B
usiness sustainability strategies are only as good as the people that adhere to, and implement, them. That is why how you engage your staff is equally as important as how you write your plan. Without people on the ground that have truly bought into your objectives, it is difficult to get an effec- tive sustainability programme off the ground. The US data provider Gallup dubs employ- ee engagement as a “leading indicator of finan- cial performance”, offering research which shows that “engaged organisations have 3.9 times the earnings per share growth rate, com- pared to organizations with lower engagement in the same industry”.
engagement
And there is a strong correlation between and
sustainable business-
es, according to a 2010 study by Hewitt Associates. As Tim Mohin, director of cor- porate responsibility at AMD, writes in his blog: “When your job is your cause, you are naturally motivated to work hard and inno- vate. Since sustainability is an important cause for a lot of employees – especially younger workers – it makes sense that the companies with world-class sustainability programmes also have higher engagement scores.” Sustainability professionals have typi- cally spent their energy tackling straight- forward initiatives like reporting, measuring carbon emissions or devising energy effi- ciency programmes. But they are starting to see that behaviour change can also make a positive impact. Brighter Planet’s Greening the Workplace report, published last year, suggested that organisations are increasingly engaging employees on sustainability. More than half of big businesses now promote sustainability ‘frequently’ or ‘very frequently’ – up from just 5% identified in the same sur- vey conducted in 2009. However, although engagement efforts are spreading, their effec- tiveness has dropped, with programmes deemed very ‘effective’ or ‘somewhat effec- tive’ decreasing by 8% since 2009. And while the vast majority of companies attempt some sort of environmental promotion, only 17% were rated ‘very effective’.
There is clearly room for improvement.
There is a need to infuse sustainability into a company’s values and culture if you’re going to change people’s everyday behaviour. There is also a need for sustainability to be fun to get people over the hurdle of getting involved. As Beryl Companies CEO, Paul Spiegelman, says, “if you want employees to take a vested interest in the bigger picture, treat them like stakeholders. When jobs are regarded more like investments, employees will show up with passion, productivity, and focus, making your company more profitable.”
www.sustainablebusinessonline.com
Unilever’s Australia
and New Zealand
business recently launched a campaign called ‘Every employee is the head of sustainabil- ity’, designed to get staff thinking about the company’s overall sustainability strategy. The goal, according to Emma Peacock, Unilever’s Australasian manager of corporate affairs, is to engage employees in the aggressive envi- ronmental and business objectives that have been established as part of the global Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.
Peacock claims that unless everyone is involved, the Group will not achieve the growth it has planned for the next ten to 30 years. Unilever CEO, Paul Polman, recently likened sustainable behaviour change to the challenge of losing weight and getting fit. He says that his company’s wide-ranging Sustainable Living Plan is the only way to make “sustainable living an everyday reality, rather than a pipedream”.
Speaking at the inaugural SWSX Eco con- ference in Texas last year, Interface’s vice president for sustainability, Erin Meezan, reiterated the point, stressing the need for employees to define the cause. She gave the example of an Interface wellness programme
“SAP challenged their staff to find alternative ways of getting to work. Around 66% now use an alternative commute”
that completely failed because it became a cause célèbre of the HR department and was developed in the absence of any staff input. “The role of senior management should be to set the direction but allow the creativity to come from the employee,” she said. “We see amazing things coming up from our employ- ees, and when we see them, we support them.” For the business software firm SAP, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver provided the ultimate hook to start engaging employ- ees. In much the same way London’s Olympic organisers are asking companies to consider home-working strategies this summer to ease the pressure on the capital’s Tube network, the Canadian city’s transit authority asked for a commitment from businesses to reduce traf- fic by at least 30%.
SAP challenged its staff to think about their commute and to find alternative ways of get- ting to work. Many started taking the bus. Around 66% now use an alternative commute method – more than twice the Vancouver average.
At Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters, the installation of 120 charging points for elec- tric vehicles has certainly got people talking.
Many ‘Googlers’ said that having access to workplace charging sealed the deal when con- sidering whether or not to purchase an electric car. Seeing the vehicles in the carpark has also started a virtuous cycle, with more employees mimicking the early adopters.
Similarly, when Applied Materials took on SunPower to install a 2MW solar power system at its headquarter, the two firms subse- quently partnered to educate staff and offered extended discounts for anyone wanting to install solar systems at home.
Social media For Susan Hunt Stevens, founder and CEO of the interactive technology business Practically Green, the use of social media is crucial to making sustainability initiatives stick. She points towards Wal-Mart’s “pioneering” per- sonal sustainability initiative, one of the first large-scale efforts to recognize that engaging employees at a personal level is key to driving sustainability into the culture. In 2010, the company updated its corpo- rate responsibility programme to include a ‘My Sustainability Plan’ element – an internal social networking site, enabling employees to select and track their personal sustainability goals.
“Social media – whether one is comment- ing, liking, or sharing – inherently encourages employees to interact at a personal level,” she says.
“Workplaces are extremely influential on social norms. Robert Cialdini’s theory of social proof and flocking says that people are more likely to embrace a behaviour when the people around them are doing the same.” The Brighter Planet report certainly backs up Hunt Steven’s claims, saying that organisa- tions with a method for employees to share ideas were more than six times as likely to have a ‘very effective’ programme. Setting up friendly competitions between divisions, business units or regional offices is a strategy that has worked well for many com- panies. Whole Foods Market’s Green Trek Challenge is a good example. The programme encourages employees to share their progress about personal sustainability – from wellness to green transportation use. The latest compe- tition segment saw about 27,000 of the Whole Foods’ 62,000 staff take part.
Despite employee engagement on sus- tainability becoming mainstream, it is still a young exercise. The effectiveness of different approaches varies widely, depending on com- pany, sector and overall approach to social and environmental issues. But if you get it right, the opportunities for taking your sustainabil- ity strategy to the next level are great.
Sustainable Business | January/February 2012 | 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36