Why a whole company approach to the environment is the only option
It’s easy to fall into the trap of greenwashing, but how do businesses ensure company-wide buy-in and commitment to minimising their impact on the planet?
It’s often said that it ‘starts from the top’ and the green agenda is no different. Firms must assign Board responsibility to environmental goals and strategies, and ‘practice what they preach’. In practical terms this means:
- Having environmental issues and projects as a standing item on Board meetings.
- Assigning the responsibility of managing projects to a Board director.
- Having a budgetary commitment to environmental improvements, with targets and costs clearly identified.
Generating staff commitment
Without the commitment and buy-in from the whole business, green initiatives will not go as far as they should. It is only with a ‘holistic’ approach that progress will be made and there are several aspects to this:
Identify a ‘green team’ of staff across all levels of the firm who will become the focus for ‘getting things done’ at a firm level. You will undoubtedly find that these individuals will volunteer themselves, as there are always some people who are passionate about key issues. Keep the team small and practical – if you have a number of offices, try to get a representative from each office and try to get a split across the seniority of staff.
From a management point of view, the ‘green team’ must be given time and resources to do their job. This means allowing them time for meetings and providing them with funding for some of the projects.
Your Board member responsible for environmental issues should be part of the ‘green team’, so that they can be a conduit for two-way information from the ‘shop floor’ to the Board. They may also need to agree funding for initiatives that come up from the green team.
It’s about the sum of the parts
There are many projects that could be implemented to assist the achievement of green objectives and some of them will be more successful than others. They key is to get the projects moving and give them a go. Many will be small projects such as recycling waste, or aiming to reduce the use of disposables, but in an ideal world everyone across the business should ‘touch’, ‘see’ or participate in a green project every day. Having several ongoing projects increases the momentum and overall awareness and builds staff commitment. They won’t all take off, but if nothing gets done, nothing will happen.
Tell your story
There is little point in establishing and delivering environmental projects if staff are unaware of the efforts being made. Firms should give regular updates on projects and importantly, facts and figures on what has been achieved – how much has energy consumption been reduced, what volume has been recycled and by how much has the firms carbon footprint been reduced? As well as regular updates by the green team, environmental issues should be included in all firm-wide updates from the senior management team – again showing commitment from top to bottom.
- Talk about your successes and your failures, your ‘big picture’ goals and how you are going to achieve them.
- Tell your clients about what you are doing for the environment and how you believe it’s changing your business for the better. Issue press releases when you achieve goals and ensure that your social media feeds and web site tell your story. Green issues are a great differentiator in recruitment and we have certainly seen it being one of the more common issues potential employees are asking about during the interview process.
- Get yourself on external panels and advice sessions to spread the word about the good work you are doing – you never know where speaking opportunities will lead, and it’s all good PR!
- Enter awards. Awards are a wonderful way to promote the hard work you have done and can give an incredible ‘buzz’ internally – staff feel proud to work for a winner, and it’s something that can generate further publicity if and when you win(!)
In summary
Being properly aware and committed to environmental issues is not easy, and not something that should be taken lightly. It will involve all your departments from the Board to procurement, operations, finance and marketing, and of course all of your staff.
But with a real commitment, staff engagement and a positive attitude, promoting the ‘green agenda’ will be one of the best business decision you ever made and once you have the momentum going, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.
This article was contributed by Roythornes Solicitors who are sponsoring the ‘Overall Outstanding Achiever: SME’ Award at the iiE Awards 2022.