SHN Engineers & Geologists, Inc. (SHN) is a California State and federally-certified small business enterprise meeting the engineering and environmental needs of communities in Northern California and Southern Oregon. SHN’s offices were constructed with efficient lighting and heating and use less electricity than average compared to similar buildings. SHN adopted its first Sustainability Report, based on the Global Reporting Initiative’s guidelines for small and medium sized business enterprises. Six of the report’s 19 recommendations have been implemented so far. SHN has replaced wall-to-wall carpeting with waste-conscious 100% recyclable carpet tiles in their Eureka office. Company-wide, SHN has recycling programs for paper, cardboard, plastics, electronics, and batteries. They are in the process of moving documents to digital formats and providing these electronic documents to clients as a substitute to traditional paper copies. This decreases the need for paper, delivery costs and fuel consumption, and space needed for storage. By holding strong sustainability values, SHN attracts and retains like-minded employees, which in turn decreases their training, replacement, and recruitment costs.
