Business around the globe operate for profit. If they didn’t they’d be NGOs.
At a time when cities across the world are facing drastic rise in temperatures due to a plethora of reasons, the only solution left is to hanker down together and address the upcoming challenges together with appropriate solutions.
A small step like planting a tree (and ensuring it grows for years!), should now be made mandatory just like filing taxes is! But not enough people pursue sustainability as part of their everyday living, probably because it isn’t given as much importance from the top.
If actions connected to sustainability practices are rewarded, it will boost participation. We are a race of over 8 billion. Imagine how things can change for the better if everyone steps in.
Here’s why (and how!) businesses can encourage more participation seeing how they have the capability to drive sustainability at a larger level.
Rewarding Employees Who Practice Sustainability
A top to bottom approach can essentially enable sustainability, if it’s rewarded at the right place and time. When onboarding new employees or grooming existing personnel, businesses can actually drive home this point in various ways;
a) by providing a certain monetization based reward toward any regular sustainable practice an employee pursues
b) by encouraging employees to reduce-reuse-recycle even at the workplace and including these habits in employee of the month shout outs
Encouraging Employees To Volunteer or Adopt One Sustainable Practice For the Long-term
Sustainability is a broad term and it’s true meaning is not understood by many. Organizations who boast of more than 100 people have so much power to drive sustainability goals at a deeper and larger level. Simple steps like:
a) having employees plant and nurture trees of various kinds around their neighbourhoods, office spot can work wonders
b) encouraging employees to compost with their everyday kitchen resources
c) saving water through various habits and cutting down on plastic use with bring your own water bottle where you go as a concept
Driving Sustainability With Office Equipment
It’s common place for mid to larger organizations to gift swag to their employees, usually when they are newly onboarded or during key festivities or company milestones.
Using these events to drive home the importance of sustainability is crucial at a time when our planet’s resources are showing the impact of years of constant damage caused on by various factors, many of them human made.
Simple steps like:
a) using recyclable materials to make and gift new employees onboarding gifts like tees, bags, water bottles and the sorts
b) building office spaces (cubicles, etc) with more sustainable products
Better Pay Structures For Those Who Practice Sustainability
A great way for business leaders, especially business founders to drive sustainability as part of their organizational structure can include paying employees who practice sustainability as a daily habit a higher percentage than others. Better still would be if Governments included this as part of payout norms for companies to follow.
HR and talent acquisition teams who are usually responsible for skimming through candidates for various vacancies can actually put this point in as part of their evaluation process. Typical HR screening for most roles today already involve an array of questions and a section dedicated to various questions around sustainability will not hurt but rather benefit the world at large.
Sustainable living, being more conscious about how we live with what we have, planting more trees and learning what it takes to reduce the damage done over the years is something everyone needs to be more attentive about today.
