Cool Choices

This submission reflects this organization's contribution to the climate effort, representative of their current actions and commitments as well as the ways in which they intend to step up and collaborate with others.

Cool Choices's Climate Action Contribution

About Cool Choices's Climate Efforts

Cool Choices is a nonprofit that works with businesses and local communities to inspire people to adopt sustainable practices and to collaborate on broader efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across business and community operations. We've inspired more than 10,000 people to adopt hundreds of thousands of new practices that save electricity, gasoline, and water while reducing waste.

Founded in 2009 Cool Choices came out of a recognition that we need to engage 'hearts and minds' alongside technology to address climate challenges. We've created an innovative game-based engagement platform where people form teams and earn points for making 'cool choices' at home and work. Our efforts get people talking about sustainability, demonstrate that individual actions add up and create momentum for bigger organizational efforts.

Climate Action Commitments

Current Climate Actions Cool Choices Is Taking:

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Commit to Reduce Climate Impacts of Packaging and Reducing Waste

There are many ways to reduce the climate impact of packaging including reducing materials (i.e., “source reduction”); replacing virgin materials with post-consumer recycled content; replacing traditional plastics made from fossil fuels with biopolymers; re-designing packaging to be more compact and therefore efficient for transport and storage; using biodegradable packing materials; and recycling at end of the packaging’s life to name just a few practices.

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Commit to Responsible Engagement in Climate Policy

While individual organization action is necessary, local and federal government action is also needed to reach global climate goals. Your organization can have a critical voice in advancing public policy. A commitment to responsible engagement in climate policy means that your organization commits to supporting public policy to: promote energy efficiency and renewable energy; increase investment in a clean energy economy; support climate change adaptation, or put a price on carbon.

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Commit to Reducing the Climate Impact of Your Transportation

Organizations making a commitment to reduce the climate impact of transportation should consider practices such as measuring transportation greenhouse gas emissions and setting reduction targets, switching fuels, optimizing the efficiency of shipping operations, and reducing transit- and travel-related greenhouse gas emissions. Businesses can develop a green transportation action plan to map the movement of goods to market and identify opportunities to increase efficiency. Organizations can buy hybrid and electric vehicles within their own fleet, and can reduce the footprint of their workforce through incentivizing public transportation, installing EV charging stations, promoting telework, and locating near transit centers.

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Commit to Increase Energy Efficiency

Most companies begin by assessing energy usage or performing an energy audit to identify opportunities to increase energy efficiency throughout their facilities and operations. Energy reduction targets can be framed as either absolute reductions or reductions that are normalized per unit of production, such as per tons shipped, per dollars of revenue produced, or other relevant business metric. Some examples of commitments that can be taken include:

  • Conducting an energy audit or request a meeting with your building owner to explore scheduling an audit
  • Upgrading HVAC system to a more efficient model
  • Upgrading lights in your office/facility to LEDs
  • Upgrading insulation and windows
  • Replacing appliances in your office with Energy Star-rated models
  • Instituting a company policy of turning off lights other electronics when not in use.
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Commit to Understand and Reduce Your Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Understanding your GHG emissions is the first step to making measurable reductions in those emissions. The EPA provides an overview report and CoolClimate Network provides a simple tool for “low emitters” to better understand sources of emissions, as well as how to use that information to set reduction targets. For this commitment, it is as simple as committing to complete a greenhouse gas inventory for your business or oganization, but in the future your inventory can be used to make a commitment to set a specific goal, such as “reduce GHG emissions by 50% by 2025.

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Integrate Climate Change into Portfolio Analyses and Decision-Making

Commit to integrate climate change-related risks and opportunities in portfolio analysis and decision-making processes through one or more of the following:

  • Analyzing and assessing climate change-related risks and opportunities (e.g. through carbon footprinting, scenario analysis).
  • Making commitments and setting targets (e.g. to carbon footprint reduction, to enhanced portfolio resilience, to decarbonization, including via the Portfolio Decarbonization Coalition).
  • Investing in low carbon investment funds and other products (e.g. low carbon indices, climate-aligned bonds).

Areas For Collaboration

We are interested in collaborating on the following:

Efficient Buildings
  • Encouraging more aggressive state energy efficiency policies
  • Supporting building thermal decarbonization and electrification

Electric Vehicles
  • Aggregating demand for electric vehicles with other actors
  • Encouraging more aggressive state targets for electric vehicles and GHG standards

Local Collaboration
  • Collaborate on climate and clean energy action, and to advocate for stronger climate policy at the local level

Utility Sector
  • Supporting states, cities, and utilities in decarbonizing their energy supply
Other collaborations
We are always interested in collaborating with other groups to empower people to be part of the solution on climate issues.

Organization details

Sector
Business
Location
Madison, WI