Do Your Employees Care About Sustainability? Tips to get people on board with your Sustainability Goals

No matter how big or small the organization, companies everywhere are making new and exciting commitments to sustainability - externally and internally. 

But how much weight do your external sustainability commitments hold when inside your office you throw things away instead of recycling, leave the water running while you make copies, and generally don't set a good example. 

Changing behavior is not easy but in a supportive group environment you can prioritize actions that will foster a greater understanding of your sustainable business strategies. 

1. Offer Flexibility | Your employees are already busy. Study work patterns to identify opportunities to insert flexible sustainability training that works for their schedule not yours. Use digital, unique means of communicating this information. Let employees own their education.

2. Be Relevant | Make sure employees understand what sustainability means to them and their responsibilities. Forcing broad generic goals on hard working people will give you at best mixed results. Use focus groups to present sustainability goals and solicit real feedback on why these goals are meaningful to your employees. Recognizes differences between positions, teams, and departments. Cater sustainability information accordingly when you roll out sustainability programs.

3. Keep Current | One of the biggest complaints about all training is when resources and information are out of date. When designing the program, assign accountability for updating content, resources, and especially links (nothing shows you don't care about training by putting dead end links into current training). Get buy-in from everyone involved and make these responsibilities an important part of a job description. Creating a great sustainability training program is one thing; keeping it great is the real goal. 

4. Do It Together | Get everyone on board with your goals. Create team goals and declare and track progress publicly. Don't over promise; set one or two goals at a time to change behavior with a fun challenge. Do challenges for at least two weeks to start forming new habits. Assign team leads to motivate people and create ownership. 

5. Reward Learning | Think of non-monetary incentives. Offer opportunities for professional growth for individuals, teams, and departments. Offering experiential rewards that last long beyond the moment instead of one-time monetary or short-term rewards will save the business money, add more value for employees, and create longer term commitment and engagement in the important process of embedding sustainability in your internal culture. 

Do you have any other ideas or suggestions for employee engagement? Send your thoughts to mackenzie@sustainabilityinreview.com

Thank you!