In recent years, the topic of the environment is on everyone’s mind. Jobseekers increasingly care about finding employers who prioritize sustainability, especially among millennial and Gen Z employees, who place a lot of importance on the values of their potential employers.
Many people want to know what steps they can take, how they can make a difference, and how to help, rather than harm, the environment. While there are many actions individuals can take, in the business world, those actions often look like corporate sustainability. Beyond the environmental benefits, prioritizing sustainability in your organization can come with benefits for your business, including:
- Lower expenses: For example, energy efficiency leads to lower power bills and going completely digital means buying less paper, both of which help save money.
- Enhanced company image: When businesses are public about their green values, it can improve their public perception.
- Increased profit margins: The above benefits can come together, along with general employee satisfaction, to boost your bottom line.
Though everyone in your business can do their part, HR plays a particularly important role in creating a culture of sustainability in the workplace and encouraging employees to become more environmentally aware. Here are just a few ways HR professionals can do so.
Going Paperless and Implementing E-signatures
First and foremost, consider going paperless and instead digitizing all your business records. Not only is it more eco-friendly to be paperless, but it can make work run more smoothly and efficiently. Digital documents are highly accessible and allow for increased sharing and collaboration. It also allows you to keep your workplace neater and more organized, which can make a difference with productivity. This can also enable more people to work remotely or to work remotely with greater ease and efficiency.
Similarly, another way many HR departments are creating more sustainability in their workplaces is by using e-signatures. They’re easier and faster to fill out, especially when sending documents between employees who aren’t in the same location.
E-signatures are much easier and quicker, especially when sending documents back and forth between people who are not in the same location and can’t just pop by the office to sign a document in person. Instead of printing, signing, and then scanning or faxing a document to all relevant parties, you can simply use an e-signature tool to facilitate the entire process.
Building a Company Culture of Sustainability
Successful sustainability programs require creativity, which means it’s important to build a culture of sustainability throughout the organization. However, company culture is intangible, making it difficult to define. This is why everyone in the company can get involved. This also creates an opportunity for dialogue and gives everyone a chance to listen to each other.
Have conversations with your team about sustainability and what it means for your company. Allow them to define what they feel your sustainability goals should be as a company and let them offer suggestions and ideas. Anyone’s ideas can be valuable, and great ideas often come from unexpected sources. Make sure your team knows that they have a voice and you are wholeheartedly listening.
You may even want to consider bringing a fresh perspective into your company with new ideas and suggestions. Ask your employees to talk to people in other organizations about what sustainability means to them. Encourage employees to join industry associations or peer networking groups to bring new ideas into the office.
Devising Incentives for Employee Acts of Sustainability
One strategy for making the office more eco-friendly is to come up with incentives for employees to go green. For example, there may be a financial incentive for every employee if the company has a good environmental performance. You can also offer more telecommuting days, which will reduce the number of employees who drive to work and emit fossil fuels during their commute.
Then there are always fun incentives, such as pizza parties or social media shoutouts, for reaching certain sustainability goals. You can even implement challenges that encourage people to be more eco-friendly, such as not driving to work for a month. You can also plan activities, like volunteering to plant trees, for your staff to do together that help promote environmentalism.
Tracking and Quantifying Sustainability Measures
Another way HR can play a role in creating a sustainable business is to track and quantify all company data related to your environmental efforts. If you aren’t tracking your company’s sustainability, you won’t know how well you’re performing or where there’s room for growth.
When it comes to tracking and enhancing corporate sustainability, some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you may want to keep track of include:
- Your carbon footprint
- Product recycling rate
- Supplier environmental sustainability index
- Water footprint
- Waste recycling rate
- Energy consumption
- Supply chain miles
Keep in mind that these are just a few ways to track corporate sustainability. Be sure to find the KPIs and metrics that are most important and relevant to your organization, so you can make the greatest possible impact.
Conclusion
Corporate sustainability is a relatively new concept businesses have started to work on, but instead of being overwhelming or stressful, it should be seen as a challenge. HR can play an important role in implementing these changes, overcoming that challenge, and ensuring that the company becomes a sustainable one.
Katie Brenneman is a Guest Contributor at HR Daily Advisor.
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