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Green consultancy services help companies become more environmentally friendly and sustainable. This includes reducing carbon footprints, employee training, and alternative business ideas. The LEED certification system is a popular focus for green consulting firms.
Green consultancy is a phrase used to describe a range of consultancy services aimed at helping companies become more environmentally friendly or ‘green’. Green consulting is a relatively new field and its popularity is increasing rapidly as more companies see their business practices as an avenue to attract new clients or retain old clients. Greening a business can also in some cases help businesses earn financial credit for being environmentally sustainable.
Green consulting can help a company reduce its carbon footprint by observing its operation and finding alternatives. For example, a green consulting firm may have experts in photovoltaics and other alternative energy systems available, who they can deploy to a site to design a supplemental alternative energy system or a system that does not use any fossil fuels. In addition to helping a business green its image, this can also provide long-term financial savings, and most eco-consulting firms promote their services as money-saving measures and ethical decisions.
A green consultancy may also manage employee training and education, to ensure that a company’s workers are doing their part to contribute to the company’s green identity. Many eco-consulting firms offer retreats and seminars that companies can send their employees to, where they’ll learn everything from simple energy-saving tips to properly recycling office supplies to a more general philosophy of conservation and reuse.
Green consultancy can also include alternative business ideas which are not necessarily green, per se. For example, several eco-consulting firms offer Feng Shui services, helping companies redesign their office layouts for better flow. Others offer nutrition awareness consultations, helping to change food systems at larger institutions to offer healthier options, which might also be better for the environment.
A particularly large green consulting industry has developed around the LEED certification system in recent years. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System was created by the United States Green Building Council and serves as a building rating service to let outsiders know how well buildings rank in terms of various sustainability rubrics . The LEED system has become the most recognized rating system for buildings, and many companies looking to build new structures aim for one of several rating levels. Green consulting firms that specialize in LEED can help these companies make design decisions to achieve the highest possible grade.
The LEED rating system looks at the quality of the indoor environment, what materials have been used and where they come from, water efficiency, site sustainability, energy consumption and air quality, and the overall innovation demonstrated in the design. There are four levels of classification, from a simple certification, which requires twenty-six points, to platinum classification, which requires fifty-two points.
Indeed, there are few things that green consulting cannot reference within alternative building and business practices. Companies range in size from individual consultants, typically specializing in approaching small and medium-sized businesses to help them streamline their green techniques, to mass teams with hundreds of employees, covering all areas of green expertise.
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