2024 Greening the Office Certification Achieved by 3 Locations!

It was another great year for our Greening the Office Certification program, with two offices achieving GOLD Level certification and one office achieving SILVER. Read about the sustainability work taking place in each of these offices below.  

GOLD - Institute of Orthopaedics and Neurosciences (ION) – 2331 Franklin Road SW, Roanoke  

Led by the efforts of Kaitlyn Costa, this certification impressively encompasses the ENTIRE facility of ION, encompassing more than 300 employees and 90,546 square feet. Education, engagement, research and implementation of defined processes to promote sustainability are factors that led to this GOLD Level award. Some highlights of their application include:  

• Designated staff to turn off all monitors at the end of the day  

• Routine appliance audits and communication with staff to identify if equipment is no longer operating appropriately/can be removed  

• Bulletin boards, signage and email reminders to educate staff  

• Multiple recycling programs including plastics # 1 & 2, aluminum, paper, cardboard, printer cartridges, and soda can tabs (for Ronald McDonald House) 

• Efforts to completely eliminate plastic water bottles from the facility  

GOLD - Human Resources – 1212 3rd Street, Roanoke 

The Sustainability Committee at 1212 3rd Street has been working hard for multiple years to develop a culture of sustainability within the facility, and it is working! This is the facility’s second GOLD Level certification, with the first being achieved in 2022 (offices must re-certify every two years to maintain certification). Standout accomplishments in this year’s application include:  

• Removal of unnecessary equipment  

• A formalized onboarding sustainability checklist to educate new building employees  

• Sorting through recycling prior to each pickup to ensure that proper items are being recycled and to minimize contamination  

• A regular newsletter sent out to all building employees and 3 bulletin boards dedicated to sustainability education and information  

SILVER – Outpatient Therapy – 213 Gilbert Street, Blacksburg  

Communication and education to staff about sustainability initiatives helped this location achieve the SILVER Level certification. Impressive responses on their application included:  

• Eliminating the use of handouts at departmental meetings and implementing paper-free meetings  

• Participating in the Rescue Mission’s Back to School supply drive, by donating excess/no-longer-needed office supplies  

• Standing process of having the office’s Sustainability Champion presenting at monthly staff meetings  

Thank you to all who applied for this certification this year. Applications will re-open on September 1, 2025 for the next certification cycle.  

If you are interested in hearing more from ION and Human Resources about how they achieved their GOLD Level certification, please join us for our next Sustainability Champions Committee meeting on April 2nd at 9 a.m. Staff from these facilities will be presenting on their work. Contact Marina Sotelo (mcsotelo@carilionclinic.org) for the Teams link.