Backyard Agrarian

Creating a Culture of Health and Sustainability

Where do we start?
The possibilities are endless but creating a workable sustainability program starts with a series of discussions about what management and staff are interested in focusing on. It starts with discussing what sustainability is, brainstorming about possible projects, defining goals, and working on solutions that truly interest people at all levels of the company and that are relevant and targeted to meeting resource reduction goals, improving quality of life and worker efficiency and saving money. Your sustainability director needs to be able to lead group discussions, create interest in the subject matter, provide and inspire people to think of relevant and compelling possibilities and obtain employee buy-in for projects before implementation begins and throughout the life of each project in order to ensure success. 

After the first series of discussions have been conducted and some focus has been gained, the sustainability director will conduct baseline inventories. These inventories will be used to measure progress throughout the lifetime of project implementation. Baseline inventories are also used to identify the most important areas to focus on. For example, baseline inventories can be conducted with regard to energy use and expenditures, paper use and expenditures, greenhouse gas emissions, and worker health and satisfaction.

It is well documented that sustainability projects implemented in this way can save significant amounts of money for business owners, dramatically reduce resource consumption, and can help create enjoyable and fulfilling work environments for staff. They can also provide exceptional marketing opportunities and an array of other positive benefits.

Creating Buy-In
Office sustainability is not about top down edicts. Rather, it is about working with staff and management to identify problems and solutions, to improve work flow, improve the work environment, and at the same time reduce resource consumption, save money, and create a positive workplace culture. It looks at micro and macro situations within the office environment and identifies solutions at many levels of office operations. Sustainability expands the idea of what it means to do our work well. The sustainability program will:
•    Create presentations and lead discussion on baseline inventories and sustainability-related topics.
•    Lead discussions and generate buy-in, develop interest, develop projects, identify needs and implement solutions.

Employee Training Program
A successful sustainability program will also be a resource for staff. We can create an orientation program for new staff to introduce them to your company’s sustainability programs and to make sure new and existing staff understand the goals and implementation principles. It can even focus on simple but misunderstood issues like how to properly recycle within the office, or how to compost.

Electricity use
Billions of dollars have been saved by corporations around the world that have implemented electricity saving programs. For example, many companies save a lot of money simply by turning off computers overnight.  The sustainability program can create discussion around this idea, and other energy saving projects. For example, we can discuss the current barriers to turning computers off - is it because it takes too long for computers to boot up in the morning when people are anxious to clock in?  Is it worth working on a strategy to encourage this? How much money and resources can be saved and how can we obtain buy-in? The sustainability program will:
•    Create baseline inventory on energy use.
•    Conduct presentations to the management and interested staff on our baseline inventory. Other topic areas could include discussions on electricity use and what it means, where our electricity comes from and related issues.

Paper use
The sustainability director can create discussion within the office about how to reduce our paper use. We can learn from each other by discussing whether any teams have moved towards electronic editing of documents, less printing, or other ideas. We can consider printing one page when only one page is needed rather than printing an entire document. What do people truly need to move towards a less paper intensive office? Where does waste exist now (too much use of pre-printed letter head?).
•    Create baseline inventory on paper use, cost and resource consumption.
•    Presentations and discussion groups to identify issues.
•    Project Example:  Closing Files -  Consider: Do task notes and billing really need to get printed out at time of file closure? How often does anyone look at these? If the file gets reopened, is it actually easier to look up notes and billing on the computer or do people prefer the paper? How do people feel about this?  How much paper is used just on these two items? How much money is that?  How much GHGs is that?  How much worker time does that take? Consider implementing strategy to remove paper clips and binder clips so closed file are ready for recycling and less binder clips have to purchased.

Employee Well-being
A variety of issues affect the well-being of workers on a daily basis. Many people suffer from unrecognized food allergies or severe back pain or headaches that significantly interrupt their work days. The sustainability department can work with staff through presentations, discussion groups and even outside speakers to bring awareness to alleviating these sorts of issues and increasing health and happiness, along with productivity.
•    Consider: Healthier food in vending machines, workshops on managing and reducing back pain, experimentation with flex schedules during flu season.
•    Sustainability strategies relevant to becoming the best place to work in your area – what else are people interested in! Meaningful, collaborative sustainability programs make people like their jobs better!