Frequently Asked Questions: Sprints

Sustainable Pittsburgh sprints are short, fun competitions that enable organizations to compete against peers in earning points for actions that advance social equity, carbon-emissions reduction, or another critical topic. Sprint competitions focus on one topic critical to regional sustainability. Each sprint runs for three to six months. In this focused timeframe, participating organizations can rally employees toward quick progress, track performance against peers through sprint leaderboards, and earn recognition as sustainability leaders.

Sustainable Pittsburgh sprints help your organization assess and advance progress in a key sustainability area while engaging your colleagues and staff in a fun, team-building competition and earning recognition for your achievements.

Participating in a sprint can help your organization: 

• Attract and engage employees: Staff and new talent prefer to work at organizations that are committed to sustainability. Build a vibrant workplace culture where all employees can learn, contribute to, and be supported by sustainable and just practices.
• Reduce risk and realize opportunities: Adopt practices that reduce expense and risk while opening up new markets, innovations, and long-term success. 
• Lead on market, policy, and stakeholder expectations: Policy-makers, investors, customers, and residents are increasingly demanding sustainability commitment and transparency.
• Build an equitable, resilient, healthy, and prosperous PA

This year’s sprint competition is focused on the topic of carbon reduction. This means that every question in the sprint is designed to help your organization or business reduce its carbon emissions and related climate impact. Decarbonization, or the reduction of carbon emission from human systems and activities, can reduce cost, correlate with higher returns, and improve resilience against extreme events that impact operations and supply chains. Questions are focused on an organization’s commitment to carbon reduction in its own operations: things like, implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions tracking, support of electric vehicles and multimodal transit, purchasing policies that support local, reusable and recycled products, and protecting or increasing green space (which act as carbon sinks by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis). For municipalities, the program also includes questions about carbon reduction in community development: issues like and others. Questions are tailored by sector so you will only see questions that are the most relevant to your organization.

The sprint competition is designed to be a flexible program appropriate for all organizations regardless of the amount of time, experience, or staff available to participate. There is no required amount of time that your organization needs to plan to devote to the sprint. In fact, it is very likely that each organization will develop a unique approach to the program.To determine what is best for your organization, we suggest that you log on to the program and review the questions with any colleagues you may plan to collaborate with. You are also welcome to reach out to Sustainable Pittsburgh’s staff for help getting started. Some teams may decide to answer as many questions as possible in one sitting, while others may divide questions and work on them slowly throughout the competition. There is no wrong way to participate!

There are many ways that the program allows for this level of flexibility:

• Participating organizations are not required to answer every question in the program. You may choose to answer as many questions as you like, leaving any that you prefer not to answer blank.
• Participating organizations are awarded points for every question they answer, regardless of how many they complete. Every action makes a difference, both in your workplace and in your point total for the sprint.
• It is not required for participating organizations to take new actions during the sprint timeframe. In other words, you may report exclusively on actions your organization took prior to the competition.
• For organizations that are newer to the sprint topic or seeking to push their progress in that area further, you are likewise not required to have completed any actions prior to the competition. You may take and report on as many new actions as desired over the course of the sprint competition.

Sprints are time-bound, competitive, and focused on one topic at a time. They are designed to drive performance in, rally support around, and recognize achievements related to key sustainability topics in a fun, fast, and engaging way. By contrast, each of Sustainable Pittsburgh’s four designation programs cover a comprehensive spectrum of sector-specific sustainability topics; are open year-round to support ongoing, long-term, strategic sustainability action; and allow each participating organization to independently earn a Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum-level designation (i.e., there are no limits on how many organizations can earn each level of designation, including platinum).

Yes! Sprints are a topical sub-set of the full designation program. In other words, the carbon reduction sprint actions are all actions within the full designation programs, we just pulled them out to include in this short term sprint competition. This means the work you do on a sprint can help you achieve full designation, or can help you work toward redesignation at a higher level (Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze).

• If your organization has not yet started working towards designation, sprints can help you engage your employees around and drive progress in a given area. They can also serve as opportunities to assemble your sustainability team and make progress toward earning designation in the future.
• If your organization is already designated, sprints are great opportunities to reignite employee engagement, drive further progress around a single topic, and earn points towards earning a higher level of designation in the future.
• If your organization is currently participating in a designation program or a sprint, you can use the button “sprint ahead” or “full designation” to work on either one in the online dashboard. If you’re working on the full designation, we encourage you to toggle the “sprint ahead” button to see how much of the sprint you may have already completed. We suggest using the sprint timeframe to focus on improving the Carbon Reduction pieces of the full designation. You could be recognized as a carbon reduction leader at the end of the sprint, along with achieving full designation in the future.

Restaurants, retail shops, businesses, nonprofits, and other institutions located in southwestern Pennsylvania; as well as local governments located throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, are encouraged to participate in a sprint. Your organization may be of any size or sector, and no prior sustainability experience is required. 

You may participate in a sprint whether or not you have already earned a Sustainable Pittsburgh designation.

There is no fee to participate in the 2023 Sustainable Pittsburgh Carbon Reduction sprint. However, once the Sprint ends, if you decide to continue on to complete the remaining actions needed to get fully designated, there is a fee that applies to receive your designation. The fee amount depends on the size of your organization and whether you are a shop, restaurant or workplace. Visit the Sustainable Pittsburgh Shop FAQ page, the Sustainable Pittsburgh Restaurant FAQ page, or the Sustainable Pittsburgh Workplace FAQ page to view associated designation fees. There is no fee for municipalities to complete the Sustainable Pennsylvania Certification.

• Visit https://sustainablepittsburgh.org/take-action/recognition-programs/program-login/  to CREATE or LOG IN to your account. 
• Wait for a confirmation email from Sustainable Pittsburgh to complete login (only for those creating new accounts)
• To begin, simply, press “Begin” under the Go Further column, “Sprint Ahead” under the Keep Going column, or “Recertify” under the Achievements to date column.
• Select the “Access Carbon Reduction Sprint” button on the topics page to filter the designation view to see Carbon Reduction Sprint-specific actions only.
  • NOTE: When completing the On Ramp questions, you will be asked to acknowledge a fee associated with the designation program. These fees only apply if your organization chooses to complete the remaining actions needed to earn formal sustainable designation, after the Sprint ends. It is FREE to participate in the Sprint.
• Start earning points and get in on the competition!

During a sprint competition, you can log in at any time to submit your responses to the program questions. You may work together with a team of colleagues to do so, each of whom also must create an account. You may respond to as many questions as you like over as many sittings as you wish. There is no need to complete every question.

Participants in a sprint can earn points for every question they answer in the program. Sustainable Pittsburgh staff will review the responses submitted on a monthly basis to approve these points. Sustainable Pittsburgh staff may also ask participants to provide additional documentation to clarify their responses before awarding points. In this case, participants will receive an email alerting them that their answers require attention. 

Sprint top scorers will be identified by sector (e.g., municipalities, universities, nonprofits, businesses, etc.) to ensure that participants are competing only against organizations similar to their own. The questions in the sprint competition are likewise tailored by sector to ensure that you are asked the most pertinent questions to your organization type.

To win a sprint, an organization must have earned the highest percentage of the total number of points available in the program among the organizations participating from their sector. Following monthly point reviews, online leaderboards will be updated to reveal the leading organizations in each sector.

Top scorers can promote their leadership in many ways! Sustainable Pittsburgh is pleased to provide the following tools, platforms, and promotions to amplify your achievement:

• Top scorers will be announced at al public event and receive a physical award to signify their achievement. They will also be included in a press release.
• Top scorers receive an electronic file containing a digital badge and other promotional materials for placement on your website and in job postings, sustainability or ESG reports, advertisements, social media, and other stakeholder engagements.
• In addition to benefiting from overarching program marketing initiatives, top scorers will receive a press release template to use for sharing the news of its achievement. Additional media attention can also be received from TV, radio, advertisements, newspapers, and magazines.
• Follow us on LinkedIn,X, Instagram, and Facebook! We’re happy to share the good work of sprint top scorers. 
• Positive recognition for businesses and workplaces is sure to flow among members of the community.

Sustainable Pittsburgh takes the confidentiality of your information seriously. For participants of the Sustainable Pittsburgh Workplace Program, your contact information and all answers and documentation that you provide in response to the program’s questions remain entirely confidential. This is never shared with the public or any entity outside of Sustainable Pittsburgh. This data is used strictly for verification, for awarding points, and to aggregate program results across participants.

For participants of Sustainable Pennsylvania, the Sustainable Pittsburgh Restaurant Program, and the Sustainable Pittsburgh Shop program, selected answers, documentation, and contact information are made publicly accessible through directories available on their respective program websites.  

The sprint program includes the use of a public leaderboard housed on the Sustainable Pittsburgh website. This indicates the top performers in each sector on a monthly basis. This leaderboard indicates organization name and the aggregate percentage of points earned only. It does not make public any specific actions that an organization has or has not completed. 

The points earned by organizations that do not appear on the leaderboard are not public. However, this information is viewable by other organizations participating in the sprint.

We are here to help! Contact us at info@sustainablepittsburgh.org or 412-258-6642 x4. We will update these FAQs accordingly.