1. Home
  2. Blog
  3. CSR
  4. 2019
  5. How to create a culture that cares about the environment
team members benefiting from talking rather than emailing

How to create a culture that cares about the environment

How much importance do you place on office culture?

Do you work hard to create an environment that embraces individuality, creativity and collaboration? Do you understand what values are important to you as a business and work to instil these values through your employees’ actions and behaviour?

The traditional nine to five work day where you get the work done, clock watch, walk out and switch off is a thing of the past. Today’s employee wants more: more satisfaction from their job, more time to marry personal and work commitments, more connectivity to work anytime, anywhere, more flexibility to enable career growth and start a family and even more opportunities to give back.

They care about creating stronger communities who are passionate about environmental impact. In fact, 80 per cent of employees feel that sustainability and recycling is personally important to them. So, in an age where sustainability is at the forefront of people’s minds, it gives businesses the opportunity to tap into this interest and create ideas or programmes that align with this passion and make a real difference.

shutterstock_1104167465
They care about creating stronger communities who are passionate about environmental impact.

Some ideas to get you started

Run an eco-points programme

Running an eco points programme is an engaging, easy and practical way your organisation can contribute towards an environmentally sustainable future. It incentivises best practices and systematically changes habits and behaviours to achieve eco goals within your organisation. The programme is not only beneficial for the environment but will reduce costs as well.
 

How does it work?

Points are earned by completing eco tasks and actions each month to create awareness and education around sustainability issues. For example, setting your PC to hibernate or monitor to automatically switch off during breaks and when you finish work. The energy from a monitor left powered-up overnight could have been used to print 800 A4 sheets of paper!
 
The eco-points programme generally includes around five eco actions each month designed to create awareness and promote good eco habits. Points are traded in at the end of the year and converted to funds towards a tree planting day or other conservation. The monthly actions are aimed at tackling environmental and climate change issues such as paper re-use/recycling, resource conservation, waste reduction and water saving.The monthly actions are up to you to decide, but here’s some examples to get you thinking...

 

Eco-commute

Choosing to walk rather than driving short distances, riding a bicycle, catching public transport, carpooling and driving efficiently are ways we can help cut pollution and save you hundreds of dollars per year!

If you’re driving, here are some fuel efficiency tips and tricks:

  • Drive smoothly and try to maintain a steady speed – more revs equals more petrol use.
  • Air conditioners can use about 10 per cent extra fuel when operating. However, at speeds of over 80 km/h, use of air-conditioning is better for fuel consumption than an open window as this creates aerodynamic drag.
  • If you are stopping for more than 10 seconds, except in traffic, you can turn off your engine. Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel and creates more pollution than simply restarting your engine.
  • Inflate your vehicle’s tyres to the highest pressure recommended by the manufacturer and make sure your wheels are properly aligned. Looking after your tyres will not only reduce your fuel consumption, it will also extend tyre life and improve handling.
  • Travel light. Make sure you don’t have heavy items in the boot or backseat weighing the car down unnecessarily.
  • Or don’t travel at all! Utilise smart video conferencing technology instead of driving or flying to meetings.

Want to learn more about going green through print in your workplace?
Download our free guide ‘How to succeed at sustainability’ now.  

 Environmental ebook

More from CSR

Related posts

Back to top