About Us
First, Best, Most Experienced
Long before “going green” was cool, we knew it was essential… and that companies would benefit as much as the environment. We’re the “green team” that brought sustainability to Westchester County, New York’s business community. The Green Business Partnership (GBP) was founded in 2009 as the Westchester Green Business Challenge, a program of the Business Council of Westchester in partnership with Westchester County and Green Team Spirit LLC. In 2014, we expanded to offer an official green certification available to organizations that complete a rigorous and rewarding process to reduce environmental impact. The response from the business community has been overwhelmingly positive. GBP provides a solution to organizations that want to go green but lack the time and expertise to incorporate sustainability into their core mission. Responding to widespread demand for access to the GBP’s propriety tools and turnkey system, we launched the Green Business Partnership in 2017 in order to make the program available to businesses throughout New York State.
“Our relationship with the Green Business Partnership has been and continues to be of great value. We collaborate and receive encouragement towards sustainable practices which makes good business financial sense in the short run and positive company exposure in the long term.”
-Robert Kalmer, Corporate Services & Facilities Manager, The Blue Book Building & Construction Network
Join now and get started on your journey to sustainability with New York’s most qualified guides.
Everything You Need
The Green Business Partnership’s online toolkit is a turnkey system that will allow you to integrate sustainable business practices into company operations. You and your team will learn exactly where resources are wasted and identify opportunities to increase efficiency and save money. You will have access to the GBP’s proprietary performance tools to calculate the economic and environmental impacts of energy, travel, waste, water and refrigerants in an organization, while staff surveys gauge behavioral impacts.
You’ll have everything you need to set policy, take action and measure performance in 7 key areas:
- Organizational Commitment – Leaders set policy (template provided) and share with staff to encourage their participation in helping the organization incorporate sustainability into business operations
- Energy - Calculate the economic and environmental impacts of energy used in your organization. Plan ways to minimize usage, shift to renewable sources and explore available funding and incentives to move your operation toward an affordable clean energy future.
- Materials Management – Waste & Recycling – Examine your organization’s waste stream including volume and cost and learn to reduce waste at the source, reuse wherever possible and recycle the balance.
- Materials Management – Green Purchasing – Review current purchasing practices to determine what items can be eliminated or reduced. Learn about eco-friendly alternatives.
- Transportation - Calculate the economic and environmental impacts of business travel, employee commuting and company fleet on your organization and implement environmentally preferable alternatives.
- Land Use – Implement sustainable land use practices that remove toxins, reduce water usage, and minimize flooding.
- Water – Calculate the volume and cost of water used by your organization and learn to reduce water usage through water efficiency, water efficient products and practices.
Get Started
The sooner you begin, the sooner you will start to realize the many benefits of sustainability. Here’s what you need to do:
- Join online
- Access and customize your company dashboard, and invite employees to participate
- Conduct an employee survey, complete the Green Action List and the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory (Need help with this? Contact us about our internship program).
- Submit your Final Presentation
- Achieve Green Business Certification
- Spread the news, with our help