Self Storage Company, a provider of an online self-storage directory, launched a new program to help self-storage facilities adopt sustainability practices and preserve resources. The Make Yourself Green program provides guidelines for making a self-assessment of green practices, scoring the facility, and planning the adoption of green practices in the four key areas that have the most impactenergy use and conservation, water usage and conservation, recycling and paper usage, and cleaning and disposal.
"We decided to launch this program because were concerned about the use of natural resources," said Art Gould, acting division manager, Self Storage Company. "Self-storage yards have a unique opportunity to reduce their own environmental footprint and also influence their customers by modeling conservation, reuse and recycling. Our intent is to encourage our listed facilities to improve their own adoption of green practices and encourage their customers to also move in that direction."
Make Yourself Green is a self-administered program. Operators simply visit this website, download the self-assessment scorecard, review their current practices, fill out the guide, and see where they have opportunities to become more green. Then they submit the scorecard back to the program administrator, and can receive the Make Yourself Green badge which can be displayed at their location and on their website. Make Yourself Green also includes programs for community involvement like "shredder days" and drop-off recycling.
"It has become clear that customers want to do patronize green facilities and businesses," Decker said. "Adopting green practices can appear to be expensive, and getting an official certification can also be time consuming, so we designed this program to make it easy for self-storage operators to focus on the areas with the greatest impact. Done the right way, practicing sustainability can lower operating costs, attract customers and help the local community."
