SUSTAINABILITY
COMPETENCY & OPPORTUNITY
RATING & EVALUATION
How SCORE Works
SCORE includes a separate assessment for each major sector (services, manufacturing, government) and as well as common organizational functions (top management, facilities, human resources, marketing, finance, etc.) Each sector is rated on roughly a dozen sustainability practices and the functions usually have about half-a-dozen practices. All together, there are almost 100 practices to be rated. However, since they are organized the way organizations are organized, an individual rater only has to score a few items.
Each practice has three benchmarks of performance. The 'pilot' level represents better than status quo and typical performance for those early in their implementation. The 'initiative' level represents the performance expected of an organization with a formal sustainability effort. The 'systemic' level represents best practice, performance in organizations where sustainability is fully integrated and the organization is actively influencing the behavior of others outside the organization. See the two sample items below.
Sample SCORE Items
| OFFICE PRACTICES | ||||
| Points | Practice | Incubator | Initiative | Integrated |
| 1 point | 3 points | 9 points | ||
| Office Supplies and Equipment: Minimize impacts associated with office supplies, furnishings and equipment. | Select a couple targeted purchasing categories and identify more sustainable options. | Have a system in place for routinely assessing the impacts of purchases and are working on finding better options. | 80% or more of office supplies and equipment come from sustainable sources (i.e., from a certified sustainable source, 100% post-consumer waste, recyclable, product take-back). | |
| MANUFACTURING | ||||
| DESIGN | ||||
| Points | Practice | Incubator | Initiative | Integrated |
| 1 point | 3 points | 9 points | ||
| Design for environment (DfE)/sustainability (DfS): Redesign your product to maximize sustainability benefits using the best available technology. | At least every 5 years, redesign one product with sustainability in mind. Disseminate lessons learned from other related products. Apply DfE practices when designing any new products. | At least every 5 years, review and redesign most products to ”push the envelope” of sustainable performance. Use DfS techniques that incorporate social as well as environmental criteria for all new products. | Have significant products third-party certified as sustainable. | |