Overview

Registration Open for the 2016-2017 K-12 Schools Competition

The 2016-2017 K-12 Schools Green Workplace Challenge is currently open for registration. The GWC for K-12 Schools is a brief 21-week challenge that empowers teachers, principals and students to participate in the Green Workplace Challenge. It's FREE to join, and the competition is open to K-12 schools of all sizes. Every action makes a difference. What difference can your school make this year?

Sign up by October 31, 2016 to compete!

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About the Green Workplace Challenge

The Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge (GWC) enables organizations to participate in a friendly challenge program where they can receive due recognition for their sustainable actions and achievements. Actions that demonstrate measurable change provide organizations with a baseline for comparison in the future. Consequently, the challenge includes a number of measurable and verifiable actions for organizations and property owners to implement, which results in earning points.

The GWC steps beyond national trendsetters in enabling organizations to actively track and receive credit and verification for their green actions in a safe and secure environment. Because the GWC involves the transfer of potentially sensitive information, all company data remain confidential. Only broad characterizations of competition performance (in the form of competition “points”) are public.

Many organizations rent rather than own their offices or buildings, but we encourage and offer points to those who rent and work to access their utility data. All participants can track their current point totals using the GWC leaderboard, which appears on the competition website and is updated monthly.

In order to give GWC participants adequate time to establish an energy usage baseline, implement actions, and make significant changes, the challenge will run for 13 months. The sign-up deadline is August 31, 2016. Competitors can submit actions for points between June 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017. The competition concludes with participants being recognized for their efforts at an awards ceremony in September of 2017.

The Pittsburgh Green Workplace Challenge (GWC) is an initiative of Sustainable Pittsburgh’s Champions for Sustainability (C4S) Business Network.  Sustainable Pittsburgh  is a nonprofit organization that affects decision-making in the Pittsburgh region to integrate economic prosperity, social equity, and environmental quality bringing sustainable solutions to communities and businesses.

There is no fee to participate in the GWC.

Register Here

The Green Workplace Challenge and the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan

The Green Workplace Challenge aspires to help participants save money and reduce emissions by using energy more efficiently, thus contributing to the primary goal of the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan Version 2.0, which is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the City of Pittsburgh 20% by 2023 (from 2003 levels) and improve our region’s overall air quality.

The 2008 Pittsburgh Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory showed that commercial buildings represent 47% of the city’s greenhouse gas output—more than transportation and residential emissions combined. As a result, Pittsburgh’s commercial sector is ripe for improvement. The Green Workplace Challenge assists regional businesses in reducing emissions from commercial buildings, while also accomplishing other business sector goals set forth in the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan.

NOTE – Version 3.0 of the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan is scheduled to be published in 2016.