Businesses, nonprofits and other organizations in Redmond who are looking to become more sustainable now have a program they can join to help them achieve their goals.

The Eastside Green Business Challenge (EGBC), which kicked off at the end of 2011, is a free program for local organizations and seven Eastside cities including Redmond that helps participants improve their “triple bottom line,” which includes profitability, environmental impact and social impact.

The program is run by the Eastside Sustainable Business Alliance (ESBA), an organization that works to support local groups who are adopting sustainable business practices. ESBA provides training, resources and networking opportunities in order to increase environmental, economic and social prosperity in the region.

ESBA Founder and Director Paul Andersson said with the rising cost of oil and other resources, it is easy to separate businesses that are heavily dependent on these resources from the ones who are not. He said the former are not serving their stakeholders well, which is why it is important to look at sustainable alternatives.

“I think it’s crucial,” Andersson said.

EBGC is one way organizations can do this.

On Tuesday, a workshop and training session was held at the Lake Washington School District Resource Center in Redmond to introduce the EGBC to the Redmond community.

Tom Hinman, Redmond coordinator for ESBA, said Mayor John Marchione has supported the program and is encouraging businesses to look at their environmental impact and see how to change and improve that impact over time.

The EGBC gives businesses a structure to do this. The program — which currently has about 74 participants, with five to 10 from Redmond — has an interactive framework that allows organizations to track their progress in seven categories: energy, waste, water, employees ad outreach, materials, transportation and innovation.

Participants fill out a survey for each category to see where they are doing well and where they need to improve. They can set goals and can monitor their progress with an online program that can calculate numbers for their carbon footprint, energy usage and other factors.

“Large to small, any business can participate,” said Andersson, who gave a brief presentation on the EGBC at Tuesday’s event.

Participants will be scored on their efforts and awarded points. The participants with high scores in the various categories will be recognized and receive awards at the end of the year.Andersson said the goal for the program’s first year is to get 100 businesses to participate and save 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and $2 million collectively among participants.

Tuesday’s event also had a panel of representatives from four organizations discussing a few of their sustainable business practices.

The panel consisted of Keeney Office Supply general manager Steven Sterne, HDR Inc. (an architecture firm) Green Team community and environmental planner Sharon Wright, Pagliacci Pizza co-owner Matt Galvin and Cascade Power Group Chief Executive Officer Chuck Collins. Panel members discussed strategies that included reusing materials, switching to compostable and recyclable materials, creating programs and activities for employee involvement and supporting fellow local businesses.

The four business leaders also discussed some of the challenges they faced such as more expensive and sometimes inferior products and materials. While this may be the case, Network for Innovation and Business Sustainability founder and co-director Karl Ostrom, who gave opening remarks and introduced the panel, said businesses may lose money on an individual bottom line, but may gain it back in other areas such as employee retention (less turnover and training). He said this is the key with looking at sustainability in businesses.

“It’s trying to hold the whole thing together so your business is holistic …” he said. “The benefits often come back in the total picture.”