Large companies and organizations have been making good on their recent commitment to corporate citizenship by dedicating resources to help the globe overcome some of its most pressing challenges. Sustainability has been among these key areas of focus, leading to environmentally friendly corporate initiatives from Apple’s commitment to closed-loop supply chains to the development of Patagonia’s next-generation responsible business venture capital arm.
While it’s crucial for these organizations to make top-down commitments to sustainability, business units, groups and even individual contributors can take their own steps in contributing to sustainable practices in the new normal.
1. Use your corporate purpose as motivation.
At the corporate level, a clear statement of purpose from executive leadership can be a critical tool in supporting environmental sustainability. The same concept can be borrowed by team managers and individual contributors to encourage action.
The process of defining purpose makes it clear that businesses exist to serve society and not the other way around, and the link to sustainability becomes clear,” University of Pittsburgh School of Business professor CB Bhattacharya wrote in a May 2020 article for the World Economic Forum.
One way that Bhattacharya recommends companies bring their purpose to life is by pursuing concrete environmentally sustainability goals and focusing on a few material areas. Unit managers can follow up on that commitment in their daily work by asking themselves a key question: 'What type of sustainability do stakeholders expect from our part of the business?' By adding a sustainability variable to the business unit decision-making equation, middle management and individual contributors can help make good on big corporate promises in everything from team-level planning to day-to-day decisions. One way to apply this thinking is to evaluate your immediate team’s environmental impact, which could include electricity usages, greenhouse gas emissions, and water intake.
Encourage your senior leaders to reiterate your corporate purpose, sustainability objectives and reduction targets to all constituents, but especially the employees who will be implementing them "on the ground."
2. Empower your teammates.
Getting your teammates to buy in to sustainability measures is critical. Motivate them—and build enthusiasm for your efforts—by explaining why sustainable business practices benefit everyone. Tell them how they can make a difference by incorporating these new processes and tools into daily operations.
Empowering others requires stepped up communication. It's something the leadership team at major home health product manufacturer Sunstar learned first-hand during COVID-19.
“The pandemic developed with unprecedented speed, and the amount of information created confusion,” says Julia Linz, senior director of HR at Sunstar. “We tried to provide regular and clear communication to our employees—especially when conveying tough messages.”
Sunstar set up a dedicated online channel to share best practices on sustainable business practices, remote work, and other timely topics, to post updates on health authority regulations, and to provide a space for confidential questions. Company leaders have also learned to seek multiple perspectives on managing the crisis from local market leaders and departmental managers.
Encourage employees or teammates to brainstorm and implement new ideas that serve customers in a more environmentally friendly manner or generally make the office a greener space. A few examples you and your teammates can take ownership over include embracing electronic file sharing to reduce paper and ink cartridge use, using reusable coffee mugs and water bottles, or even bringing plants into their workspaces to recycle stale air. They may seem like minor contributions, but if enough employees across the globe deploy them together, the benefits can add up.
Fracture, a medium-sized company in the Inc. 5000, allows customers to upload digital photos, have them printed on durable glass, and shipped in an eco-friendly, ready-to-mount package. According to CEO Abhi Lokesh, the organization’s employees are researching ways to offset the company’s carbon footprint from raw material shipments and receivables. “Fracture [had been] also working with We Are Neutral, a partner helping us neutralize carbon emissions through offsetting and reduction initiatives like tree planting,” he says.
3. Turn WFH green.
You can also encourage action by thinking of ways to go greener from home.
For instance, office furniture and supplies present a potential opportunity. If you manage a team and your employees need to buy new desks, consider weighing the environmental impact of the products you purchase, which may include reviewing the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) the products use. New computers should be EPEAT-certified and meet Energy Star requirements, and home offices should be lit by compact, fluorescent bulbs.
Team-wide, encourage less printing—and therefore less paper—by setting up e-documentation and other apps that transfer and store work-related materials in the cloud.
For example, large telecommunications company Nextiva recommended that employees purchase reusable notebooks. “Erasable notebooks are eco-friendly and also have a scanning app for sharing and storing documents online,” says Nextiva chief marketing officer Yaniv Masjedi. “Aside from being much greener and saving companies money, reusable notebooks are actually more functional due to integration with the cloud.”
Items should be shipped in environmentally friendly packaging, using as few boxes as possible. Even choosing a restaurant for takeout that uses compostable utensils or may make a difference. Finally, employees can encourage each other to save energy and electricity by heating and air conditioning their homes sparingly and turning off lights and devices when not in use.
4. Reconsider your supply chains.
Over the past few years, many with purchasing responsibilities have shifted policies and vendor selection criteria, including caring for the vendors in their supply chains by shortening payment terms and ordering extra inventory.
As you make changes like this, you might also select suppliers that have taken action to reduce the overall burden products and services have on the planet.
Fracture’s Lokesh led an effort to select vendors that support eco-friendly practices. Fracture's packaging faced a tall task: it had to bring home the customer experience, yet be sturdy enough to protect glass prints while embodying the company's core value of treading lightly on the planet. “Working with green suppliers, we’ve landed on a clean, minimal, and robust package made of 100 percent recycled cardboard,” Lokesh says. “We’ve eliminated traditional filler like peanuts and bubble wrap, and we’ve also removed unnecessary paper receipts in the package.”
Generally speaking, supply chains can be an excellent place to improve a business’ sustainability, according to an April 2020 Bain & Company’s Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility white paper.
“Shifting to near-shore or onshore production and shorter supply chains will reduce emissions. Manufacturing pollution levels will drop as new sites are designed to comply with environmental policies, leveraging new technologies to be more efficient,” the paper stated. "As they make these moves, businesses will be able to take advantage of stimulus money tied to environmental efforts."
Environmental sustainability can play a leading role in future adverse events. You can better prepare for the next disruption by reassessing your environmental footprint and making adjustments today.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or an opinion on any issue. It should not be regarded as comprehensive or a substitute for professional advice.