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10 Ways to Promote Environmental Awareness in Your Workplace
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The effort to go green is a great first step to take after gaining newfound environmental awareness, but when it comes to reducing global emissions and implementing sustainability – it is clearly most effective when done on a larger scale.
This means it’s not only a good idea to curate a more sustainable work environment for yourself, but for your employees as well to help keep the momentum in the fight against climate change at full speed.
Environmental awareness can be promoted in a number of ways, but we’ve rounded up our top ten tips to help your company get started.
In this article, we’ll talk about environmental awareness, why it’s important, and 10 ways to promote environmental awareness at your workplace.
What is environmental awareness?
Environmental awareness refers to understanding and remaining aware of the impact humans have created on the environment due to their everyday activities such as travel, food choices, and overall consumerism.
“ The IPCC has revealed that the main cause behind our excessive carbon and greenhouse gas emissions is primarily due to increased human activity, and therefore – environmental awareness is a way for us to cope with the repercussions of our previous poor choices. ”
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Environmental awareness is important because it is a way to not only safeguard the future of our planet, but our own and any other life that dwells on Earth. This is because environmental awareness can help people to grow more cognizant of the deleterious effects pollution and other unsustainable habits can create, and subsequently urge them to change those habits.
Several companies today may choose to incorporate environmental awareness in their workplace to boost their long-term sustainability and also reap benefits, such as:
- Reduce scope 3 emissions from employee commuting
- Slash utility bills with greater energy efficiency
- Avoid waste with recycling or composting bins in the office
👉 Since there are so many environmental issues, it is probable for environmental awareness as a whole to seem overwhelming for individuals and companies alike –but just remember that the more education you receive on environmental awareness, the greater ability you have to implement various effective actions.
What factors have led to environmental awareness?
In our rapidly moving world, technology has helped to play a role in raising environmental awareness – as news outlets and social media posts alike have brought attention to the negative effects of climate change.
“ Overall, the combination of increased human activity and social media have helped to bring environmental awareness to the surface. ”
There are several factors that have led to increased environmental awareness, including:
- Wildlife which has grown subject to extinction
- Climate change
- Urbanization
- Repetitive wildfires
- Heatwaves
- Air pollution and poor and air quality
- The lack of available drinking water
- Deforestation
- Norm of new environmental regulations
- Social media posts from younger generations spreading environmental awareness
💡 It is evident that social media has its downsides, but when it comes to the planet – social media has shown to help encourage users to take action and increase their overall environmental awareness. This has proven to be true, especially amongst young adults, and as a result – consumers have become more eco-conscious of their purchases.
Why is environmental awareness important in your workplace?
Environmental awareness is important in your workplace because odds are, you spend just as many hours at the office as you do at home – making it an impactful place to instill positive ecological action.
“ When many of us think about putting our environmental awareness into action, we think of doing things in our personal lives – such as buying an electric car, using a reusable water bottle, or going vegan for a little while. However, many people tend to skip over the environmental impact they may create while at work – which can create a substantial and beneficial impact as well. ”
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Environmental awareness is important as a whole because it can help to improve various circumstances such as:
- Air quality
- Water quality
- Agricultural practices & produce
However, another important aspect of implementing environmental awareness at the workplace is because it can help to boost the quality of life amongst employees and also boost their overall productivity while at the office.
Therefore, seeking to improve environmental awareness at your workplace can not only help to improve the quality of life amongst your employees, but the quality of their work – and the overall success of your company.
👉 All businesses can benefit from implementing environmental awareness in the workplace. However, it is important to note that the manner in which environmental awareness will be approached in a business will vary depending on your company size, sector, and individual environmental goals.
What are 10 ways to promote environmental awareness?
Starting the journey to boost environmental awareness at your workplace may seem daunting, but don’t worry – we’ve got 10 approachable ways for your business to start raising environmental awareness today.
Here are 10 easy ways to promote environmental awareness:
1. Recycling Bins & Reduce Paper Usage
One of the quickest ways to demonstrate environmental awareness is to put recycling bins in the office and also to encourage employees to go paper-free – which could mean restricting the use of your current office printer in order to promote paperless practices.
2. Offer Your Employees a Discount on Public Transportation
In a post-covid world, many employees are returning to the office – which means transportation emissions are likely to increase again.
However, an easy way to combat this is to provide employees with a stipend to use public transportation – such as how in France, employed workers are often offered for half of their monthly metro expenses to be paid for by their company.
3. Allow Remote Work
Although remote work may not always be more sustainable depending on the individual employee and their working habits – allowing certain employees to work remotely can still help to reduce emissions, especially for employees with longer commune times.
This ultimately still helps to demonstrate an effort to promote environmental awareness, as it will illustrate your company cares about the excess emissions potentially created on behalf of employee travel.
4. Provide Training Sessions on Environmental Issues
If your company is taking the step to become an advocate for greater environmental awareness, it’s important that your employees understand all of the changes that are going to be made at the office.
Therefore, your company should aim to provide all employees training on the environmental issues that your business plans to tackle in the foreseeable future – as this can help staff to better understand why the practices are being implemented and how they can benefit the cause.
“ Employees which understand environmental awareness in the workplace can help to improve employee engagement and your company’s overall productivity. ”
5. Make the Office Energy Efficient
Switching out old refrigerators, microwaves, computers, central heating or air conditioning, and even seeking to use a newer data storage center can all help to make your workplace more energy efficient – which can help to demonstrate an effort to promote environmental awareness.
6. Set Up a Compost Bin
Almost all companies make an effort to set up a recycling program, but what about an effort to compost?
Many employees will still opt to bring a lunch from home, and if they are already trying to incorporate environmental awareness into their own personal lives – it’s probable to presume many of the meals they bring will be vegetarian and vegan, meaning that there will be leftover fruits and vegetables that can be composted.
💡 Setting up a compost bin at the office can help to not only reduce the amount of waste generated on behalf of your employees, but inspire your colleagues to start their own compost bin at home!
7. Give the Office a Sustainable Makeover
Revamping your office to be more sustainable can serve as a daily, visual reminder to your employees on the importance of environmental awareness.
There are multiple ways to give your office an eco-friendly makeover – such as by utilizing green infrastructure, switching out your current office lighting for energy efficient light bulbs, and even by making use of upcycling for pencil holders, file cabinets, or other parts of your office space.
8. Aim for Environmental Certifications
Companies that make an effort to receive environmental certifications such as ISO certifications, becoming B corp certified, and more can help demonstrate an effort to promote the importance of environmental awareness.
“ Think of someone who has already won a bronze medal for a sports competition, but continues to strive for the silver and gold medals – this shows the person’s effort to continue improving, just as striving for higher environmental certifications can help to further promote environmental awareness. ”
In addition to this, striving to comply with the goals depicted by well known organizations such as the UNGC’s sustainable development goals or the CDP can help your company to be more credible and inspire employees to learn more about environmental awareness, too.
9. Reconsider Your Suppliers
Raising environmental awareness means demonstrating that your company is serious about decarbonizing and becoming more sustainable in every area it possibly can – which includes your suppliers.
Seeking to cultivate a more sustainable supply chain, and determining if your current suppliers are also committed to promoting environmental awareness – is a great way to continue promoting environmental awareness within your own workplace.
A few ways to determine if your current suppliers are in line with your new efforts to promote environmental awareness include:
- If your suppliers are currently committed to ethical sourcing
- If your suppliers seek to decarbonize their transportation system
- If your suppliers try to use sustainable packaging
10. Create Environmental Awareness Related Work Activities & Challenges
There’s no better way to incentivize your employees to put their newfound environmental awareness into action than to host fun activities or even challenges in the office!
For instance, challenging your employees to go vegan for a month or to ride a bike everyday for a week to work in exchange for a small gift card or prize can help to raise further environmental awareness while keeping the spirit of the office lighthearted.
Overall, there are several different ways to promote environmental awareness in the office – but the best methods to engage your employees in environmental awareness will be contingent on your company’s current culture and individual climate goals.
If you’re still not sure where to start with raising environmental awareness in your company, Greenly can help!
What about Greenly?
If reading this article on 10 ways to promote environmental awareness has made you interested in reducing your carbon emissions to further fight against climate change – Greenly can help you!
At Greenly we can help you to assess your company’s carbon footprint, and then give you the tools you need to cut down on emissions. We offer a free demo for you to better understand our platform and all that it has to offer – including assistance with boosting supplier engagement, personalized assistance, and new ways to involve your employees.
Click here to learn more about Greenly and how we can help you reduce your carbon footprint.
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