Quiz: 7 Signs Your Company is a Treehugger (Or Greenwashing Machine!)

It’s official. “Greenwashing“ is everywhere, and it seems every business is trying to get in on the environmental street cred by painting their operations a prettier shade of green than they really are.

An easy step to make your office green is adding solar. Get free estimates here from certified installers!

So, how do you tell if your company is one of the friendlies? Take the following test. If your business or office finishes with 13 points, they are on the green track. If the score is -13, the company needs a green-attitude adjustment.

1. Your company installs energy efficient lighting; add 2 points. But it doesn’t install an automatic system (a smart meter) to turn them off and on, and no one’s ever designated to do this. Take away 1.

2. Your company institutes a recycling program for glass bottles, cans and paper. Add 2 points. On the first day the program takes effect, recycling bins still aren’t available; take away 1 point (and one additional point for every day they are absent).

3. Your company’s IT guru sends out an e-mail asking everyone to shut down computers if they’ll be gone more than an hour. Your office is filled with obsolete equipment, and the computers take forever to reboot. Almost everyone groans but complies; a big 3 points. Leaving work a month later, after everyone is gone for the weekend, you see many of the monitors still glowing; deduct 2 points and make dunce caps for the culprits (8×14 legal paper works well for this).

4. Your company says it can’t afford low-flow faucets or toilets in bathrooms, and instead asks employees to cut back on water use by soaping up before running water to wash hands. 1 point for effort – even if it is mostly yours – but 1 point taken away for seeing the trees instead of the forest.

5. The president of your company goes on a “green” kick, and announces energy and resource saving measures at the annual meeting. Nothing further is ever mentioned, however. Take away five seriously big points for all hat and no cattle.

6. The office manager has introduced the “paperless office.” Everyone applauds her efforts, and learns to use the Outlook calendar. Add 2 points. Most employees fall on the floor, kicking their heels and howling; take away 1.

7. The company can’t afford a new HVAC system, so someone suggests bringing in a bevy of green plants to clean stale office air. The caveat – that watering will be done on a rotating schedule and no one is exempt – is met with applause. Add 3 points, because your coworkers and bosses are obviously the sort who work and play well with others. Or… the idea is vetoed from the top; take away 4 points. Your bosses could care less about indoor air quality.

So, how did your business fare on the green point scale? Share your answers in the comments below!

Photo Credit: David Sim via Flickr CC

Posted on October 14th in Going Solar by Jeanne.