At first, organizations pursue sustainability with ad hoc actions: a little recycling, replacing plastic water bottles, etc. But how do you know if you’re working on the right things in the right order, on what’s important, not easy?

A Sustainability Plan documents the business case for your organization to pursue sustainability, how you’re going to measure progress, and what projects you intend to pursue over the long-term. This process is critical to becoming systematic in your approach to sustainability.

The Step by Step Guide to Sustainability Planning by Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard is a ‘cookbook’ for how to create a sustainability plan. The Sustainability Alliance has also created a simple 5-page worksheet to help you create your first sustainability plan. Rather than doing an exhaustive plan over many months, we’ve found it usually works best to get a preliminary plan done and get some action under your belt. Then revise each year.

Download the Sustainability Planning Worksheet.

Posted by Sustainability Alliance

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