Engage Employees When Launching a Workplace Environmental Program

Originally published on Entrepreneur.com

The following article by Diana Glassman, Head of Environmental Affairs at TD Bank, was published on Entrepreneur.com

Engage Employees When Launching a Workplace Environmental Program

Imagine walking into a meeting of your company’s leadership to present a new program with the goal of encouraging everyone in the organization to embrace the use of environmentally conscientious materials, practices and services. Such a program might be perceived as raising overhead without generating a clear, revenue-generating payoff. Some at the meeting might have healthy skepticism, particularly those responsible for the company’s financial well-being.

It’s a tough sell but not an impossible one.

Generally, environmental objectives can be divided into two basic categories: tangible and actionable items. A tangible goal might include developing or leveraging a physical asset, like a LEED-certified office building. An actionable item might be trying to reduce paper use, which requires the collective action of employees across an organization.

In either case, employee engagement is the lynchpin of success. Without green behavior inside the LEED-certified building, the investment may not pay off. Likewise, without the conscious adoption of paper reduction by the workforce, use of the consumable will not decrease.

Here is how you can build a program to meet both tangible and actionable objectives, based on my experience at TD Bank in setting up an environmental employee engagement program:

Continue reading the article on Entrepreneur.com: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232528