Practical Sustainability Implementation Guide
The Practical Sustainability Implementation Guide is a toolkit for launching, managing, and evolving sustainability initiatives across an organization. The guide transforms theory into actionable tools and templates, helping drive measurable results regardless of industry or organizational size.
It is based on Practical Sustainability: A Perspective, Philosophy, and Guide for Implementing Sustainability in Any Organization by Michigan sustainability leader Dan Broersma.
The book is available for purchase here.
What This Guide Offers
Sustainability is not a one-time project. It’s an ongoing, team-based effort that requires aligned goals, defined roles, reliable data, and consistent accountability. This resource is structured around core How-to Guides to help build and execute a sustainability strategy. The below guides can be followed in order, or can be individually referenced based on current needs.
Why This Matters
Good intentions alone won’t drive change. Progress comes from clear goals, organized teams, and measurable impact. This guide was created to bridge the gap between sustainability vision and operational execution. Whether launching a new initiative or fine-tuning an existing one, these tools are here to help make sustainability practical, measurable, and lasting.
The Guides
Click to download as a PDF file.
Introduction
Welcome to the Practical Sustainability Implementation Guide
Create a Sustainability Team
“Whether your organization is hiring a team, or pulling one together from within, the most important part is having the right people on that team.”
Practical Goals
“Instead of one big moonshot goal, try step goals… like reducing landfill amounts by 5–10% in the next 2–3 years.”
Define to Achieve
“You will not be able to solve any sustainability problem unless you first define what that problem is and what it means to your organization.”
Measure What Matters
“You can’t change what you don’t measure.”
Setting Up A Solid Waste Program
“If you can minimize the amount of times your trash and recycling is touch and moved, the more savings and value you can achieve.”
About Dan Broersma and Practical Sustainability
For more than two decades, Dan Broersma has lived and breathed sustainability in the workplace. And it’s been that, along with a lifetime of curiosity and passion towards the field, that has shaped his career and perspectives. By facing the often complicated aspects of sustainability head on, constantly asking questions, and approaching every problem with a holistic viewpoint, Broersma discovered sustainability is not only important, but essential to each and every organization.
Furthermore, the benefits of sustainability go far beyond simply the environment, such as financial, marketing, and workplace culture benefits — a multitude of reasons to get behind a more sustainable future.
What you’ll find in this book consists of Broersma’s vast experience distilled into his philosophy, advice, and encouragement. He’s done the hard work of implementing sustainability programs in different business environments, building teams and realistic goals to manage solid waste, energy, and water for reuse and reduction—and now you can too. In Practical Sustainability, which serves as a sort of combination guidebook and memoir, Broersma provides the insight and tools to change the question of “Should I embrace sustainability in my organization?” into the more appropriate, “Why wouldn’t I?”
The book is available for purchase here.
