Sustainable Chambers, formed in Spring 2022, is working with the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and the US Green Chamber of Commerce. Our main point of contact with the TCCC is Jennifer Tavares, the President and CEO and Michelle Thatcher, the CEO and Founder.

Working with Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce to promote sustainable business practices.

Chambers of Commerce :

  • Are business networks, typically based on location and ranging from city, county, state, or country-focused.

  • Exist to protect their business community’s interests and promote business-friendly practices. 

  • Can be legislatively focused and government or policy related, but the majority of chambers in the United States have no legislative power and purely serve their business communities. 

  • Act as the spokesperson for their business members and translate group thinking into action.

  • Are valuable catalysts for advancing sustainability in the business world.

Past Projects

Last semester, we worked on a Business & Commercial Property Sustainability Survey where we identified gaps in knowledge from businesses in Ithaca to allow them to reach their own sustainability goals. This included multiple research calls with stakeholders in the city planning office, sustainability directors and more.

Current Projects:

Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce Collaboration

The Sustainable Chambers team is working with the Tompkins County Chamber to promote sustainable business practices by creating a manual for their business members to use as a resource. 

For Fall 2022, the Sustainable Chambers team is creating a comprehensive sustainability survey for the Tompkins County business community.

What the survey will assess:

  • Current sustainability practices of business members

  • Interest in and awareness of relevant environmental regulations in both Tompkins County and New York State. 

  • Goals and concerns about implementing sustainable business practices.

U. S. Green Chamber of Commerce Collaboration

Working with the U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce to develop a national university-chamber consulting program. The goal is to foster collaboration between chambers and university students, where students can help complete carbon calculations, research, and advise on business sustainability practices like ESG funding or certifications like LEED and SWEEP for chamber business members. Currently developing a toolkit for rolling out the program.

​​What will the toolkit include?

Benefits of working with university students and what university students can accomplish for chambers (carbon calculations, certification recommendations, etc).

  • How universities can organize CSC-like groups who can complete similar consulting work around the country.

    • The University of Pennsylvania has already started a similar team inspired by CSC.

  • Case studies including the work we are completing with Tompkins County, along with other examples from across the country.

Upcoming Work

Upcoming work will include survey analysis and toolkit creation that businesses can use to meet their goals, as well as labor and green job program initiatives with the chamber. Our work with the USGCC will be creating a toolkit for a national university program, including a curriculum on how to create organizations such as CSC nationally. We have a lot of exciting work coming up over the next couple of semesters!

This organization is a registered student organization of Cornell University