There’s growing evidence that workplace culture can benefit from the inclusion of environmentally friendly values. Organisations which embrace sustainability are showing that cultivating an eco-conscious culture has a positive impact on their workforce, including:

• Increased staff morale and productivity.
• Reduced absenteeism and staff turnover compared with businesses without eco-friendly standards.
• A greater ability to attract talent, especially millennials, who consider a company’s environmental and social commitments when deciding on where they want to work.

1. So how to make an office conducive to environmentalism?

• Play with light – paler colours and reflective surfaces will cut the number of lights you switch on. Walls and partitions needn’t be solid but could be transparent, low-height or filigree, for example.
• Look at the floor – on the one hand, hard floors can be swept while carpets are often vacuumed daily (consuming electricity). However, carpets provide insulation against both cold and heat, so weigh up your options carefully based on your local climate.
• Position carefully – making the stairs closer and more obvious than the lifts will cut your power bills while also encouraging employee fitness.
• Use clever materials – building materials are available which absorb air-borne pollutants, particularly from vehicle exhaust.
• Use natural materials – natural materials mean fewer synthetics and often a shorter manufacturing process; just check the sustainability credentials.
• Harness the natural – look at how you can use nature around you, rather than generating it or pumping it in. Think wind, geothermal, solar, rainwater, etc.
• Get smart – smart offices and buildings use intelligence, technology and automation to cut your bills while making employees feel more comfortable and productive.
• Design spaces for recycling – create dedicated areas in workspaces, public spaces, restrooms, kitchens and cafeterias to ensure there’s plenty of well-designed provision for all types of recycling and that it never overflows and becomes unsightly.
• We can also name five excellent ways to grow eco-conscious culture in the workplace.

2. Find time for involvement

You can help employees get involved with local conservation projects by:

• Combining your next team bonding activity with a conservation project.
• Organising a corporate fundraising event, with donations going to a conservation project of your choice.
• Implement an approval process for employees who would like to request time off to volunteer with a local conservation project.
• The Trillion Trees Challenge frequently seeks volunteers to help make Australia a little greener each weekend. Australia’s environment and conservation departments and district/city councils advertise community planting days, too.

3. Choose to work with sustainable suppliers

Factories with solar panels and colourful workplace recycling programmes are in, and single-use plastics and fossil fuels are out.  By supporting green vendors, you’re future-proofing your business and showing to your people that you’re serious about sustainability, inside and outside the office. At enableHR, staff often recommend suppliers with more environmentally friendly standards to our management team for consideration. Have you asked your people if they know any sustainable alternatives for the collateral or products you use as a business?

4. Show your appreciation through conservation

When you don’t have time to get outside and plant them yourself, have you thought about funding the planting of a tree instead? TreeProject, Plant a Tree Day and similar campaigns make it easy to plant native trees across Australia by connecting funded and gifted trees with tree-planting groups across the country.

You can gift native trees to employees, clients, business partners, or anyone who deserves a token of appreciation. A tree of appreciation! Usually priced at around $10 a tree, it’s a cost-effective and thoughtful gift.

5. Cut the paper

There was a time when “going paperless” was a distant (and even laughable) goal. Not today. The rise of the internet of things (IoT), and having access to everything you need, whenever you need it, means becoming paperless is easier.

Even HR, which is notorious for paper-heavy processes and record-keeping requirements, has been transformed by technology. HR technology platforms such as enableHR are available to help HR teams be more organised, and efficient and to reduce needless paper waste.

6. Support flexible working arrangements

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported in December 2020 that the average Australian was driving 12,100 kilometres per vehicle per year, which is 33 kilometres a day (the daily average figure is even higher if only workdays are considered).

Any company which has 10 staff and allows the workforce to work from home just one day per month instead of taking the car you would be removing 3960 kilometres of commuting from Australia’s pollution rates each year.

If you can’t avoid travel, or you just want to see the smiling faces of your colleagues, there are other ways to move which should be encouraged. From carpooling to public transport, electric car share to biking or walking, if everyone used alternatives to personal vehicles there would be fewer cars on the road. This would lead to fewer accidents, and better air quality. One of our enableHR staff members committed to cycling to work three days a week. He’s cut his fuel use by more than half, and he’s fast becoming the fittest member on our team!

By growing an eco-conscious culture at work, you’re attracting top millennial talent, boosting morale and engagement, increasing loyalty and inspiring your people to be socially and environmentally conscious citizens.

There are many ways to create an eco-conscious culture at work, these have been our top six. How does your workplace nurture an environmentally conscious workforce? We’d love to continue to grow ours with new ideas so please send them our way.

Want more information on corporate tree planting days? Get Involved as a business here.