Build it Green Uses Mission and Metrics to Guide Decision Making

Working with La Piana Consulting, Build It Green engaged in a strategy development process that moved the organization through a critical first step of confirming its measure for mission impact: reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Collaborate. Create. Accelerate. These are three principles we have adopted as consultants, and they also capture what we strive to help our clients achieve in their mission-driven work.

Periodically, we’ll share featurettes highlighting nonprofits and foundations that we have seen exemplify one or all of these principles. Feel free to suggest others in the comments section – we love success stories!

Accelerate

Build It Green, a California nonprofit that works to increase awareness and adoption of green building practices statewide, has built a strong business model by securing contracts with utilities to provide training to contractors.  But the organization’s leadership, thinking creatively, saw myriad opportunities to expand its efforts beyond the limits of this quasi-governmental contract work. Working with La Piana Consulting, Build It Green engaged in a strategy development process that moved the organization through a critical first step of confirming its measure for mission impact: reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Although there was never any doubt that their mission was to promote environmentally sound building practices, the organization’s leaders had never adopted a stance on what success would look like. Once they decided that reduction in greenhouse gasses was their core measure of success, they were able to use that criterion to sort through various expansion opportunities and narrow them down to a few that best fit that goal. They are now moving ahead to explore and develop those options, rather than being daunted by the bounty of choices.

Learn more about Build It Green in their Annual Report, or find them on Facebook .