Human Resources – a critical piece in the green office puzzle
Many companies that Carbon Smart work with think of energy as a fixed overhead. However making savings on heating, cooling and lighting are some of the easiest ways of reducing business costs and ultimately improving competitiveness. According to recent analysis, reducing your company’s energy bill by 20% is equivalent to a 5% increase in sales.
Although this is the case, every year UK businesses waste over 20% of energy paid for. As a result the business and the public sector generate more than one third of the UK’s CO2 emissions.
It is well recognised that reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is something we should all be achieving and staff are the greatest opportunity achieve this goal. But how does a company leverage the opportunity and get people onboard?
No matter what the initiatives your company chooses to progress, the HR department has an important role in taking your staff along the journey of making your office more environmentally friendly and making their own organisation an employer of choice.
A recently published survey by the Carbon Trust indicated that over 75% of UK employees want to work for organisations with active policies on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately though, the same survey reveals that less than 20% of companies actually run a programme such as Carbon Smart.
To avoid alienating employees with “nanny” like instructions on how to reduce energy use in your office, it is important to involve and engage them. This will ensure that your employees take ownership in what is happening, making it much more successful.
In order to do this, a company needs a well structured programme that identifies the barriers and constraints against the desired changes in staff behaviour and attitudes.
“It is always pleasing to present the findings of our staff attitude survey back to senior management”, comments Jo Lacey, Carbon Smart Programme Manager. “It often provides a clear confirmation for management as to which paths will work and those initiatives that simply will not.”
The Carbon Smart programme is a clear, highly practical and innovative approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from your business. It will help you understand your contribution to climate change and know what the most cost effective ways to reduce it are.
Ben Murray, Carbon Smart’s Managing Director says “HR alone cannot save the planet and no-one expects HR staff to be able to quote reams of statistics or data to get the point across. There are some things that individual employees can do, such as mproving recycling habits – and other things that result from the way the office is managed overall. Reducing air miles, improving supply chain issues or switching to low carbon technologies may take a long time to implement, but the quick wins are always heating, lighting and air conditioning costs. Focus on these issues and how your staff can help!”