Sustainability Experts Visit Lander

We’re excited about the arrival tonight of two representatives from Pure Strategies, the firm that will perform an environmental sustainability assessment (aka “the audit”) of NOLS global environmental footprint! Tim Greiner and Bob Kerr will spend the next three days meeting with staff from HQ and Rocky Mountain to learn the details of how we operate. They will probe for data and information that will help us answer questions like, What are our annual energy consumption levels and GHG emissions? How much water do we use and for what purposes? How do we buy our office supplies, food and gear? How much waste do we throw away and how much do we recycle? These questions just scratch the surface of what the assessment will explore. The ultimate goal is twofold. First, it will take a snapshot of our footprint today, thus helping us identify areas where we need to improve. Second, it will serve as a baseline for measuring continuous improvement in the future as we hike the path toward greater sustainability!

We considered a number of companies that provide sustainability consulting services — a cool, emerging industry. Pure Strategies submitted a simple and clear proposal that best matched our needs: to assess our existing programs, quantify our current level of impact and provide recommendations from a “systems perspective” about how we can be a more sustainable organization.

After visiting Lander, Tim and Bob will head to the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest later in August, where they’ll see first-hand how we operate in different climates and locations. After the site visits, we’ll focus on collecting a whole lot of data from our programs around the world. Pure Strategies will combine this data with the information they collect during the site visits to quantify our overall footprint and provide us with short- and long-term goals for improvement. Once we have their recommendations, we’ll contemplate our priorities and put together a strategy toward great sustainability. Stay tuned!!