The WI Sustainable Business Council’s Green Masters Program

The Green Masters Program is an objective, points-based recognition program that enables Wisconsin businesses of all sizes and from all sectors to understand what needs to be done to justifiably claim that they are “on the road to sustainability.” Developed by the WI Sustainable Business Council and Wisconsin business, in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin, the Green Masters Program helps to recognize Wisconsin’s sustainability leaders and encourage continuous improvement.

Version 2.1 of the Green Masters application includes several improvements:

• Metrics tailored to your company’s size and sector
• New environmental and social actions recommended by Wisconsin companies
• Questions to help put small and medium businesses on a level playing field

In response to concern about the veracity of sustainability information provided by participating companies, the University of Wisconsin reviewed roughly one third of the applications.  We found absolutely no evidence of unsubstantiated claims by participants. Every company, from a local technical college to world-leaders in manufacturing, could support the claims they made in their applications.  In this age of distrust in business, it is apparent that businesses are now taking seriously Warren Buffet’s adage:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and 5 minutes to lose it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Questions or comments? Please contact us at greenmastersprogram@gmail.com