BLR Green Team

When Promoting Sustainability, Word Choice Is Key

By Amanda Czepiel

At last week's New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission's (NEIWPCC) Annual Nonpoint Source Pollution Conference  in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the keynote speaker—Eric Eckl of Water Words That Work—hit the nail on the head: People who work in the environmental fields and in sustainability are often so entrenched in the work they do and, as a result, the technical language that is associated with such work, they (we!) forget how to relate to the very people we are trying to educate and sway into caring about sustainability.

Water Words That Work LLC is an organization that helps nature protection and pollution control organizations professionalize and modernize their communications so that they are effective. As Eckl emphasized, public opinion polls show that most citizens state that the environment is important to them but that poor environmental communications often create a "gap" between awareness and action. To bridge this gap, Eckl shared four steps to help connect with your audience:

Begin with behavior. Offer your audience a way to take an action that makes a difference.

Find foolproof photos. Show the faces and places affected by your message.

Swap the shoptalk. Use plain language. It may not be as precise as you may want it to be, but it will most likely be a lot more effective.

Insert the words that work. Use words that are important to your audience! Clean, future, safe, family, save money, and responsibility are just a few words and phrases to which people respond.

Using simple and easy-to-understand terminology isn't "dumbing down" concepts for the public or your employees, but rather, it's a way, as Water Words That Works states, to "turn those blank stares into nodding heads—to turn passive "environmental awareness" into environmental action."

Do you have any experience with effective, simple communication used in your company's sustainability programs? Have you had any difficulties with overly "technical" communications?

Jobseekers ‘Go for Green’

In celebration of Earth Day, TheLadders has released a new survey revealing that jobseekers “go for the green” when making a decision about their future employer.

In fact, when offered two equal job opportunities, 72% of candidates would choose the more eco-conscious company versus 10% who said that they would not. Less than a fifth (18%) said it would not influence their decision.

TheLadders, a job-matching service for career-driven professionals, surveyed more than 100 professionals in these industries: construction, education, engineering, finance, human resources, law, marketing, medical/science, operations, real estate, sales, and technology.

“Since launching almost a decade ago, we have seen a growing desire for jobseekers to work in an environment that reflects their personal values,” said Alex Douzet, chief operating officer and co-founder of TheLadders.

"It is clear from our survey that professionals are attracted to employers who share their priorities, enabling us to offer this exclusive data to our almost 20,000 recruiters nationwide. Our research provides a critical wake-up call to employers who do not consider eco-conscious efforts to be best practice."

TheLadders Earth Day survey also revealed these other key results:

It's not easy being green for employers. Less than half (48%) of respondents consider their most recent company to be green, 35% said they work for a company that is not green, and 17% are not sure.

Employees give green workplaces the green light. Working for a green company is important to 87% of respondents in varying degrees: extremely important (28%), very important (30%), moderately important (22%), and slightly important (7%). Only 13% find it not important.

Workers are willing to go green for a change. Most employees (75%) are willing to change their daily routine if their recent company provided them with small incentives to be green. Only a quarter (25%) was resistant.

What are your thoughts about green workplaces? Do you prefer greener employers? Tell us!

 

Study Identifies What Makes Green Teams Successful

By Amanda Czepiel

Green teams are no longer the exception in corporate America; they have become the norm. The BLR Green Team is in our second year, and we are continuously striving do better. A recent report produced by Sabre Holdings, "Generating Sustainable Value: Moving Beyond Green Teams to Transformation Collaboratives," outlines what are the top four attributes of successful green teams:

1. Executive support
2. Centralized leadership
3. High diversity
4. Systems for creating, measuring, and tracking initiatives

How does the BLR Green Team stack up? We are constantly alerting our executive team to our successes and activities. We've been going through some management changes in the past year, so this has been a challenge but one that we refuse to give up on. Our executives do appreciate our work and know of its value. Our job is to keep up the momentum and prove success to our upper management.

In addition, by creating the green team, we established a centralized leadership where employees know they can direct questions, concerns, and information. We've received a lot of helpful comments and feedback, both positive and negative. And with our diverse group of members (our team draws from all areas of the company), we have been able to offer expertise and quick action.

But it's #4 that is a real challenge, and one with which I imagine most teams struggle: establishing a system for creating, measuring, and tracking initiatives. How do we know our educational campaigns are really working? Well, our employees tell us that they have learned a lot, and we have seen a reduction in paper use companywide. But we are still working on ways to track our initiatives. Do you have any advice?

Employees Want Green Practices in the Workplace

By Amanda Czepiel 

Working Americans want to improve “green” practices, according to a national OfficeMax survey. The OfficeMax 2011 Green Workplace survey was conducted among 565 employees, and the results were eye-opening:

• 64 percent think their current employer could do a better job of being environmentally responsible.
• Only 39 percent of employers promote recycling bins around the office.
• Only 13 percent of employers have assigned someone to oversee green practices.
• Only 8 percent of companies offer incentives or rewards to employees for participating in green programs.

However, even though employees voiced their desire for more employer support for green practices, they also pointed to their own responsibility for exercising responsible habits at work. The majority stated that they personally recycle at work, and 40 percent of employees said they are motivated to set an example for co-workers. But, interestingly, 73 percent of workers said their colleagues could step up their efforts to reduce their company’s environmental footprint.

So what’s a company to do to harness their employees’ desire to improve environmental practices in the workplace to achieve results? According to the survey, increase incentives. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they would be motivated to go green at work if they receive money, extra vacation time, a free lunch or party, or a special “green” gift. Even without incentives, 68 percent believe that everyone is responsible for practicing environmentally conscientious behaviors in the workplace.

And that’s why the Green Team at BLR was created: to connect our employees to a goal of “greening” our company and to establish ways for it to be easily (and enjoyably in most instances!) done. We sponsor green events, hold contests and raffles, and consistently think of new ways to incentivize the BLR staff.

Has your green team improved employee morale?

Key Components of an Employee Carpooling Program

By Ana Ellington
  

We are learning that in today's business climate, corporate responsibility is becoming critical. One of these measures is the level of environmental consciousness your business possesses.  Whether it is recycling paper or volunteering in “going green” efforts, every bit helps--the BLR Green Team has been working hard on raising awareness in our everyday business.

Another avenue to help the environment is to offer your employees a carpooling program.  

For employees, it's a smart way to save on expenses, and it's their ticket to the HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes.

For employers, a carpooling program is easy to implement and available to virtually all employees.

However, there are important factors that need to be taken into consideration when implementing such a program for your business.

1. Determine the potential for carpooling.

You need to determine whether carpooling will fit employee location and schedules. Conduct a survey to determine employees' transportation patterns and interest in carpooling.

For employees driving alone, the survey should ask what incentives would encourage them to carpool.

2. Determine possible carpooling incentives.

If the survey shows sufficient interest and potential among employees, you should next determine what incentives should be used to encourage carpooling.

Incentives can include reduced cost or free parking, preferred parking, and prizes or discounts. Incentives should be based on particular circumstances at your location; for example, an employer located in a downtown location with expensive parking might give reduced cost or free parking as an incentive, while a suburban employer might rely on prize drawings to motivate carpoolers.

3. Investigate rideshare options.

Many regions have rideshare organizations that help potential car- and vanpoolers locate rideshare partners. These services are usually either nonprofit agencies or publicly funded, and matching services are generally free to riders.

Using a rideshare organization relieves you, the employer, of having to match potential carpoolers--not an easy task. Because of the complexity of matching potential carpoolers and maintaining a database of persons interested in carpooling, there is a list of specialized software programs available at the University of South Florida's Ridematching Systems website.

4. Determine registration and eligibility requirements.

Employees generally have to register with the employer to qualify for carpool incentives. The Human Resources department or a designated employee transportation coordinator should determine procedures
and what information an employee must submit. To prevent fraud, you should ask employees to reregister annually.

If there are designated spaces for carpoolers--and there should be--an employer should probably issue some type of identification for those vehicles. Employers generally use hangtags (tags that hang from the rearview mirror) for this purpose, as decals cannot be moved easily from vehicle to vehicle.

5. Announce and implement the carpooling plan.

Once incentives have been determined, you should take the necessary steps to implement
the carpooling program. Depending on the nature of the program, steps may include the following:

● Designating and marking carpool spaces in parking areas;
● Introducing or changing parking fees;
● Implementing a system for carpoolers to register;
● Obtaining and distributing hangtags or other vehicle identification; and
● Writing a carpool policy that covers eligibility, incentives, and penalties for noncompliance.

Once guidelines and policies are in place, the employer should make a formal announcement
and encourage employees to register as carpoolers. You should use whatever means of
internal publicity you normally use to communicate changes in benefits policies to your employees.

These may include the following:

● Company orientation for new employees;
● Advertisements in places seen frequently by employees (cafeteria, garage, elevators, etc);
● Distribution of program brochures;
● Company newsletters;
● Voicemail or e-mail broadcast;
● Special promotional days (example: a "Pool Day" to encourage car-/vanpooling);
● Awards or prize drawings to recognize employees using transit or carpools;
● Inserts to paychecks;
● Company website or intranet; and
● "Kick-off" event (which could include representatives from a rideshare organization).

6. Monitor and maintain the carpool incentive program.

Once implemented, carpool incentive programs should be monitored and changed as circumstances
require.

We recommend ongoing monitoring to include:
● Annual reregistration of carpoolers to prevent fraud and checking carpoolers' names
against employment records to ensure that all registered employees are still working at the worksite claimed
● Enforcement of preferred parking and ensuring that there is sufficient preferred parking for all registered carpoolers
● Frequent updating of the rideshare list, if maintained by the employer
● Continued marketing of the incentive program

Like all sustainability programs, carpooling is not a "one-time purchase" but requires continued promotion for maximum participation. 

Do you have a carpooling program available? Let us know...

A 'Browning' Trend that Needs to Stop

By Amanda Czepiel

Greenbiz reports this week that, according to its latest Green Confidence Index, the general U.S. population has lost some faith in company environmental commitment. The findings conclude that Americans’ confidence that “the company you work for” is doing enough to address environmental challenges dropped more than 2 percent in 1 month. What makes the finding more alarming is that confidence in other institutions either rose a bit or stayed the same.

So it’s looking like employees are starting to doubt that their employers are committed to meeting the environmental challenges in their operations. Now, more than ever, I am really happy that BLR’s upper management has supported the Green Team’s efforts. If BLR employees were to take part in the Green Confidence Index, I am sure that most would say that, if anything, BLR is stepping up its environmental efforts consistently and is getting results. As an employee, it’s good to know that I work for a company that has made that commitment and that fellow employees, through the Green Team, are leading the charge. Having a green team within a company is definitely becoming a must!

Green Fair Survey Results Are In!

By Amanda Czepiel

If you’ve been following our progress, you know that we just held our first-ever Green Fair here at BLR. Although we had good attendance and a positive response overall, we wanted to get more employee feedback so we can improve on next year’s fair. We sent out a companywide survey via e-mail (no paper waste!) soon after the fair, and the results are in.

The good news. Of the 15 percent of employees who responded that did not attend the fair, not one answered that they didn’t have any interest in the exhibitor’s information or did not know of the event. (Possible answers to the question “If you did not attend, please indicate why” included “I did not have any interest in the exhibitors’ information,” “I did not have the time to attend during my workday,” “I was out of the office,” and “I did not know about the event.”) So, we did a good job publicizing the fair and getting people interested in attending.

When respondents explained what they liked about the fair, most said that they learned something, including how to lower their electricity bill, how to conserve energy, and where to get a home audit. Our main goal was achieved!

The bad news. Respondents thought we could have had a greater variety of exhibits. We really did try to get a few more vendors, but many were unavailable on fair day. Our fix? Next year we are starting our planning earlier and asking potential exhibitors at least 4 months before the fair date to sign up.

Overall, no real surprises. About 15 percent of employees who responded rated the fair as “Excellent,” 60 percent as “Very Good,” 17 percent as “Good,” and 9 percent as “Fair.” Of course, we would have loved to see all Excellents, but in reality, we know that with this being our first effort, we would have room to improve. Respondents told us what they would like to see more of (natural foods, recycling and recycled products, and water testing and filtration) – so we have a great road map for next year’s planning!