Austin Creative Reuse recognized as Austin Green Business Leader

Austin Creative Reuse was recently recognized by the City’s Office of Sustainability as an Austin Green Business Leader  at the Platinum level. The city program rates local business and nonprofit entities on a wide range of factors that contribute to their overall environmental impact score. Given the core conservation mission of Austin Creative Reuse, we were delighted -but not surprised- to be recognized at the highest level.As a new board member and new chair of the sustainability committee, completing this application and preparing for the site visit gave me opportunities to learn more about the details of the center’s operation, as well as ideas for new ways to increase our positive impact. Some of the factors measured are related to  general policy and values,  while others get into the nitty gritty of our operations. For instance, do you know which types of fluorescent bulbs are considered efficient by current standards? I didn’t! But I’ve learned that the T8 type we use *is* more efficient than the older T12 type, and that in any future renovations, we can increase our efficiency even further by moving to T5 or LEDs.The AGBL scorecard functions both as a measurement tool to assess our current impact, and as a roadmap for continued improvements toward sustainability.  Austin Creative Reuse earned many points on this scorecard through activities and strategies that have been core to the organization's values from the beginning. Even in these many areas where we were “ahead of the game”, the scoreboard still had something to offer in terms of amplifying our effects. For example, we’ll now start sharing our sustainability policy and strategies with our neighbors, and advocate for more sustainable building management practices in our whole complex.