Now more than ever, is the time to shape businesses to be less vulnerable to major events, ensuring future business success and carbon neutrality. Creating a plan is the easy part however putting ideas into practice is a different story. It can be surprisingly difficult to embed a ‘Green Culture’ in the workplace and engage all employees to be motivated to do this. To help you get started, we have listed 6 simple, yet effective initiatives you can implement to encourage your employees to be more sustainable.
1 - Inspire And Inform
Sustainability training for employees can go a long way towards meeting your company’s sustainability targets. To be able to create an environmentally friendly work culture, you need to make sure your employees understand what sustainability is and why it is important. Afterall, you can’t make change without knowing there needs to be change in the first place.
2 - Cycle To Work Or Car Sharing Schemes
Help your employees reduce their carbon footprint by offering an incentive for them to cycle to work or car share. As well as the positive environmental impact, cycling to work can provide a whole host of advantages to employees including health benefits, costs savings and improved attendance. To learn more about Cycle to Work Schemes in the UK, visit the GOV website here.
3 - Provide Water Fountains And Reusable Bottles
If you have water fountains or dispensers in your workplace, make sure that the disposable cups are paper, not plastic. Even better, you could provide your employees with their own branded water bottles and mugs to reduce the use of disposables. Gifting employees with a reusable item is a great way to kick start your sustainability efforts and motivate your staff to make change.
4 - Introduce A Recycling System
If you don’t already have recycling bins in your workplace, bringing them into the office is a quick and simple way to reduce waste in the business. Try removing individual waste bins and adding a few recycling points around the site. This will encourage staff to actively recycle, making everyone responsible for reducing waste. It could also help you save money on waste disposal in the long run.
5 - Set A Companywide Goal With Incentive
Teamwork makes the dream work - so why not set a companywide goal your employees can work together to achieve? For example, you could set a target to reduce waste by 20% and if this is achieved, employees are rewarded with an employee day out or bonus. This is a great way to encourage sustainable practices whilst boosting team engagement.
6 - Create A ‘Green Team’
Get your employees involved in the planning and policy creation processes and ask them for ideas. Implementing an employee-led sustainability committee will make your employees feel more motivated and encourage them to lead by example.
Through implementing these six simple initiatives in the workplace, you can really make a difference to how sustainability is viewed by employees and encourage change. If you are looking for more tips to help make your business be more environmentally friendly, the WWF has put together a free sustainable office guide which you can download here.
Passionate about creating a sustainable and climate neutral world by 2050, at Harper Fox Partners we promote, embrace and represent sustainable technologies and organisations. Click here to learn more about our environmental commitment.
