How to engage your workplace in climate action

14 Apr

Written By HUBBUB

So you care about the climate, you're taking your own steps to help the environment and now you want to influence your workplace more to make a tangible difference too.

Well, you're in the right place.

Companies are under increasing pressure to set and meet emissions targets and, whilst your company may have nailed its sustainability strategy, it can be difficult to demonstrate what these sometimes lofty, distant goals mean in the eyes of team members. Combining environmental action with employee engagement has never felt so needed in the workplace. Here are eight ways to bring the team together to make a positive impact on the climate and showcase your company's wider commitment to tackling environmental issues.

1) Build a green team

A green team is made up of employees who volunteer their time to focus on environmental issues and help the company sharpen their sustainability strategy. They can act as change-agents within the organisation and influence positive change both internally and externally – it could be anything from removing single use cups in the office to running company-wide environmental challenges. The first step could be getting colleagues to sign up to join the green team before setting up your first meeting to raise issues and problem-solve together. Next, you'll need to plan your first event! We recommend a screening of the super informative and inspiring 40-minute long documentary Our Planet: Too Big to Fail which explores the risks of inactions and the role the finance sector can play powering a sustainable future - including the power of pensions.

2) Find out what your teammates are thinking and how they are feeling.

Carry out some research to gauge employee engagement, satisfaction and interest to find out things like which environmental areas are most relevant to your colleagues and how engaged they are with the company’s current sustainability strategy. This could be a great first task for the Green Team to lead on! At Hubbub we have carried out many research projects, including at the workplace. On one particular occasion, we found out that there is a strong mandate from employees for their company to help them work and live more sustainably. Give us a shout if you’d like hand.

3) Encourage your employees to green their home offices

With many people now working from home, help your team to think of ways to green their home offices like dialling down on energy bills and reducing the amount of waste they produce to help your company meet emissions targets.

4) Undertake a plant-based eating challenge

On current trends, meat and dairy consumption is predicted to double by 2050, and with it being one of the most greenhouse gas intensive industries, the rate at which we're eating meat isn't sustainable. Dialling down meat consumption is one of the biggest ways the team can help the environment. And can you imagine if hundreds (thousands?) of your team mates bound together to give it a crack? Challenge them to swap animal protein for plants through an organisation-wide challenge.

5) Gift old tech as an easy way to cut carbon

“What to you might be a piece of old junk could make a massive difference to somebody else.” Have you got old tech lying around the office or the homes of your colleagues? Gifting it to those in need is a fantastic way to cut electronic waste, reduce carbon emissions and help digitally isolated people get connected. Check out Hubbub’s pioneering smartphone donation initiative in partnership with O2, Community Calling. So far, it’s already transformed the lives of 5,000 people, across 7 cities and we’re looking for businesses to help us double the number of phones reused and people connected.

You can get the company your work for to support Community Calling in three simple ways:

Gift redundant business smartphones 
Provide a financial donation 
Become a Community Calling partner

6) Become a B Corp

Is it time to join some of the world’s best-loved, and most impactful ‘do good’ businesses? Would you like your company to meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose? A company with B Corp certification helps consumers to distinguish between businesses that are doing good and businesses that have good marketing. Patagonia, for example, has pledged 1% of its sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment since 1985 and its criteria for the best products rest on repairability and durability. Read on about B Corp and what it means to use profits and growth as a means to a greater end: positive impact for employees, communities, and the environment.