“Going Green” is a hot topic on today’s business and political stages. This is because many organizations have realized that green business practices not only help the environment but also provide a competitive business advantage. Beyond that, the U.S. government and many of our 50 states are offering billions of dollars in funding for companies who develop and implement new technologies and processes that will benefit our environment.
This realization, though, can quickly lead to frustration if you are unable to create rapid innovation and organizational support for your green initiatives. When campaigns like “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” come from the top, employees may not pay much attention to them. Oftentimes, they are perceived as executive-sponsored fads that will soon pass. In fact, green initiatives may already be underway at your organization, and you may not even know it! Perhaps they’re moving forward too slowly, or they just keep getting pushed down the priority list due to more pressing issues.
With the current business and sociopolitical environment, organizations have an opportunity to make a real difference in a way that drives increased employee engagement and benefits their triple bottom-line. The key is changing the way we approach how we “go green” and realizing that this transformational change requires a more disciplined strategic approach. Companies like Wal-Mart and General Electric have actually integrated their green initiatives into every aspect of their businesses, and thus they have produced new lines of innovative products and services as well as created boosts to their bottom lines. As Wal-Mart’s former CEO Lee Scott said, “It all comes down to who we are, how we work, and what we stand for as a company.”
Your organization may consider green business practices on several different levels. If you want to completely transform the way you do business, you must start with incorporating sustainable business practices into your company’s overall business strategy.
The first step is to get everyone on the same page. Complex changes like this require tremendous collaboration and coordination, so you need to gather the input and ideas from all of your key stakeholders – from employees and customers to vendors and business partners. Educate them about your vision for a sustainable future and involve them in the process so they feel like they are contributing to the end goal. They will be much more engaged in the process and are more likely to participate in any new initiatives if they participate right from the start.
The second step is to plan from the future instead of from the past. By imagining the organization in a sustainable future, stakeholders have the opportunity to look back to the present to determine what they can do now to create that future vision. This unleashes creativity and drives innovation to see what’s possible if transformational changes occur rather than simply creating incremental change by planning from the past.
The third step is to create an action plan with priorities and accountability to move your organization forward. Your future vision can serve as a motivating guide to implement new business strategies and keep your stakeholders engaged as they contribute to and make a difference not just within your organization but in the world around them.
If your organization is looking to go green on a smaller scale, you can find plenty of opportunities for grassroots movements too. One of our largest clients just did this by realizing how many paper cups were being used in their division alone. As a result, they decided to produce glass cups with their division logo on them and distribute them to everyone in the organization along with a note that said in order to support ongoing sustainability efforts and cost-reduction programs paper cups would no longer be provided to employees. Everyone now uses their glass cups with pride, knowing that they are making a significant contribution to the company and the environment every time they do. Other organizations we work with have placed recycling waste cans in every office, replaced individual plastic water bottles with central water coolers and filters, and instituted telecommuting and compressed work-week schedules for their employees.
The key to successful green initiatives is to design solutions that make sense to both your employees and your business as well as make a difference in your community and the world around you. To find out whether or not your employees and key stakeholders are excited about and ultimately will adopt any proposed initiatives, we recommend conducting mini-surveys before you go too far. Group feedback sessions can also be very useful when testing preliminary ideas – or even designing new programs – with select employees and business leaders.
At Plus Delta, our consultants are passionate about implementing sustainable business practices. If your organization is looking to integrate green initiatives into how you do business, our Positive Changesm Transformations can provide the right foundation for such an initiative to succeed. Or if we can help your company “go green” by conducting an organizational survey or developing your internal marketing communications campaign, just let us know. You can always reach us at +1 (310) 589-4600 or send an email to [email protected] for more information.
Note: This feature was originally published and distributed in Plus Delta Consulting’s e-newsletter in July 2009.
