Tag Archives: tools

Employee Engagement Tools: Creating Incentive Programs with Points!

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One way to motivate employees to move towards eco-friendly behaviors, is to provide an incentive program for the green actions they perform.  WhiteWave Foods, based in Broomfield, CO, started their own Values in Action program where employees go online to log in everything from their community Involvement, charitable giving, recycling, biking to work and even taking the stairs instead of the elevator!  All these activities are turned into points which are how WhiteWave Responsible Livelihood program quantifies its level of employee participation. These points are then tabulated with employee rewards such as gift cards and other rewards.

WhiteWave created their own internal database to manage their Vales in Action program but you don’t have to. There are two web applications that can do that for you;

Practically Green is a site that allows individuals to track all ‘green’ behaviors they do and equate them with points. It also has a way to tag ‘green’ activities a user would like to do and set goals and calendar reminders. It uses simple gamification methodology so that the points earn up to levels. You can see your points and level against others in the network. This app can be set up for each company customized for the behaviors and activities they want to promote.

One Million Acts of Green is a similar tool to Practically Green in that it does track green activities and behaviors of individuals. This tool is free for Facebook users and for a fee can be set up for each company to customize their own profile with activities.

Sustainable Behavior Change: Tools and Resources

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Doug McKenzie-Mohr, author of Fostering Sustainable Behavior and environmental psychologist has a great website to look up articles and cases studies that relate to fostering sustainable behavior. His focus is more on communities and public at large social marketing techniques but the resources and information can be applied to business too. He has five main topic areas of agriculture and conservation, energy, transportation, waste and pollution and water. Anyone can sign up for an account, just click on Account to sign up and you can access the discussion forums.

His book, Fostering Sustainable Behavior, is also available online to read. It is a comprehensive book on how to identify the behaviors a community wants to change and build a strategy around changing those  behaviors.

Tools of Change is another site that offers community-based social marketing resources. This site also has case studies as well as planning guides to help communities begin planning environmental strategies. Their topics include environmental, health and nutrition and safety.

Key Elements to Prepare for a Sustainability Plan: Conduct an Assessment

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Step 2: Conduct an Assessment

It is important to get an overview of what green initiatives a company has already started along with the areas that have the potential for improvement with regards to environmental and social responsibility. Reach out to each department or division of a company and hold information interviews. Although more information can be gathered through in-person meetings, an organization can also conduct an assessment via an online survey. Develop a series of questions that ask specifically what each area is doing to reduce resource use and minimize environmental impact.  Some organizations also like to assess the social side of business and how engaged they are in the community and supporting non-profit organizations. Eco-officiency has developed an assessment tool with a series of questions for each major department of an organization that can be downloaded at www.eco-officiency.com under the Resources tab.

There are a number of assessment tools on the market here are a few other recommendations; SCORE; PROBE; WBSCD Measuring Impact Framework