The Sustainable Research Group offers a variety of services which, together or separately, can be tailored to each client's specific needs, including:
Research
Marketing
Consulting
Green Real Estate Development

1. Research – SRG provides both primary and secondary research into critical topics involving environmental and sustainable methods, technologies and markets. This often involves identifying a range of options, evaluating their feasibility to address a client’s needs and making recommendations for further action:

• Environmentally Sustainable Technology Assessments
• Regional / Industry Waste Stream Analysis
• End of Life Product Impact

Examples:
Sustainable Development Principles
SRG serves as an industry strategist for the development of biomaterials, green chemistry, and climate change innovations; we have actual on-site experience as an assessor at over 30 manufacturing facilities to identify and implement sustainable development/Lean and Green opportunities.

Green Chemistry
SRG developed a Chemical Database of 5,000 plus chemicals that identifies their regulatory and health impacts, including chemicals of concern to the furniture industry; participant in the Green Chemistry & Engineering conferences and the President’s Green Chemistry Awards Program; Member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Ecological Science
SRG has expertise on staff that can assist the committee understand ecological concepts and the science behind key sustainable development principles and environmental health issues. This expertise also extends to the impact of climate change on business, and the development of decarbonization as climate mitigation strategy.

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2. Marketing – Getting the word out about a new product or service requires a comprehensive understanding of “Green Marketing Claims”, such as government guidelines and target market expectations. SRG provides counseling on how to avoid the pitfalls associated with “Greenwashing.”

• Green Product Promotion
• Environmentally Sustainable Technology Promotion
• Technology Acceptance

Examples:
Sustainable Product Design
SRG provides outside expertise on environmentally sustainable product attributes, ranging from recycled content to biodegradability; and has developed a national bio-based material and product database. SRG has direct experience with the use and end-of-life management of bio-based materials in the furniture industry.

Green Marketing Services
SRG develops and reviews green marketing claims to ensure validation against federal or state guidelines, identifies the most appropriate environmental publications or catalogs/databases for best green product placement.

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3. Consulting – SRG helped define the concept of an environmentally sustainable approach to business. We have organized four regional sustainable business networks that bring together hundreds of businesses each month to learn how to operationalize sustainability within their companies. SRG’s extensive experience working with these sustainability leaders is translated into practical, and easily implemented strategies in a variety of areas.

Seminars	Community Awareness
Workshops	Stakeholder Dialogue
Staff Training

Developing Sustainability Baselines	Waste Steam Assessments
Recycling Opportunity	Pollution Prevention
EMS Gap Analysis	Best Management Practices

Examples:
Standard Development Processes
SRG has experience as an active participant in the NSF ISO 14001 Standards Development Process; primary technical consultant for the BIFMA Sustainability Guidelines; SRG is the project manager working with the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association on development of a BIFMA Sustainability Assessment Standard for ANSI adoption as a formal industry standard.

Facilitation of Diverse Business Interests
SRG has helped create numerous sustainable business organizations, which required the skills crucial to the success of this project, including meeting facilitation, agenda development and minutes at over 150 meetings in the past five years.

Ecological Science
SRG has expertise on staff that can assist the committee understand ecological concepts and the science behind key sustainable development principles and environmental health issues. This expertise also extends to the impact of climate change on business, and the development of decarbonization as climate mitigation strategy.

Green Manufacturing Assessments
SRG was the organizer and a participant in the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Natural Capital Assessments of Furniture Manufacturers; he is also an assessor for the EPA/NIST Green Supplier Network Manufacturing Assessments.

Environmental Management Systems
SRG is a consulting facilitator to manufacturers on the development of ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems, and a facilitator for the Right Place Inc.’s Environmental Management System User Group

Recycling Systems/Infrastructure
SRG is a past project manager for the establishment of multifaceted internal recycling programs for major furniture and automotive manufacturers; consulting engagements with private and public material recycling facilities.

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4. Green Real Estate Development

Examples:
Green Development Strategy
SRG has provided conceptual approaches to both brownfield and greenfield developments concerned about minimizing a projects ecological footprint. It has developed guiding principles for new development, identified sustainable technologies for energy conservation, recycled content materials and low impact design elements.

High Performance Green Building Development
SRG has helped identify the best technique to achieve maximum environmental performance for commercial and industrial buildings. We approach this assessment with and independent perspective not giving extra weight to one green building criterion over another, but helping identify the tools that best achieve the goals of the developer.

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