Tag Archives: impact

Getting Your Employees Inspired with Sustainability Training and Presentations

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employeesLet’s face it: your employees are probably not very concerned about the impact of your business’s sustainability efforts on your business bottom line. They are concerned that you are able to give them their paychecks on time, but getting them to buy into the connections between that paycheck and green efforts in the workplace is a tougher sell. Nor do you have staff with the time or expertise to sell this concept to your employees.

This is where our sustainability training and presentations can help. We have a number of training presentations available, all of which can be tailored to fit the needs of your particular company, and employee needs and concerns. For companies just beginning to make this a focus, we have an Introduction to Sustainability segment which helps employees connect their work with corporate sustainability concepts such as Natural Capitalism and the Triple Bottom Line. We will share stories of local companies that have done similar work to help them understand that this is not a fad, but an important component to all business cultures. We conclude these presentations with suggestions and resources for getting started. We also have a presentation on becoming a paperless office, which helps to orient employees toward the one thing that just about everyone in your office probably suffers from—too much paper!

Once you have at least some employees on the sustainability band wagon, we have trainings which focus on creating a sustainability plan and greening your business one step at a time. These presentations can encourage employees who are feeling overwhelmed or under educated, helping them see that working green is possible. We also have presentations which will help connect sustainability in the office with thinking green in your employees’ personal lives: Eco-Style Your Life and Conscious Consumerism. These presentations help employees make the connections between green practices and cash flow both at the office (for paychecks and such) and at home.

Finally, once your employees are truly on board with sustainability, we can help introduce the concept of getting to zero waste. These days this is not an impossible concept to achieve, and we can help you and your employees see why. So contact us today and let’s begin educating your employees on the need to think sustainably!

Five Recommended Business Books on Sustainability

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The following short list is comprised of five books that offer real world guidance and advice on sustainability in business.  These books can help business owners, managers, organizational leaders and environmental managers/sustainability coordinators to improve their organization’s economic performance as well as their environmental impact.   All of these books stress how important this green evolution is for the future of our businesses, our people and our planet. We hope that you will find them to be valuable additions to your green library. If you would like to start employing green practices in your business, please contact us, we would love to help you.

The Business Guide To Sustainability: Practical Strategies and Tools For Organizations  Authors: Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard

“This easy-to-use manual has been written by top business consultants specifically to help managers, business owners, organizational leaders and aspiring environmental managers/sustainability coordinators to improve their organization’s environmental, social and economic performance.”

Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution  Author: Auden Schendler

“If we’re going to cut CO2 emissions 80 percent by midcentury, it will take more than a recycling program and some hemp shopping bags. We’ll only solve our problems if we’re realistic about the challenge of climate change. In this witty book, a sustainable business foot soldier with over a decade’s worth of experience illuminates the path.”

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution Authors: Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins

“In this groundbreaking blueprint for a new economy, three leading business visionaries explain how the world is on the verge of a new industrial revolution. Natural Capitalism describes a future in which business and environmental interests increasingly overlap, and in which companies can improve their bottom lines, help solve environmental problems and feel better about what they do all at the same time.”

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Authors: William McDonough and Michael Braungart

“Reduce, reuse, recycle” urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. As William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in their provocative, visionary book, however, this approach perpetuates a one-way, “cradle to grave” manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic.”

Green Project Management  Authors: Richard Maltzman, David Shirley

“Detailing cutting-edge green techniques and methods, this book teaches project managers how to maximize resources and get the most out of limited budgets. It supplies proven techniques and best practices in green project management, including risk and opportunity assessments.”

Going Paperless Reduces Carbon Footprint

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For most small and medium sized businesses reducing paper consumption can significantly reduce an organizations carbon footprint. If the US cut office paper use by just 10 percent it would eliminate 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases which is the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road for one year. According to reduce.org, the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year. Further paper statistics conclude that it takes an entire tree to generate 12,500 pieces paper, of which only 5% will ever be recycled.

As companies of all sizes realize the constraints that paper places on their businesses, they are exploring the many advantages offered by a paperless office, as identified in the article, Becoming a Paperless Office.

Even though the principles of a paperless company are beneficial, it can be challenging to leave behind a data format on which your business has always relied. Here are just a few easy tips that can start your business to reduce and recycle paper;

  • Use both sides of the paper. You can set your printer default to print both sides, make double-sided copies, and use the backs of single-sided documents that have served their purpose.
  • Think before you print. Double check print/copy properties before you print, only print the necessary pages, and share documents whenever possible.
  • Put forms, newsletters, articles and any other applicable documents online. Your management, employees and customers will have immediate access to what they need. 
  • Recycle, recycle, recycle. If your company does not yet have a recycling program, get one started. If you have one, make sure you employees know how to properly use it. Be sure to use post-consumer recycled paper whenever possible.

Going completely paperless is a commitment that will take your company time to fully implement. A first step is getting better organized electronically Then, start by improving overall automation of processes. As identified by the numbers, if every business made improvements it would make a significant impact to climate change.

The Benefits to Engage in Environmentally Friendly Business Practices

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Implementing environmentally friendly practices as a business has a wide array of advantages.

One is being able to show potential customers that you care about the environment. This allows you to appeal to an entirely new niche of customers. A growing percent of people only support businesses that reduce or eliminate their impact on the environment a market segment now labeled as ‘New Consumers’ by brand consulting firm, BBMG. Their research cites 70 million shoppers branded “New Consumers”, make up 30 percent of the U.S. population.

Another benefit is green businesses seem to attract the top talent. Towers Perrin’s 2007 Global Workforce Study shows that a firm’s reputation for social responsibility (including environmental work) is one of the top ten drivers of employee engagement worldwide. Employees want to work with companies who are ‘doing the right thing’ and being proactive with corporate environmental and social programs.

The Benefits of Becoming a Sustainable Business, article, provides the top five reasons why most businesses start sustainability initiatives.

Contact us today for a consultation on implementing environmentally friendly practices in your business. Our consulting firm specializes in helping small to medium sized businesses to develop sustainability plans and educate employees on sustainability.

Calculate Your Impact and Footprint

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There are a host of calculators out there to help you or your office determine your impact. Once your impact is known then create a goal of how you would like to reduce it. Here are a few of my favorites to get you started:

Global Footprint Network: A good overall calculator on general green footprint

Household Savings Calculator: Developed by the NRDC to track home energy savings

Water Calculator: Developed by H2O Conserve this measures water consumption.

Xerox Sustainability Calculator: A great calculator that measures the overall  impact a company’s printers and copiers have on the environment.