Sustainability Audit

Fascinating concept, Sustainability Audit - sounds like something every organization should have. (Excerpt below)

Why a Sustainability Audit?

A sustainability audit is a powerful tool. A sustainability audit takes an inventory of all of the policies, procedures and practices of an organization and compares these to the best practices in their industry. In essence, an audit is a gap analysis and a maturity analysis of the sustainability practices of an organization. It is meant to document ‘what you are doing’ and ‘to what extent’ across a wide range of sustainability categories. Upon completion, an organization will have a sustainability baseline it can use to track progress going into the future.

What a Sustainability Audit is Not

A sustainability audit is not an exercise in counting carbon or tallying the financial implications of sustainability initiatives. Nor is a sustainability audit an in-depth examination of any specific program of work. However a sustainability audit should identify and help an organization prioritize these more specific sustainability management tasks.

Benefits of a Sustainability Audit

Your organization can expect some great benefits from a sustainability audit.

1. Compare your practices to Industry Best Practices – This is probably the most obvious benefit of a sustainability audit. No Chief Sustainability Officer or Sustainability Manager has the time to stay on top of all of the latest developments in the world of sustainability. The right sustainability audit should provide this benefit. It is critical the framework and sustainability categories be comprehensive. If so, your organization should know how it compares to the industry leaders in sustainability.

2. Planning, Structure and Accountability – A huge challenge facing many organizations is that they want to implement a comprehensive sustainability plan, but sustainability initiatives often times gets blended into operations, facilities or information technology initiatives. A sustainability audit identifies these initiatives and provides a means for account for these within a sustainability program. This allows for effective planning, a structured approach and accountability that reaches across organizational boundaries.

See more at: http://crgsustainablesolutions.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/top-5-benefits-of-a-sustainability-audit/