Green initiatives Action Plan

The Green Initiative was established in the Fall of 2007 by 2007/2008 PRSM Association Board President Kyle Brekke to address the needs of the PRSM Association membership to acquire education and information about greening and sustainability efforts that retailers can pursue to be more environmentally friendly in a cost effective manner.


His initial action was to establish a Green Council charged with recommending and developing quality programs for PRSM members to address environmentally conscious issues facing retail facilities maintenance professionals. The long term goal of the Council is to raise awareness about the benefits associated with green initiatives, to provide assistance to members about how to be environmentally friendly and how to adopt eco friendly and energy efficient business practices within their company.

 


Mission
To position PRSM as the voice of the retail facility maintenance industry on greening initiatives.

 


Goals
The Council established four goals for the PRSM Green Initiative with the approval of the PRSM Board of Directors.

  1. Identify new issues, products, service providers and business practices to be addressed by PRSM to ensure members have access to the most current information on greening topics.
  2. Utilize new and existing communication and education channels to provide information to members.
  3. Pursue business alliances and partnerships with other groups that have a shared commitment to greening initiatives and can add value to PRSM.
  4. Offer a collaborative forum for members to share greening efforts.


Program of Work
There is a wide berth of greening and eco friendly initiatives being pursued by today's businesses, including retailers and industry suppliers. Based upon the initial surveys of the PRSM membership, the Council discovered the following information.


Here are survey highlights:

  • More than 50% of the respondents were retailers, from mid or small box stores with greater than 1,000 stores with the majority of responses at a corporate director/manager level.
  • The five topics of highest interest are:
    1. Retrofitting of existing stores
    2. Energy efficient lighting
    3. Waste management & recycling
    4. Eco-friendly products & services
    5. Water conservation
  • About 63% of the respondents are following LEED certification standards as guidelines to initiating green initiatives, although they may not be working to achieve LEED certification.
  • The communication channels they would be most interested in using to learn about greening initiatives are: PRSM magazine articles; success stories from other retailers; conference education sessions, online resources, links to other websites.
  • Most respondents felt that their executive management believed sustainability efforts are very important.
  • Currently, respondents monitor the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Edison Electric Institute (EEI), local utility companies and a host of other groups for information about sustainability and green building initiatives.

While many areas are of some interest to retailers, there are specific areas that have proven to be of greatest interest to PRSM members. Therefore, the Green Initiative focuses on 11 subject areas:

  1. LEED certification & LEED practices
  2. Renewable energy management & resources
  3. Energy efficient lighting (LED Lighting, signs, cases, Solar, daylight harvesting, motion sensors)
  4. Lifecycle costs and store retrofits
  5. Waste management & recycling
  6. HVAC/EMS Systems
  7. Carbon foot printing/Energy Star
  8. Legislation/regulation actions
  9. Water conservation
  10. Eco friendly cleaning products & services
  11. Monitoring and reporting on green initiatives being undertaken by retailers

 

Current Achievements

The fruit of the Council's work is already visible through multiple communications and education channels including:

  • Green issue in Professional Retail Store Maintenance Magazine, July/August 2008
  • Greening articles in ShopTalk, PRSM's monthly e-newsletter
  • Educational Sessions at PRSM2008! and the Mid-Year Conferences
  • Green webpage on www.prsm.com
  • Membership in the USGBC & Energy Star

Stay tuned for more education and information on PRSM's Greening Initiative.