The Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce is looking for one or two interns for the Spring 2015 semester to assist in “revamping” its GreeNWAy Initiative, a voluntary certification system for Fayetteville businesses.
Background Information
The Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce is one of the only Chambers to have two LEED Green Associate on their team as well as a sustainability certification program. The GreeNWAy Initiative is an education and recognition program to connect people, sustain profits and preserve the planet for the Chamber businesses in Fayetteville. GreeNWAy has been around since 2010 and was created in partnership with the University of Arkansas, the City of Fayetteville, and the UA Chapter of ENACTUS. The program needs to be revitalized and tailored to meet current business owner’s needs.
GreeNWAy has around 36 certified businesses. Currently, the steps to join the program are as follows:
- Businesses perform a self-audit using a Scorecard and Scorecard Companion which measure the business on six different categories: Water, Waste, Energy, Education, People and Purchasing.
- A third-party audit is conducted to verify the results. The business’s utility bills are also collected at this time for benchmarking.
- Businesses that receive a passing score receive a plaque, a green ribbon cutting ceremony, are eligible for the “Best Green and Sustainable Business” award, are listed as GreeNWAy business in the Chamber’s member directory, and receive various networking opportunities.
- Businesses then attend quarterly training and spotchecks every six months of their two-year certification.
Intern Responsibilities
Currently, our GreeNWAy initiative is in need of revamping in order to offer even more value to our businesses for their investment. The scorecards also need updating since they are not currently tailored to building owners vs. renters, hospitals, vs. retails, etc. How can we develop effective benchmarks that help us tell our success stories?
The student(s) selected to engage with the Chamber as its consultant will be expected to:
- Survey current GreeNWAy businesses and determine what their needs are and their evaluation of the current GreeNWAy program
- Create an updated version of the executive summary/next steps for businesses
- Create relevant programming through training videos, social media outreach (vines, tweets, etc.), volunteer days, networking events, etc. to communicate money-saving sustainability initiatives to members
Students interested in this opportunity should send a resume to Stephanie Lenogue at SLenogue@fayettevillear.com.