When it comes to creating an environmental or sustainable policy, it seems that businesses are making the same mistakes that they did when the internet first arrived.
At that time, everyone rushed to create a web site and packed it full of information. But they failed to either develop a suitable strategy or appreciate that the web could fundamentally change the way they worked.
Within just 10 years, the internet became an integral and essential tool to even the smallest business. In fact, today we take it for granted and wonder how we ever managed without it.
But are businesses now doing the same in relation to the environment? Do they simply get someone to put together a document full of information, make a brief announcement about it and leave it on a server somewhere? ‘Job done’, boxes ticked. In many cases, it appears so.
The issue of the environment isn’t going away, however, and anyone who thinks it is just a short-term fad is kidding themselves. Its relevance to all organisations may not be clear today but, in only a few years’ time, like the web, it will have become embedded into the way that the most dynamic operate.
Environmental or sustainability concepts – or whichever phrase you choose to use – if assimilated properly, should influence corporate strategy and the business plan. They are also likely to require a shift in corporate culture if real and positive change is to be achieved.
Creating a green people strategy
But what is clear is that it is HR and training professionals who will need to help create that strategy and get the message right. Along with the rest of senior management, HR directors must take a serious look under the bonnet of their operations and ask themselves some difficult questions:
- Is there likely to be more legislation and scrutiny around environmental issues?
- If fossil fuels continue to be depleted, how high will petrol/oil prices and, therefore, other costs go?
- Are we, or our supply chain, dependent on resources that are becoming scarce?
- Would the government really introduce new taxes for biodiversity loss, carbon emissions and water usage?
- Will environmental considerations start to have a real influence on consumer purchasing decisions?
We don’t have the answers to these questions yet, but we can probably guess what they will be. These issues and all others related to business sustainability are, at some point, going to require organisations to change the way they operate if they are to succeed and prosper. Technology and purchasing policies will have some impact, but implementing real change will require a people development strategy.
Engagement with employees at all levels is going to be crucial if businesses are to remain sustainable into the future. Unfortunately, conversations around environmental and sustainable issues are almost non-existent in many businesses and such communications are often limited to the occasional poster, print-out or copy of the latest corporate social responsibility document.
As a result, experience shows that the vast majority of employees know very little about what their employer is doing in this area. But getting it right may not be as difficult as you think. Because the appropriate communication vehicles are already likely to be in place, it may be just a matter of refreshing content and setting expectations.
The simple truth is that the cost of doing business will continue to rise if a new way of working is not found. Whether it is fuel, energy, carbon taxes or the price of resources, costs are only going one way – up.
Embedding environmental issues
But HR directors can only take it so far and, at some point, people will need to start taking responsibility for their own actions in the workplace. It is staff who don’t switch their computers off, run taps, forget to turn off lights, print things out, bin stuff instead of recycling it, drive to business meetings and so on.
But it is those same staff who can help to control costs, protect the business and ensure sustainable ways of being. To do so, however, they need to get into the right mindset and be given permission to make decisions based on the company’s environmental and sustainability objectives – and financial targets.
This is not about providing them with a one-off conference or a newsletter. It’s about permanently changing both the way that decisions are made and the way that people work in order to enable the organisation to function in a different and, ultimately, more relevant way.
You’ll know that you’ve succeeded when environmental and sustainability considerations are an instinctive part of the decision-making process at all levels.
But it isn’t just about re-educating a few managers. To truly embed such concepts into corporate culture requires a top-down and bottom-up strategy. For example, if you already have environmental commitments, you can weave them into the recruitment process, induction programme, leadership model, annual appraisal system and reward scheme.
It’s important that skeptics are clear that this isn’t about whether or not you believe in anthropogenic climate change. Instead it’s about protecting the business – and their livelihoods – for the future. We used to think of ‘future-proofing’ as a technological fix. But these days, it’s about understanding what is happening in the natural world and preparing ourselves for inevitable change and its impact.
Change programmes
Much can be done to influence people at all organisational levels. But i
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t’s a lot to take on board and, at a time of such economic uncertainty, it’s understandable that some businesses prefer to focus on short-term issues and relegate environmental challenges to the ‘back burner’. If they are to change significantly, however, the objectives and reasons behind those changes have to be understood and supported by everyone who works for, and with, them.
Communicating effectively about environmental issues can be difficult, but only if you try to do too much at once. It’s great to see people link their purchasing decisions to important matters such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, floods and poverty in a country half way around the world, but you really need to have face-to-face conversations if people are to start really thinking through the implications.
This need for one-to-one engagement makes it difficult for large organisations and so you have to craft your communications carefully. It’s about focusing on one or two subjects at a time and making the complex easy to understand.
Another approach that works well for change programmes is appointing ‘champions’ or ‘ambassadors’. Wal Mart did this in the US in relation to the environment.
By having a local champion who was trained to understand the issues and coach other staff, the retail chain has seen benefits in energy-saving and recycling terms. Because employees are now walking and cycling rather than driving to work, their well-being has also increased and they have gained from becoming fitter and healthier.
Beware of green-washing
But visibly demonstrating your commitment is another effective way of communicating your aims to a broader range of stakeholders. Sportswear provider Puma, for example, decided that its environmental commitments were so integral to its business plan that it published its 2010 financial and sustainability report within the same document. This sent out a clear message that the environment was just as important to it as profitability.
But it is important to guard against saying one thing and actually not doing very much at all, a process otherwise known as ‘green-washing’.
As the environmental agenda gains momentum and becomes increasingly important, you can be sure that eagle-eyed analysts, journalists and customers will be able to distinguish between those organisations that are really making a difference and those that are simply claiming to. Being caught exaggerating your environmental credentials may not seem too serious now, but it is likely to have a negative impact on your brand reputation into the future.
Environmental issues aren’t going to go away and ensuring that the business is sustainable will require changes to the way it operates. Some smart HR and training professionals are already contributing towards doing this and, in the process, are helping the business to gain true and lasting competitive advantage.
Andrew Cameron is managing director of environmental and sustainable policy development consultancy, Crex.
