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Benefits to Members
* Public recognition for outstanding
environmental performance;
* Increased
environmental credibility as a community good neighbor”;
* Opportunities for improved
financial performance through pollution prevention solutions;
* Access to environmental regulators
in a neutral setting;
* Opportunities for mentoring with
Arizona’s most notable businesses and environmental leaders;
* Partnership with Earth’s 911
allows for:
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Development
of a single portal for environmental information throughout Arizona;
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A
communications network that includes a bilingual telephonic system as well
as a zip code specific Internet system;
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Deliverance
of time relevant and accurate environmental information to the general
public
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Promotion
of the Alliance and the Alliance members throughout Arizona and the United
States;
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Assisting
the Alliance in achieving many of its Strategic Objecties
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General
public education on environmental issues
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Development
of various green building and sustainability projects
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Environmental
Leadership Recognition
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A
tremendous platform to assist in developing and successfully accomplishing
future Alliance projects.
Member
Organizations
Members
are comprised of an elite group of
companies and organizations from throughout Arizona that have established
themselves as environmental leaders, adopted environmentally responsible
practices, demonstrated commitment to environmental quality, and maintained
exemplary environmental compliance records.
Members adopt and implement the Alliance Principles, and carry out
compliance awareness, pollution prevention, environmental education and
mentoring projects.
Expectations of Members
Alliance members must continue to meet the
threshold set for applicants, participate in at least one Alliance project each
year, and adopt and practice the Arizona
Environmental Strategic Alliance
Principles.
Membership Criteria
All
potential candidates must meet Environmental
Leader Mandatory Requirements.
Performance Characteristics must be met as appropriate for the
organization’s size.
Environmental Leader Mandatory
Requirements
1.
Endorsement of the Arizona Environmental Strategic Alliance
Principles. Member
organizations must endorse the Alliance Principles.
2.
Compliance. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Arizona
Department of Environmental Quality and the county/city
government appropriate for the facility or operation will provide
information on the organization's environmental performance relative to
their respective jurisdictions.
Prospective members must demonstrate a
substantial compliance with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations
over the previous twelve
months. Applicants must
resolve all compliance orders against the organization prior to
membership review. Continuing
members must maintain a good
compliance status in all applicable criteria.
3. Published Environmental
Policy. Applicants shall have a published environmental policy.
4. Environmental
Measurement System. Applicant
organizations should subscribe to the axiom "what gets measured
gets managed." The
Alliance expects its members to quantify the environmental impact of the
organization's Arizona operations (facilities) and to make the
information available to its stakeholders, such as customers, employees,
and communities. Prospective
members should provide goals and targets for reducing their
environmental impacts and porting environmental benefits.
5. Environmental
Stewardship. Members
should actively participate in environmental programs enhancing the
communities in which they reside. Volunteer
efforts, community projects, and sponsorships, industry trade groups,
and mentoring involvement are a few examples of stewardship.
6. Pollution Prevention
Program. The concept of "reduce, reuse, and recycle" has
existed for 25 years. At a
minimum, a prospective member should demonstrate programs consistent
with the pollution prevention theory of the Three R’s:
reduce, reuse, and recycle; members should employ source
reduction as the primary means to prevent pollution.
7. Transparency. “Transparency” addresses the degree of openness and
candidness that Alliance members
exhibit
during interactions with various stakeholders and acts as a measure of
the organization's environmental performance.
The Alliance seeks to increase transparency without compromising
attorney/client privilege, revealing trade secrets or disclosing audit
findings outside voluntary efforts.
Members work to become more transparent in their environmental
dealings with stakeholders and communities.
Performance Characteristics
In
addition to meeting the mandatory requirements above, candidates must
demonstrate environmental leadership by meeting performance
characteristics. Since size
and resource disparities exist between small and large organizations,
small organizations (those with less than 100 employees) are required to
implement six of the performance characteristics and large organizations
implement ten of the performance characteristics detailed on the
membership application.
Many
of the performance characteristics, such as programs to reduce water or
energy consumption, waste minimization, or documenting environmental
performance often are already in place and may provide cost-savings
benefits. Alliance members
report annually on their participation in these programs.
Membership Opportunity
The
Alliance seeks organizations from the public and private sectors that
share our commitment to environmental protection and demonstrate
leadership in achieving environmental sustainability.
The
advisory council serves as the membership review and selection body and
accepts only those organizations that adhere to the performance
standards. The Alliance is
not obligated to accept any applicant, even though the applicant may
appear to meet all of the specified criteria.
Further, the advisory council holds the right to maintain the
membership of only those organizations whose participation positively
affects the credibility and image of the Alliance and its membership.
Membership
Application
An
application for membership in the Alliance can be found on our Find
an Alliance Documents Page, or simply click HERE.
For
More Information
For more information on membership, please contact
Jim Thrush at
480-422-7293.
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