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S-BAR Sustainable Business Achievement Ratings About S-Bar

History of S-BAR

In 2004, a bill was introduced in the California State Legislature giving state procurement preference to “sustainable businesses.” That bill failed – in large part because of lack of agreement about what exactly constitutes “sustainable business.” 

At the same time, a public-private partnership of California businesses and agencies, working on environmental and other sustainability issues, began to focus on the question of how to develop a standard to define “sustainable business.”  The partnership examined ways to develop a “level-playing field” system to provide ratings, benchmarking, and learning opportunities to help companies improve their environmental and social performance.

Modeling this effort in part on the marketplace success of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building standard, leaders in the sustainable business field came together to develop such a standard.  In Fall 2004, the S-BAR Leadership Team was established.

Progress To Date

The S-BAR team has completed the first of the three phases needed to launch the rating system. 

In Phase One, the conceptual framework was developed and tested with business and sustainability leaders; the outline of the Certification Tool and the initial question set and software specifications were created.  Twenty-four companies, ranging in size from five to over 10,000 employees and representing service, retail, commercial and manufacturing for- and non-profit industry sectors participated in the development of the Certification Tool outline.  To date, over 25 companies have requested to be beta-testers for S-BAR.

Phase Two, currently in progress, focuses on the development and refinement of the standards using intensive research, analysis, and a consensus stakeholder process.  Phase Three will focus on beta testing, target market development and roll-out preparation.

The S-BAR Leadership Team is currently engaged in a fundraising effort to complete the design and vetting of the system.  If you are interested in contributing to or learning more about this fundraising effort, Participate.