The Taylor Companies is the first Ohio business to be Certified Green Plus™ by the Institute of Sustainable Development.  Taylor was recognized by the North Carolina Research Triangle based institute for its exceptional business, environmental and community practices. 

Green Plus™ is not a product-specific certification program; rather it is a broad practices sustainability certification.  The Green Plus™ model was developed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business in 2007.  UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University developed online sustainability tools that were tested in several states throughout 2008. 

Green Plus™ is a three part program developed to help enterprises improve their performance by becoming more sustainable.  In the first stage, employers take an online assessment which evaluates their management, environmental, employee and community engagement practices.  In the second stage, participants engage in a peer to peer online network and can receive advice from other businesses and university-based content experts on how to improve their sustainability performance.  In the final stage, businesses with exceptional scores across the Green Plus™ People, Planet and Performance sections may be Certified Green Plus™, recognizing their specific efforts. 

Green Plus™ has been adopted as the official small and medium sized enterprise sustainability program of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE).  The ACCE is comprised of a national 1,300 chamber network. 

"Taylor demonstrates that the concepts of sustainability and long-term competitiveness are becoming one and the same," said Chris Carmody, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development.  "Taylor provides a great example for any business of how efficient management coupled with sustainable environmental and community practices improve both a company's bottom line and the world around it," Carmody concluded. 

More information regarding Taylor's certification can be found at www.gogreenplus.org.