Sustainable Office Accreditation

Sustainable Office Accreditation Program

The JCU Sustainable Office Accreditation program is designed to empower staff to take responsibility for their sustainability practices in their workplace. The program is an incentive based, voluntary program that celebrates staff efforts, giving them a bronze, silver, gold or platinum status. The program is designed to be implemented at the Office, College or Research Centre level* or you can even nominate your Building, allowing individuals to work together and empower each other. Each campus will be assessed individually for their Office, College, Research Centre or Building. The program is run annually with each nominee's accreditation updated yearly.

*An Office/College/Research Centre/Building is based on where your position sits within the university. Therefore there may be multiple groups using a building or lunch room. For example the College of Science and Engineering and the College of Healthcare Sciences may share the same lunch room, in this case both colleges will earn/lose points for sustainability behaviours in the lunch room. Otherwise individual and group efforts will be awarded to the college that your position sits in.

How does it work?

Points are awarded for different office initiatives and activities and there are four levels of accreditation achievable:

Bronze - 150 points achieved

Silver - 250 points achieved

Gold - 350 points achieved

Platinum - 450+ points achieved

How can we participate?

To participate, a College, Office, Research Centre or Building must appoint at least one Sustainability Champion who will be responsible for coordinating the accreditation process. Once a Sustainability Champion is nominated you can commence the accreditation process by contacting TropEco. TropEco staff will assist you in implementing initiatives in your area that will contribute to your accreditation.

1. Read through the program guide to gain an understanding of what the program is and how you can be involved.
2. Talk to your colleagues about getting involved. If your whole office, college, research centre or building is on board, you have a much better chance of achieving your goals.
3. Nominate a Sustainability Champion for your office. To participate, an office must nominate at least one Sustainability Champion. The Sustainability Champion will be responsible for assessment and reporting back to TropEco for the Sustainable Office Accreditation program as well as disseminating information to their office colleagues related to the program.
4. TropEco staff will provide support to Sustainability Champions to undertake their assessment and to implement activities that will help them gain additional points through the program.
5. Choose which actions your office is already doing or is going to undertake from the list provided. If you need more information or help to understand any of the actions please ask your Sustainability Champion to contact the TropEco Office.
6. Once you have chosen your actions and you believe that the actions have been completed and upheld by the staff members of your office area, the Sustainability Champion should contact the TropEco Office to request assessment.
7. Following an office or college’s submission for accreditation an audit will be carried out by a TropEco staff member or intern in collaboration with the Sustainability Champion. If your assessment is approved you will receive a Bronze (150 points), Silver (250 points), Gold (350 points) or Platinum (450+ points) rating and certificate. If you need to improve the work on some of these actions, TropEco Staff will provide feedback to your Sustainability Champion and assist with any help or resources you may need to achieve your goals.