In this project, you will be conducting an interview about sustainability efforts at a local organization. Find a local company or organization with which you are familiar. Arrange an interview with a manager from that organization. Before the interview, do a search on the Internet about sustainability efforts of companies in that same industry so that you can ask related questions. Use the following questions to start your interview; add relevant questions related to what you discover through your Internet search about sustainability efforts at similar companies. After the interview, write up a report of what you found during the interview. Conclude your report with your overall assessment of that organization’s sustainability efforts.

1. What is the company’s primary product or service?

2. Does the company have a stated policy on sustainability? What is the policy?

3. How would this manager define sustainability? Is the manager’s definition similar to the definition of sustainability in this chapter?

4. Regardless of whether the company has a sustainability policy, what sustainability efforts does the company make with respect to the environment? For example, does the company recycle its waste? What specific types of waste are recycled? Does the company purchase recycled-content products?

5. Is the amount (or percentage) of waste that is recycled tracked in a reporting system? Who gets reports on the organization’s recycling efforts?

6. How does the company measure its impact on the environment (if it does)? (For example, does it measure its carbon footprint in total? Does it measure the carbon footprint of individual projects?)

7. Does the company do any external reporting of sustainability? If so, how long has the company been reporting on its sustainability efforts? If the company does not do any sustainability reporting at the current time, does it anticipate starting to report on its sustainability efforts in the near future?
8. In the manager’s opinion, is sustainability important within that organization’s industry? Why or why not?