This past month, the City of Austin’s Office of Sustainability recognized Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) as a Gold level Green Business Leader for our efforts in keeping our office green and sustainable. This is a special acknowledgement for us because it illustrates that our vision of making Texas the cleanest, most beautiful state extends into our office and day-to-day lives. KTB works hard to uphold our mission and create an eco-friendly office environment. During our daily operations, we actively:

-​Reduce: cut back on printing, paper and water consumption and actively use eco-friendly office products
-Reuse: repurpose office supplies, shipping containers and donate items to local nonprofits
-Recycle: office paper, mixed-products
-Compost in our community kitchen
-Give business to eco-friendly, local printers (including soy-based inks)
-Carpool as a team when possible
-Provide carbon offset opportunities for travel

Thanks to our Sustainability Officer, Melody Alcazar, we were able to score our current sustainability habits in the categories of Resource Management, Water, Energy, Healthy Work Environment, Transportation and Community Stewardship. The application reinforced the importance of maintaining and improving our sustainability efforts. We look forward to challenging ourselves to find new and innovative ways to improve our environment and reduce our waste stream.

The acknowledgment also comes with great perks. We are one of 214 Green Business Leaders in Austin, from 10 different categories of businesses, representing over 39,000 employees and over 15 million square feet of green office space. See the full list of businesses HERE. We join a network of Austin’s top sustainable companies of different varieties, that we can share best practices with and gain connections from. We are also protecting our environment in the process, saving money, strengthening our team and supporting the Austin community.

We encourage each of you to consider the impact your office habits has on the environment and do your part to improve your sustainability efforts where you can. Whether it be carpooling to work, printing on both sides of the paper, or using reusable cups, small habits can make a world of difference at your business and will ultimately help in keeping Texas Beautiful.

Learn more about the Austin Green Business Leaders HERE.

Check out this article to learn ways to make your office more environmentally sustainable.​