as best practices advance and industries change.
If you have feedback or suggestions about the certification standards and ratings system, please call our Director of Standards and Seal of Approval at 202-378-5329 or email
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Ratings System
Each GreenGain initiative is given a total points score. To calculate the total points, GreenGain uses an algorithm that weights each initiative in four areas: social benefit, environmental benefit, effort level, and cost. Each area is defined as follows:
Environmental Benefit
• The positive impact of the initiatives on the environment. The points value is assigned based on the degree of benefit the action will have on the environment. Direct impact in the immediate surroundings or direct repercussion from the action (e.g. on water sources, air quality, material resources, waste, land management, etc.) rate higher, and indirect impacts would receive lower scores.
Social Benefit
• The positive impact of the initiative on an individual, community, or any other stakeholder. The points value is assigned based on the degree of benefit the action will have on an individual or community. Direct impact on an individual or community rates higher, and an indirect impact receives lower scores.
Effort Level
• The average amount of human resources required to plan, implement, and maintain the initiative over time.
Cost of Investment
• The average cost of planning, implementation, and maintenance of the initiative over time.
The initiatives with the highest number of total points have a high social and environmental benefit and require a lot of time and money to implement. To help you prioritize your planning strategically, GreenGain lists initiatives in order of return on investment, showing those with the highest social and environmental benefit for the least investment in time and money first.
Of course, different businesses undertaking the same initiative will, realistically, have variable impacts due to factors we cannot directly account for (such as the size of the company’s office, the number of employees, differing business models of companies in the same industry, and other factors). Our hope, however, is that by showing your impact in measurable terms, we will help your business prioritize planning strategically and transition to sustainable practices without breaking the bank!
You can offer comments directly in GreenGain in the Comments field on the ‘Initiative Detail Page’ or by clicking the ‘Have a Suggestion’ button on My Dashboard.
Standards Guidebook
Our current Seal of Approval Standards Guidebook details our standards for all the major industry types and company categories.
From composting to customer service to corporate giving, the Standards Committee considers guiding principles in these areas:
| The Product / Service |
| The Process |
| The Workplace |
| The Community |
Please keep in mind - Green America’s standards evolve as best practices improve and industries change. We update the Standards Guidebook annually and, on occasion, will reevaluate an industry or standard mid-year. Our vast business and consumer audiences look to us to define, redefine, and re-redefine green!
One last note: the Standards Committee reviews the business as a whole and sees this as a process of mutual reflection and learning. So please include examples of how your business takes initiative to study issues in its industry and to work towards more sustainable solutions. And be honest about any difficulties you face – we just might have some ideas for you!
