Empowering Leaders
A successful response to this Call to Action requires leadership from individuals of all types at all levels. From Chief executives, asset owners, and line managers to technical specialists, site Green Teams, and general staff, everyone has a role and responsibility to forge partnerships and be a champion for raising awareness of, generating and implementing ideas for, taking and supporting action on, and making other important contributions to achieving breakthroughs on sustainability.
Five steps for sites to begin and/or further their journey
| Step 1 | Notify the corporate sustainability team of your intent to assist and be part of the program. |
| Step 2 | Organize, empower, and charge a site Green Team to review the Using This Guide chapter. |
| Step 3 | Develop a sustainability improvement plan, using this Guide to identify and optimize the best combination of strategies, timelines, and funding sources. |
| Step 4 | Define and incorporate sustainability objectives that align with top-level goals into strategic plans and annual staff evaluations. |
| Step 5 | Submit success stories to cross-pollinate best practices and fuel annual awards and other forms of recognition and reward. |
We, the people, still believe that our obligations … are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, crippling drought, and more powerful storms.
The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But [we] cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede … the technology that will power new jobs and new industries; we must claim its promise. That’s how we will maintain our economic vitality and our … treasure—our forests and waterways, our crop lands and snow-capped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care…. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
President Barack Obama
2nd Inaugural Address, January 21, 2013