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Did You Know...?
Small organizations are leading on employee sustainability engagementA new survey found that organizations with fewer than 100 people are nearly twice as likely to promote sustainability very frequently, and their efforts are twice as likely to be effective at changing employee behavior.
Source: Brighter Planet
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Great Forest Gives Back
Great Forest is a proud supporter of the nonprofit Blacksmith Institute, which works to solve life-threatening pollution problems in the world's worst polluted places. Blacksmith is currently engaged in over 40 cleanup projects in 19 countries.
Read the 2009 World's Worst Polluted Places report: 12 Cases of Cleanup and Success.
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About Great Forest
Great Forest provides sustainability consulting and project management expertise
To date Great Forest has worked with more than half of all commercial office space and hotels in Manhattan and over 1,500 buildings across the country, covering approximately 350 million sq. ft. Services include: Contact Us Great Forest, Inc.
2014 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10035
Ph: (212) 779-4757
Fax: (212) 779-8044
www.greatforest.com
Improve Environmental Performance, Reduce Costs
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The Building Owners & Managers Association of New York (BOMA/NY) is holding their annual Energy Action Day on March 9, where I'll have the opportunity to talk about sustainability with a panel of other BOMA colleagues and industry professionals. Learn more about it below.
We hope to see you there!
-- Drew Masters, Great Forest COO
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New Report Recommends Changes to NYC Building Codes
 Over the past 18 months, the NYC Green Codes Task Force, comprised of leading local and national industry experts, has worked to evaluate New York City's building, zoning, health, consumer affairs, environmental protection, and other codes. They are looking to identify impediments to green building and propose improvements that would promote more sustainable practices.
The result is a comprehensive building code analysis that will serve as a model for other cities, with 111 recommendations. These include groundbreaking new rules for insulating all-glass high rises as well as common sense measures that deal with managing overheated apartments and requiring stores to shut off their lights after business hours. Many of the proposals will require further review and refinement.
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Two New LEED Certifications
 Two Vornado Realty properties - 330 Madison and 770 Broadway - have achieved LEED certification for Existing Buildings, Operations and Maintenance. Great Forest managed and guided the successful LEED EB: O&M process for both buildings.
Congratulations!
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Great Forest is now an ENERGY STAR Partner
 Great Forest has become an ENERGY STAR Service and Product Provider (SPP) partner.
As an SPP partner serving the existing commercial buildings market, we are featured on the Most Active SPPs List in recognition of our success helping clients benchmark buildings in Portfolio Manager and spearheading their efforts to earn the ENERGY STAR.
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New Metrics Features: Set Your Baseline and Multi Building Charts
The Sustainability Metrics has new features that allow you to further personalize the Metrics website to fit your sustainability needs.
Now you can work with your Great Forest consultant to set up a base year for your sustainability data that best captures the changes in your sustainability performance. Additionally, it
is now easier to see your entire building portfolio on one chart in the
sustainability Metrics. Compare the metrics of two or more buildings in
your portfolio in one window.
This is an example of what a comparison of electricity usage looks like between two different properties.
Go to www.greatforest.com/metrics to generate your own charts. New to the Metrics? Try it here.
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Great Forest Presents at Business Panel
 Great Forest President Richard Fuller was recently invited to join Australian business leaders in a panel on "The Australian Carbon Trust and the Business of Sustainability."
Organized by the Advance Green Network and Westpac Institutional Bank, the panel brought Richard together with corporate leaders Ben McCallum of Lime Energy, Debra Goundrey of Sustainable World Capital and keynote speaker the Honorable Robert Hill, Chairman of the Australian Carbon Trust.
The panel offered insights into the growing business of sustainability and fielded a lively Q and A session.
Listen to the podcast.
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 Join Great Forest at the BOMA/NY's Annual Energy Action Day: March 9.
Attend the BOMA/NY's Annual Energy Action Day to learn how to implement tried-and-true low cost strategies, how to get financing, and how to engage constituents on sustainability. Hear from Con Edison CEO Kevin Burke and wrap up at lunch with a Keynote Address by New York City's newly elected Public Advocate, Bill de Blasio.
Great Forest COO Drew Masters will be on a panel entitled "Engaging Managers and Tenants" and will discuss sustainability in terms of energy, waste and water.
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GREAT FOREST Q&A
Q: What is ISO 14001?
A: ISO 14001 is an international framework used by business, industry and service-orientated organizations to develop and implement an environmental management system that promotes continual improvement towards higher environmental stewardship. The ISO 14001 standard allows an organization to identify, execute and measure green programs that make sense for the company and its resources.
Obtaining an ISO 14001 certification shows clients and other stakeholders that you are taking an active role in mitigating your environmental impact and have a formal system in place to monitor your activities.
The process towards certification usually takes about a year. It requires developing processes, goals and targets, and action plans to meet these environmental goals. After an audit is conducted to ensure that the standard is being satisfied, your business will be ISO 14001 certified. Following certification, regular monthly meetings ensure that compliance with the standard is maintained, and that action plans are implemented.
Great Forest is currently working on ISO 14001 programs with several clients.
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