Colorado Green Business recognition

Applying for recognition

For a quick overview of our recognition criteria, please check out our Criteria overview.

Trouble viewing the image? Access CGBN levels in a PDF format.

The Colorado Green Business Network uses an online reporting tool called GreenBizTracker, which allows businesses to register for free and store information on their sustainable practices in a format that we use to evaluate & assist businesses according to our recognition criteria.

GreenBiz Tracker also allows for the creation of a business profile, which once the business is recognized, is published and made searchable by the public to encourage more consumer awareness about the companies involved in the program.

Our current application for recognition comes in 4 parts!

1. The Welcome Survey: this captures general business information, as well as information on how to best support you. This is the first step in receiving technical assistance and recognition.
    
2. The policy and leadership section: this focuses on the importance of policy in ensuring lasting change, while encouraging holistic emissions tracking and inventories.
    
3. The resource reduction section: this focuses on resource use and best practices in the areas of energy, water, transportation, purchasing, and waste, including points for reductions in total use from your baseline.
    
4. The submission agreement: this section is your final step! It contains acknowledgements, stating that you understand the terms of the program, and are ready to submit your application.

All current CGBN members at Bronze, Silver, and Gold Levels must submit an Annual Report every year, for three years, until they must re-certify.

Once an organization has been certified in the CGBN, the “Annual Report” survey will appear in the surveys tab on their GreenBiz Tracker account. Certified CGBN Members must submit the Annual Report every year, before the June 30th deadline, to maintain their certification.

The Annual Report is a small subset of the full application questions, asking for updated data for the most recent calendar year. Every year, certified businesses must update their data to reflect their most recent calendar year.

If a certified organization fails to submit its Annual Report before the June 30th deadline, it will lapse in the program.

CGBN Members have three years until they need to re-certify and submit the entire application. In those off years, the Annual Report is all they need to submit.

Organizations wanting to join the CGBN community must register in GreenBiz Tracker and submit all four surveys by June 30th to certify.

1. Welcome Survey
2. Policy & Leadership Survey
3. Resource Reduction Survey
4. Submission Agreement

For Recognition, the CGBN’s application committee will review and score your application, which will determine your membership level - Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Organizations do not need a perfect score to receive recognition. There are around 380 points on the table, but organizations only need 25 points for Bronze, 50 for Silver, and 100 for Gold. The application was created for organizations across sectors and sizes, so some questions may not pertain to a certain organization type.

The application committee will not review an organization’s application unless the Submission Agreement is submitted (the fourth survey). A compliance check is a required part of our application process and we run these compliance checks after our June 30th deadline each year for new applicants. The Submission Agreement gives us permission from the organization to complete this check and we cannot move forward with certification unless this is completed.
 

Certified green businesses

Each year, the Colorado Green Business Network recognizes and celebrates businesses that go above and beyond in implementing sustainability in their operations.