The Sustainable Office Committee will focus this year on three main goals in addition to producing presentations for the staff wide EcOh meetings. These goals include re-certification, generating an Oh specific metric for responsible office consumerism, and exploring methods to improve office sustainability.

Our Sustainability at Work certification from 2017 expires this year. Our first goal will be re-certifying; and of course, we are aiming for gold! This first project is already underway as we work through the questions set forth by the City of Portland’ Office of Sustainability.

Our next big project will be generating an environment preferable purchasing (EPP) guide. We will create a draft guide, to be presented for approval. This guide will be modeled after established government and university EPPs and will consider the multitude of “green badges” that are available. The creation of this guide will formalize, and expand upon, our purchasing policy in a way that aligns with Oh’s mission and established sustainability plan. It will be a collaborative decision-making process; it will increase transparency in the office, and it will provide a vetted plan for future purchasing.

Additionally, we will be expanding our knowledge of sustainable offices. Some ideas for this project include visiting another office, researching smart monitoring devices, and delving into what an agile-sustainable office can look like.

This year's team is excited to get started and see what opportunities will arise throughout the year to make responsible and environmentally focused decisions.