T-shirt for your thoughts. . .

A reader recently approached The Green Workplace for some recruiting ideas.  We thought it would be a great opportunity to open a discussion that would benefit all of our readers.  The benefits don't stop there, however, we will give away 100% organic t-shirts for the best ideas you post to the discussion!

Question:  Our company has really strong environmental policies and is actively recruiting for a number of positions.  We really want to reach candidates who think Green.  Our company gives free bicycles to employees, recycles, uses organic materials in production, and the roof of our factory is covered in solar panels.  So far, these programs haven't really become the selling point for applicants that we anticipated.  Do you have any advice?

Answer:  Your current employee base is always going to be your most potent recruiting tool. Think of things they may choose to discuss about your company while at happy hour, at Thanksgiving dinner or while they are chatting with another parent while watching a Little League game. Are your green policies going to be among the headlines?  
Here are some other ideas that are likely to prompt personal testimony:

• Implement flexible schedules, like 4 day work weeks or part time work from home
  
• Inspire some teams to start desk sharing or working anywhere
  
• Consideration of video conference as an alternative to business trips
  
• Reduce quantity of office equipment by increase the ratio of employees to printers or removing select computer monitors
  

Readers:  Please let us know what you think!  Submit your ideas by posting your responses and send me an email with your mailing address, t-shirt selection and size if you wish to claim your 100% organic t-shirt.

State of Utah Moving to 4-Day Work Week

I had the great pleasure of meeting Governor Jon Hunstman (R) from Utah today. An inspiring man on many fronts (he speaks fluent Mandarin and adopted two abandoned babies from China and India for a start), but I was particulaly inspired by his credible commitment to the environment. One of his most recent initiatives is to transition all state employees to a 4-day work week (4 ten-hour days with Fridays off). This will start full time in July and his team will be measuring the economic and environmental results at the 1-year mark. There are many logistics to work out (daycare for employees, etc.), but the benefits he sees are numerous:

1. With this one chnage, state government buildings in Utah will reduce energy consumption by 20%.
2. The state will be more likely to recruit smart, young people looking for work-life balance jobs.
3. They are more likely to retain staff - it's a perceived "bonus" by most to have three day weekends all year.
4. They will be able to provide better service to their constituants (they are open earlier and later Mon-Thurs, so better able to support working moms and dads).

If roughly 17,000 employees across an entire state can take on alternative work hours, how hard can it really be?

For more info: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25518225/

The Potential Limitations of a Green Office

I came across an article today in The Guardian newspaper (UK) about the limitations of the green office... it made some interesting points:

Professor Sharon Parker, director of the Institute of Work Psychology at the University of Sheffield says there is a danger of overlooking the welfare of workers in the drive to tick the environment boxes. "If organisations are very strongly focused on protecting the environment and at the same time neglecting human wellbeing, then that may create inconsistencies," she says. "That makes workers a little bit cynical about what the organisation is trying to do. People wonder whether going green is genuine or for the bank balance [because of it's proven cost-savings]."

Parker says factors like leadership quality, the level of discretion you have in your job and the number of opportunities you have to develop skills have as much impact as green initiatives in making an office a good environment to work in. "You need to look at the bigger picture," she says. "If you want an office to be sustainable for people and the environment then you have to look at relationships and information as well as design."

For a direct link to the article click here.

British employees dissatisfied with employer's environmental policies

Just one-fifth of British employees surveyed by the Carbon Trust said they thought their organisation was doing enough to cut its emissions. Shockingly, two-thirds said their employer had made no attempt to encourage them to consider ways of reducing their emissions by taking alternative transport to work.

Over two-thirds (70 per cent) of employees polled said they want to cut their carbon emissions but need more guidance and empowerment from their bosses.

We know that changes in workplace practices hold huge potential to help the environment. The following statistics demonstrate the impact of inefficiencies in the office:

1. Office lights left on overnight use enough energy in a year to heat a home for almost five months
2. A single computer left on overnight for a year creates enough carbon dioxide to fill a double-decker bus;
3. A 2°c increase in office temperature creates enough CO2 in a year to fill a hot air balloon;
4. A photocopier left on standby overnight wastes enough energy to make 30 cups of tea.

Hugh Jones, solutions director at the Carbon Trust says:

"the measures that will have the biggest impact and achieve the greatest energy savings require buy-in across a workforce...In the current economic climate it's never been more important for all businesses, of all sizes, to act on climate change. With savings of up to 20 per cent to be made on energy bills through no cost or cost effective measures it makes perfect business sense to empower employees to do their bit both at work and at home."

We can very simply make the changes to produce easy 'quick wins' that will reduce our workplace carbon emissions, cost us nothing to implement, and in fact save us money on bills! Naming just a few, easy steps we could make are:

• Thinking twice before printing documents;
• Printing documents double-sided;
• Turning off PCs at night and turning off monitors when we're away from our desks;
• Turning off lights at the end of the day or when know one is present in a room;
• Enthusiastic participation in recycling schemes;
• Consider the carbon footprints of our commute to work;
• Carefully consider the provenance of the products we order for the office.

The Carbon Trust's research has presented me with two overriding thoughts:

1. As professional consultants (or in-house facilities teams) it is imperative that we include protocols and policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions when developing workplace protocols for clients (such as when developing flexible working guidelines);
2. HOK offices worldwide must lead by example by instituting carbon emission-reducing protocols within our own workspaces. There should be a policy document for each office, which include policies not only on the office environment but also recommendations / incentives for 'greener' travel to work and travel to clients. These should be part of every new employee's induction.

Please comment on this post to share your views.

No, it's not a concert, but Wal-Mart is finding Green Groupies

Wal-Mart is an interesting study in making business green. Since 2005, and, really, prior to that, Wal-Mart has stepped up its efforts to have a more positive impact on the world – environmentally, socially, through product lines and capital (go to Fortune.com for more information on how Wal-Mart got started on its green initiatives) .

While Wal-Mart’s leadership has jumped on board and is helping to lead the effort, the megachain has recognized that its efforts will be in vain if it does not move from the ground up and empower its employees to think about sustainability on an individual basis.

Thus, in 2007, Wal-Mart introduced a new initiative it calls the Personal Sustainability Practices (PSPs). The purpose of the voluntary program is to assist its associates with incorporating sustainable principles into their daily lives to improve their overall wellness, as well as the health of the environment. Associates develop their own lifestyle changes – everything ranging from eating organic food to exercising to organizing recycling efforts – that specifically works in their routine and will keep them motivated.

The only guides for developing a PSP are that it must: sustain the planet, make one happy, affect the community, become regular and continuous in daily life, and include visible action that can be shared with and seen by others.

Within months after roll-out, 50% of Wal-Mart associates has signed up for the project, much more than expected, with the hopes that all employees would become involved within two years. According to Act Now, the organization who helped construct the campaign, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club employees have:

- Lost more than 60 tons of weight;
- Walked/biked/swam more than 380,000 miles
- Created over 16,000 “Idea Groups” to support one another around Personal Sustainability
- Quit or reduced smoking, with more than 10,000 Associates to date making a healthier change!
- Recycled more than 5 million pounds of aluminum, plastic, and paper

Some employees want to carve out more time from their busy schedules for family and friends, while others are advocating for healthier meal options in their stores (i.e. - Subway v. McDonald's).

Said one associate to the NY Times, “This is not about becoming a tree-hugger... It’s about making one little change."

Perhaps Wal-Mart's PSP is one drop in a large bucket of corporations encouraging lifestyle changes, but Wal-Mart has the capability to be one heckuva large drop.

Time to loosen your tie?

Lord Adair Turner, dubbed the UK's new 'climate czar' and chair of the Climate Change Committee believes that forcing men to wear suits and women to wear smart skirts raises demand for air-conditioning. He said “We have to stop over-air-conditioning offices. In summer we should only air-condition offices to the kind of temperature where it is comfortable if you are wearing light sleeveless summer clothes”.

Lord Turner thinks that 'office dress' also discourages people from using sustainable forms of transport such as walking and cycling. He believes a closed collar unduly raises people’s temperature. “I do think in the summer we should stop wearing ties. I like them in winter because they keep you warm but if you see me in summer from now on I will be tieless”.

Civil servants are likely to be among the first office workers to be liberated from their formal clothing, with Turner hinting “There is a case for the civil service setting an example on this. I don’t think I would go as far as shorts myself yet but it is an interesting challenge and we are going to be thinking about it”.

Turner’s proposal for office workers is one element of a strategy aimed at making big cuts in the 670m tons of CO2 generated by Britain each year. About a third come from power generation, a third from surface transport and the rest from heating.

He wants to see emissions cut by at least 60% and possibly as much as 90% by 2050. Under such a vision, renewable and nuclear energy would provide all Britain’s needs for electricity but would also be used to generate fuels such as hydrogen that could be used for cars. As well as changing the office dress code other radical suggestions for achieving the aims for reduction in emissions include locating wind turbines on the central reservations of motorways.

For more information click here.

Burt's Bees backs offsets: Company is subsidizing renewable energy certificates that its workers buy

Mar 2, 2008
The News & Observer
By John Murawski

Some companies blow hot air about saving the environment. Burt's Bees is paying its employees to embrace wind energy.

The Morrisville producer of eco-friendly creams and cleansers is encouraging its workers to support a green lifestyle by becoming "carbon neutral." Toward that end, Burt's Bees is among the first companies in the nation to subsidize its employees' purchases of renewable energy certificates, also known as carbon offsets.

The employee subsidy is akin to a company offering matching contributions to a charity that an employee chooses. In this case, the money supports for-profit wind energy producers in the U.S.

Once an exotic commodity designed to help industry meet emissions goals, renewable energy certificates are entering the mainstream.

A San Francisco seller of carbon offsets, 3Degrees, for more than a year has been promoting corporate programs to let businesses defray their employees' carbon offset costs. The Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL announced in spring 2007 that it would reimburse workers who support wind energy.

Burt's Bees plans to pay half of each employee's cost of achieving carbon neutrality in the worker's household. The company will contribute as much as $100 to offset one year of household carbon emissions. About 30 Burt's Bees workers are participating and receiving a company match to support wind energy projects nationwide, said John Replogle, Burt's Bees' CEO.

Julie Col-n, a brand design manager at Burt's Bees who lives in Raleigh, spent $60 in December to offset her household carbon footprint for one year. She received $30 from Burt's Bees. It's her first purchase of a renewable energy certificate.

"When the company's going to reimburse you for half the cost, it's an incentive," she said. "I'll do anything that I can to help the environment."

Burt's Bees, whose facilities rely on electricity from Progress Energy and Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK PRA) (NYSE:DUK) , has said it hopes to eventually use only renewable energy, or "get off the grid." Until technology improves and more renewable energy sources are available, the company, for now, has committed about $25,000 a year to subsidize wind energy production and offset its annual energy usage.

"It's a cultural thing here," Replogle said. "Our business model is quite simply to impact the triple bottom line: people, planet, profits."

Green Profiling

I work with a number of organizations to make their workplace greener. I spend much of this effort on change management activities. After a while I've started to see patterns in the ways in which people approach going green. I've even started to categorize an organization by what I call their "green profile." The green profile is the unique mix of people in the organization made up of four types:

Greeniacs. This portion of the population will say “yes” to anything when it comes to helping the environment. They have already purchased their solar backpack, are using geo-thermal energy to heat their home and have an electric car (better yet, they bike to work). When it comes to creating a green workplace for this portion of the organization, they are ready to go and probably impatient for their organization to “get with the program.” This group is not afraid to practice what they preach and share with others what they are doing. Organizations like the Nature Conservancy, the EPA and the Natural Resources Defense Council have large portions of their population that are comprised of this group.

Business Environmentalists. This group is aware of the environment and active in their community when it comes to green issues. They believe there are environmental problems that need to be solved. They also believe that making good choices for the environment are often good business decisions as well and can save costs and increase organizational value in the long run. This group is already engaged in environmentally-friendly behavior; they may recycle, purchase local foods and drive a hybrid. However, they are not first adopters to green technology or ideas – they prefer to see them tested before they invest time and energy taking on something new. A growing number of people fall into this category.

Couch Potato Environmentalists. This group is willing to try new green behaviors, but only if it is easy for them to do so. They are not interested in going out of their way to try something green, especially if it is disruptive to getting their job done. Green strategies that work with this group are about tackling the low hanging fruit (simple changes that minimize labor or costs to the organization). Strategies that affect them personally and make their life easier are also very effective. An example of this might be providing a campus shuttle to minimize single occupancy vehicles. The shuttle service probably saves these folks the hassle of finding a parking space, so they are willing to adopt a new behavior.

Green Skeptics. This group may be annoyed by the constant media attention given to green issues and feel that even if there are environmental problems, the environment is just one of many very important priorities (and perhaps they are champions of one of the other priorities). This group is a small and a decreasing percentage of any organization, but should be acknowledged, particularly if they are in positions of influence. This group may never enroll in a green strategy or behavior, but will need to be considered when planning for target metrics.

How how do you assess your organization? We'll share that on a later post. For now, know that it's important to acknowlege and listen to everyone (those nay-sayers usually have very good points) and keep your focus on enrolling the Greeniacs and Business Environmentalists - they are more likely to lead the organization into a greener future.

Office Health Fair

Typically when we think of green workplaces, we think of energy efficiency and water use reduction. But a large part of sustainability is the health of employees. Our office offered a health fair today – a great way to get people thinking about how to more sustainably use their bodies. As part of the health fair, the following services were available:

• Basic health screening: This tested emlpoyees cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels, blood pressure, body fat and body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference. A health counselor was on hand to review the screenings with individuals, provide some basic advice on how to improve scores, and provide outside resources.
• Massage: sadly I did not get to experience this as there were limited slots available.
• Vision Screening: Early identification and treatment can prevent or at least alleviate many of the problems that result from impaired vision.
• Chiropractic Advisor: A Chiropractor was available to provide stress screenings to assess the impact of physical trauma, emotional stress, and chemical toxins on your body.
• Stress-Management Advisor: This session offered relaxation and breathing techniques and stretching exercises specifically designed to relieve tension caused by repetitive office routines; how to utilize aromatherapy; strategies for getting a better night’s sleep; and self-massage techniques for reducing tension in the head, neck, shoulders, and hands.

This is a great way for people who don’t have time to get to the doctor to do a quick check in for huge red flags. One of the senior principals of the office was perhaps the best salesman: “if we’d had this years ago, I would have known to change my lifestyle and could have prevented a stroke.”

Facts and Figures from the Green Workplace Survey

If you get Google Alerts on the green workplace you will have probably already seen this story, but in case you haven't:

Today the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) released the findings of their Green Workplace Survey. The survey found that 50 percent of surveyed (US) organizations have a formal or informal environmental responsibility policy, but 43 percent have no such policy and no plans to implement one within the next 12 months.

Key findings of the survey were:

• Companies that implement environmental responsibility programs cite improved employee morale (44 percent), increased employee loyalty (16 percent) and a stronger public image for the company (42 percent) as top benefits. They also report increased consumer/customer confidence/choice (20 percent) and a positive financial bottom line (19 percent) as a result of the organization's environmental responsible program.


• The most common barrier to creating an environmental program is implementation cost (85 percent) followed by maintenance cost (74 percent). Other barriers include lack of management support (43 percent), lack of employee support (25 percent), and concern for workplace inefficiency (20 percent).


• Nearly three out of four employees from companies without environmental programs say they want their employers to "go green." Seventy-three (73) percent of surveyed employees in companies without an environmental responsibility policy thought it was very or somewhat important that their organization develop an environmental responsibility policy.


• The majority of "green" programs are created by a senior management team (32 percent) and roughly the same number (31 percent) are also responsible for implementation.


• The HR professionals surveyed rank the top five environmentally-responsible practices to be: 1) encouraging employees to work more environmentally friendly (83 percent); 2) offering a recycling program for office products (83 percent); 3) donating and discounting used office furniture and supplies to employees or local charity (73 percent); 4) using energy efficient lighting systems and equipment such as ENERGY STAR(R) equipment and occupancy sensors (66 percent); and 5) installing automatic shutoff for equipment (63 percent).


• Employees offer a slightly different view and rank the five most important environmentally-responsible practices as follows: 1) donating and discounting used office furniture and supplies to employees or local charity (53 percent); 2) promoting walking, biking, taking public transit (49 percent); 3) using energy efficient lighting systems and equipment (43 percent); 4) offering a recycling programs for office products (39 percent); and 5) encouraging employees to work more environmentally friendly (36 percent).


• Both human resource professionals and employees state that their primary, or number one, motivation for participating in environmentally responsible programs is to make a contribution to society.

Note to the statisticians among us: the Green Workplace Survey's 429 HR professional respondents represent publicly- and privately-owned companies, nonprofits, and the government sector. The 504 employee sample was randomly selected from U.S. telephone population.

You can purchase a full copy of this survey at http://www.shrm.org/surveys/.

Carbon offsetting through your paypacket

It was reported today that the UK Royal Mail (our postal service) is leading the way over here in enabling its staff to offset their carbon emissions.

Royal Mail employees can now offset their emissions by donating money (tax-free) directly from their pay packet to a charity called The Woodland Trust. This money enables the Trust to plant trees in their 1,000 UK woods.

Royal Mail have set up new carbon calculator called 'Ollie' for employees who contribute to the scheme, using the calculation they find out how many trees they would have to plant to offset their annual carbon footprint and to get tips about how to reduce their emissions.

This calculator asks employees about their home energy usage, as well as car and air travel before calculating how many trees will need to be planted to help offset their carbon footprints.

Only 12% of the UK wooded, compared to 46% on average in Europe. Planting trees more trees will create vital habitats for more species, it also traps pollution, generates oxygen, stabilises soil and forms a stunning part of the landscape.

The disappointing element of this story is however that the Royal Mail employ some 185,000 staff and only 130 of them are currently taking part in the scheme. However, about 50,000 of their staff are currently signed up to payroll giving schemes connected to other charities. There is therefore much scope for giving within the company once the awareness of carbon offsetting is raised.

The principle behind such schemes strikes me as a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of carbon emissions through the workplace, which should then filter down to the home and the wider community. Carbon offsetting through payroll has the potential to be viewed as an incentive for recruitment and an endorsement of a company's environmental ethics.

The challenge is now for other businesses to offer this carbon offsetting opportunity to their staff.

Any thoughts on this posting? Are you seeing similar initiatives in the US?

Corporate Incentive Programs

You all remember when your dad (grandpa) retired and got that lovely clock/watch from the company where he spent 30 years slaving away for the man. Well, companies still offer incentive programs – many of which are related to “time served.” It’s a great way to improve employee morale, but also a contributor to each company’s carbon footprint.

One positive trend I’ve noticed is that these incentive programs are based on-line. Employees are directed to a website where they browse a catalog of selections and then input their choice into an online database. Despite this great improvement over paper catalogs and mailing in forms, there is still lots of room for improvement.

There is a lot that companies can do for the environment through careful consideration of gift items and methods of delivery.

Here are a few ideas:

• A bonus that is directly deposited into the employee’s bank account – this could be completely paper-free.
• A gift made to a sustainable charity in the employee’s name.
• Instead of just a regular battery-operated watch, how about the Citizen Eco Drive ?
• Items that are locally extracted and manufactured. Forget that bag made in China, shipped across the globe, and then airmailed from a warehouse in the middle of the country.
• Purchase gifts from vendors with a commitment to the environment

For some more ideas, refer back to Green A’s post on Gifts that Give Back .