Hawai i's Green Workforce A Baseline Assessment December 2010

Green Certification
Several organizations certify green products and services. Green Seal is a non-profit organization
that certifies a broad range of products and services, including cleaning products and hotels; they also
partner with large institutional purchasers to develop green purchasing plans. The U.S. Green Building
Council (USGBC) certifies construction companies that build according to sustainability requirements.
USGBC developed the LEED building requirements, and LEED-certified buildings must be cleaned
with products that are either certified by Green Seal or compliant with California environmental codes.
Several additional entities encourage green practices in the hotel industry. These include the Green
Hotels Association, EcoGreen Hotel, Green Globe, and the Tourism Sustainability Council, which
provide green guidelines and certify particular hotels as green. EnergyStar is a government-sponsored
program that certifies appliances as energy-efficient, and Green Shield certifies pest control practices and
companies.
Sources: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “Check Labels to See What ‘Green’ Means,” October 25, 2010. Other resources include
GreenSeal.org, GreenHotels.com, EcoGreenHotel.com, EnergyStar.gov, GreenShieldCertified.org, and
www.cleanlink.com/cp/article.asp?id=2599&keywords=green+cleaning,+certification.
frequency than their smaller counterparts. Large
worksites performed an average of four green
practices, compared with 3.5 and 3.2 for medium
and small-size worksites, respectively (Table 19).
For example, 91 percent of large employers recycle
compared with just over three-quarters for small
worksites; 54 percent report energy-use reduction
compared to about one-third for small and mid-size
worksites. Moreover, 12 percent of large businesses
provide their employees with subsidized bus passes,
compared with just three percent for smaller ones.
Large worksites may provide support for more green
practices for a number of reasons, such as the ability
to better mobilize employee adherence to green
policies and practices. Given the size and number
of personnel available at larger businesses, it may
also be more likely that at least some segment of the
overall workforce prescribes to a green practice. For
example, the probability that a worksite with 1,000
employees supports at least one worker who recycles
is likely to be higher than that for a small-size business
of ten. The high occurrence of green practices at small
firms, coupled with the constricted distribution of the
average number of green practices across all firms (3.2
to 4), suggests that green practices at even the largest
firms are practiced by a large proportion of employees.
44 Hawaiÿi’s Green Workforce: A Baseline Assessment
Photo Courtesy of Peter Liu, kaiscapes.com