A few weeks ago, Local First launched the Good for Grand Rapids campaign. This initiative strives to bring together and celebrate companies who have taken a close look at their environmental, social, and economic impact on our community. They do this by way of the Quick Impact Assessment.
To give you an idea of what the QIA measures, Local First wants to share our results. These are just a few of the practices the QIA measures, but it took less than an hour to complete and gave us some valuable information about our impact.
What we’re doing well:
INDEPENDENT BUSINESS MATTERS!
nMore than 60{6be771524f35e681d5eb1711abbe9ad08f29540a742404ae9fff00be7e8f65de} of our expenses are spent with local independent suppliers. This means they are less than 200 miles from our office and locally-owned and privately held.
STRONG MISSIONS MATTER!
nLocal First’s mission statement includes a commitment to a specific positive environmental and social impact. We also added an equity and inclusion statement in which we commit to underserved and underrepresented communities.
BUSINESS PRACTICES MATTER!
nLocal First screens our suppliers to make sure they have positive environmental, manufacturing, and labor practices.
What we can do better:
ENERGY MATTERS!
nLocal First has great potential to improve upon our energy usage by working with our landlord to implement energy and water efficiency strategies in our rented space.
VOLUNTEERING MATTERS!
nLocal First can create policies that incentivize volunteer service. While the organization supports the importance of acts of service, we can do more by rewarding our employees when they give back.
EQUITY AND INCLUSION MATTER!
nLocal First will work to better represent the diversity of our community. We can work to engage members of our community and use their feedback to update our programming to meet our city’s changing needs.
Now it’s your turn! Take the QIA and be Good for Grand Rapids!
