Are you searching for ways to make your business more sustainable? It’s becoming increasingly apparent that companies need to take action to lessen climate change damage. Your company might not be on the same level as Coca-Cola and ExxonMobile, but you should still try to shift toward an eco-friendly approach.
Your workforce must be part of your changes, too. If you don’t have them on board, you might not be as successful. Here are six ways to promote sustainability among your employees.
1. Offer Certain Incentives
There’s nothing people love more than rewards. If you want someone to do something, it’s never a bad idea to offer an incentive. These “prizes” will motivate your employees to participate, and you can try different approaches to implement this tactic.
Public Transportation
Is your office close to public transportation? You might want to offer workers discounted or free monthly passes. As a result, they won’t drive to work — which creates harmful greenhouse gas emissions at significant rates.
Recycling
You could also explore recycling incentives. Add more bins to your building and track how often your employees fill up these containers. Reward your workers by ordering lunch when they reach a specific goal.
Energy Efficiency
It’s no secret that businesses use a lot of energy. It’s key to decrease those numbers whenever possible. As a result, you can save money and promote sustainability. Encourage your employees to do simple things like turn off lights throughout the day. You can assign them points they can redeem for donations to eco-friendly charities.
2. Send an Eco-Friendly Newsletter
If your business has a newsletter, you shouldn’t hesitate to include tidbits about your organization’s eco-friendly journey. This trick will inspire people to take personal responsibility for sustainable measures while they work. Those updates should make people feel good about these initiatives. After all, everyone likes to see progress.
Use the newsletter to highlight new projects, provide updates about projects and praise employees.
3. Update Break Rooms
Do your office’s break rooms have plastic cups, plates and utensils? If so, you need to enact eco-friendly updates. There are several ways to ensure your employees cut back on waste:
- Get reusable kitchenware from a thrift store.
- Consider installing a dishwasher.
- Add recycling and composting bins.
- Buy a coffee maker that takes reusable pods.
- Attach a water filter to the tap.
These features will encourage people to bring lunch and snacks to work. They can also simply pop into the break room to grab coffee rather than order anything. Who doesn’t want access to free beverages, anyway? Well-known brands going plastic-free — and you can follow suit.
4. Organize Carpool Groups
This idea can be a great way to foster relationships as you increase sustainability. If you have several employees who drive, you should propose a carpool group. These individuals will coordinate driving responsibilities throughout the week. They can save time, energy and money as a result.
5. Make Progress Public
This point relates to the newsletter. You need to make your company’s results public, and there are different ways you can do this. For example, you could make a chart that shows how much water you’ve saved since switching to your upgraded dishwasher. That data will encourage employees to contribute to the cause.
Be sure to update your progress daily, weekly or monthly. If you put up a chart and don’t keep it current, you won’t see much engagement. Feel free to put someone in charge to help make those reports more widely available and understandable.
You can even modify these progress updates to be more effective. Did you recycle a lot of plastic this month? Translate that number to how many sea creatures you saved. That’s sure to be more impactful.
You Can Have a More Eco-Friendly Workforce
All businesses have a responsibility to be more sustainable, and it’s good to include your workforce. Employees play a huge role in this process. Try these tips to jumpstart your company’s green initiatives.
Written by Jane Marsh
About the Author
Jane is an environmental writer and the founder and editor-in-chief of Environment.co where she covers sustainability and eco-friendly living.
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