Should ‘green issues’ be important to HR Managers?

As recession looms and large-scale redundancies are announced on a daily basis it would be understandable for ‘green’ issues to slide to the bottom of the in-tray for HR Managers.  Inevitably short-term acute pressures will drive immediate priorities, but for those HR Managers who have the space to think about how their organization can best weather the current economic storm and come out on the other side in a stronger position, ‘green issues’ should be very much at the forefront of their thinking.

Managing in a Downturn

A growing number of analysts believe that adopting more environmental strategies should be one of the key strategies for managing in a downturn.  Moving to more sustainable business practices offers the opportunity to simultaneously reduce costs, manage risk and increase appeal to a growing number of environmentally and socially concerned customers. 

For instance, energy prices have soared by a third over the last year. In the uncertainty of a recession, businesses are increasingly looking at the financial savings that can be made by reducing energy use, fuel use and waste. These savings are dependant on changing employee behaviour and can be driven by HR departments.

Becoming greener drives innovation.  Research shows that companies who outperformed the competition continued to invest in refreshing their products and services, adapting them to the changing market.  A greener business builds on the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle, but it requires much more than that.  A sustainable business requires innovative thinking and fundamental alterations in business models.

Greener policies help companies to recruit talented employees.  Despite the recession and increasing unemployment the fundamentals of the UK market for talent have not changed: shortages of critical skills are predicted to worsen in the near future.

Amongst graduates there is widespread awareness of climate change and an expectation that businesses will act.  The latest Forum for the Future Survey of Future Leaders showed that over 80% of respondents believe that by 2032 oil will be running out, we will be feeling the effects of human made climate change and we will have to deal with more frequent natural disasters. The majority of future leaders from this survey think that businesses are a force for good in the world and they have a responsibility to create change urgently but only 6% believe that businesses are doing a lot to initiate this change.

More frequently in job interviews companies are being asked about their environmental initiatives and businesses are beginning to realise the potential that green credentials have as a recruitment tool.  Accenture discovered that 75% of MBA students from top schools were willing to accept a 10-20% lower salary to work for a ‘responsible’ company.

Environmental initiatives within the workplace can also assist with employee retention.  If successfully managed, these initiatives bring different groups of employees together to run innovative, creative and up-lifting schemes that can build loyalty and enhance team-building. 

Putting Green HR into practice

If ‘green’ is one of the strategies required to help companies through the recession, how can hard-pushed HR managers implement successful initiatives that reinforce corporate objectives?

Global Action Plan is an environmental charity established in 1993 that helps people to live more sustainable lifestyles.  The charity has worked with 77 of the UK’s largest companies.  In February 2008, Global Action Plan was selected to become Sky’s Charity Partner for the next three years and is working with the company to engage, employees, customers and wider stakeholders in a wide range of practical initiatives. 

Based on a mixture of practical experience and academic research, Global Action Plan believes that there are five key components essential to encouraging employees to change their environmental behaviour.  These five components are:

• The involvement of facilitated groups.
• Measurement
• Innovative communication
• Celebration
• Wider community engagement

Facilitated groups

Communicating environmental messages is fraught with difficulties.  Poor communication can often create employee scepticism leading them to view resource efficiency drives as thinly veiled cost-cutting exercises.  Many still question the validity of scientific statements which provides an immediate obstacle to taking action. 

Given these challenges it is crucially important to create carefully structured engagement campaigns.  An essential first step is to find the environmental enthusiasts within the company and to bring them together in a supported group.  Creating change within a business is incredibly similar to the way communal singing occurs in a church.  The hymns only start in earnest when a few brave souls break the ice by singing loudly and usually off-key.  Companies need to find these initial singers and give them the confidence, knowledge and credibility to encourage the rest of their ‘congregation’ of employees to join them.

Bringing the initial singers together in groups enables employees to test out their views with others, it allows them to share understanding and crucially it enables them to decide upon actions that match the culture of the company.  The creation of these teams also provides an opportunity for HR Managers to build inter-departmental communication and understanding.

Measurement

Once established, Global Action Plan believes it is important for the team of employees to measure for themselves the environmental impact of the company.  This helps to make abstract environmental issues such as climate change tangible. 

Employees at Investec were so shocked by the amount of paper that they were throwing away that they decided to build a 3D paper tower display (pictured) which was rigged up in the canteen atrium area and seen by all staff at lunch and on entering or leaving the building.  The visual shock of the display drove individual employee action which had the combined impact of achieving:

• 28% reduction in waste per employee
• Overnight switch off rate increased from 5% to 97% for photocopiers
• 43% reduction in canteen consumables
• Recycling up to 70% including furniture and clothing
• 6% reduction in paper use equivalent to 48 trees a yea

Innovative Communication

The Investec tower is one example of how creative employees can be in communicating environmental issues.  Occasionally, however they need further support and guidance. 

One of the biggest communication challenges is transport.  Road transport contributes 22% of CO2 and 14% of nitrous oxide emissions in the UK.  A large proportion of this is generated by business travel. In addition, about half of all motorists are using their cars to commute to work, and 42% use their car for ‘travel in connection with work’.  Economically, the cost of fuel has risen 210% over the past 20 years.  The decisions and driving styles of drivers has a major influence on emissions and fuel use, this is not always understood by drivers and so businesses are missing out on potential savings.

To help employees make this connection, Global Action Plan has developed a bespoke driving simulator to provide hands on teaching accessible to more than one person at a time without having to be in a car. The simulator demonstrates the methods to drive in an environmentally efficient and cost effective way. These techniques are wide reaching, from using the correct gears to the use of oil and driving at appropriate speeds.

Each driving simulator involves three screens and a set of sophisticated driving controls. There are a range of realistic simulations involving urban, extra-urban and motorway driving that enable participants to put their eco-driving techniques into practice. In addition, each simulator provides participants with a breakdown on their fuel efficiency, distance travelled and overall ranking.  This element of competition adds a popular added dimension to the learning experience.

Celebration

Environmental issues can be shrouded with doom and gloom which is dispiriting for people who want to achieve positive change.  To help overcome this Global Action Plan has succeeded in obtaining endorsement from the United Nations Environment Programme for its activities.

At the end of all the campaigns we are involved in, we measure the environmental and financial savings that have been achieved.  These results are then communicated to the whole company at a celebration event where the volunteers are awarded a UNEP certificate thanking them for their efforts.

The results companies achieve are invariably impressive. International Bank, Citi, in one of their UK offices achieved a reduction of 67.4 tonnes of CO2 over a year. Off the back of this the Environment Champions process was rolled out to other Citi offices in Canary Wharf. 

“It definitely helped having someone like Global Action Plan come in from outside and help us put our behaviour into context. The team here worked really hard to achieve some great results, and other sites have the benefit of learning from our actions” Les Smith, Citi

Global Action Plan has worked extensively with Britannia Building Society, last year Britannia decided to roll out the environmental programme to their branches across the UK. Global Action Plan trained representatives from all 253 branches who were supported by a 20 people Green Team in their individual branches. Britannia saved an estimated £107,000 p.a. in electricity costs alone, 69 tonnes in general waste per year and increased paper recycling by 25%.

 “Global Action Plan builds staff awareness and gets everyone working together as a team to make a difference. We couldn’t have done this without Global Action Plan”  Mark Kelsall, Mutual Responsibility

Wider Community Programmes

Environmental employee engagement programmes are not just restricted to the workplace and Global Action Plan is increasingly working with companies to help their employees take action in their homes and in the wider community. 

A well established employer supported volunteering scheme is an attractive recruitment tool and has been found to also improve retention rates. In the Corporate Citizenship Company’s study “Good Companies, Better Employees” Centrica reported that involvement in its volunteering scheme increased job satisfaction, improved retention and reduced absence due to sickness. EDF similarly found that within six months of the launch of their employer supported volunteering scheme, the program had paid for itself through financial savings made in improved staff retention.

One example of a volunteering initiative that has been successful in practice is when Global Action Plan created an initiative that has enabled Sky and F&C Asset Management employees to work with elderly residents at a Housing Association to plant and grow their own vegetables, make outdoor furniture from reclaimed wood, build a plastic bottle greenhouse and a straw bale tool shed (pictured).

Summary

Through all its activities, Global Action Plan has discovered that environmental initiatives are an excellent way to unleash creativity and stronger team work within companies.  They are an under-utilised tool in the HR Managers tool-box but should become increasingly important in helping companies come out of the recession stronger and more competitive.

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