Turning ‘Earth Day’ into Earth ‘Every Day’
HR Magazine
April 21, 2008
By Kathy Gurchiek
Current and potential employees want organizations to be more environmentally friendly, according to two separate survey findings released as Earth Day 2008—April 22—approaches.
Fifty-nine percent of U.S. workers think their companies should do more to lessen their carbon footprints, but only about one-third (31 percent) are willing to sacrifice a portion of their salaries to work for an environmentally friendly company, according to an Adecco USA Workplace Insights online survey conducted in March and April 2008.
In addition, two-thirds of U.S. workers think most organizations are not as environmentally friendly as they claim.
The findings are based on responses from 2,281 adults who have ever looked for a job or intend to do so; of that number, 1,422 are employed full- or part-time. The survey also found:
• 69 percent of Generation Y workers and 63 percent of working women want their organization to be more environmentally friendly.
• 52 percent of baby boomers and 54 percent of men want their organization to be more environmentally friendly.
• Generation Y workers are willing to give up an average of 6.2 percent of their salary for the environment, more than double the amount of any other generation.
A green workplace is not a major factor, though, for potential job candidates, according to findings from more than 5,500 visitors responding to an online poll conducted by Beyond.com in March and April 2008.
Forty-four percent of U.S. workers think a green workplace is nice to have but would not be a deciding factor for employment, and it is not something 21 percent actively seek in an employer.
It is a priority, though, for more than one-third (35 percent) of Beyond.com respondents. Sixteen percent require it in their next job, and 19 percent say it would be a deciding factor if they had to choose between two similar jobs.
Taking Corporate Responsibility
Increasing numbers of companies are creating green programs and advertising their initiatives on their corporate web sites and in job descriptions to attract candidates who do place importance on an employer’s “greenness,” Beyond.com Inc. CEO Rich Milgram said in a press release.
The Society for Human Resource Management also found that more organizations are volunteering to operate in a more environmentally responsible way, HR News reported in January 2008.
And a posting on Harvard Business Review’s web site suggests that having a kind of Hippocratic oath for managers that would “encourage business leaders to be aware of the broader implications of their actions, including those related to the environment.”
Beyond.com suggests the following actions for creating an environmentally friendly workplace:
• Create an internal green team to help develop and promote initiatives throughout the organization.
• Place recycle bins in high-traffic areas, such as copy and lunch rooms, to promote recycling of paper, plastics, bottles and cans.
• Optimize energy settings on all company computers, and encourage employees to turn off computers and office lights when they leave work.
• Encourage alternative methods of transportation, such as public transit and riding bikes, organizing carpools and investing in technology that enables telecommuting.
• Track initiatives and join an association or online community that generates ideas and ways to measure green efforts. Promote your initiatives on your web site.
One such online community is Carbonrally.com, a self-described web-based activism platform founded in 2007 that is a source for environmentally friendly actions individuals can take.
Carbonrally.com tracks challenges that teams and individuals issue and the impact of completed challenges, and it maps where those actions occur around the country.
“The office is an ideal place to team up and make a larger contribution to green issues,” Carbonrally.com founder Jason Karas said in a press release, noting that there are 40 corporate teams participating on its web site.
“The key is finding a few dedicated leaders that can pull people together and focus on creating powerful initiatives,” Karas said.
While the bulk of the challenges on the site are geared to small, individual initiatives such as eschewing plastic bags and taking shorter showers, some co-workers form teams and engage in friendly challenges with other groups around the country as they keep track of each group’s tally of reduced carbon monoxide emissions.
For example, 32 members of Castro Travel Inc. in the California bay area took on challenges such as driving one less day for one week. As a group performing a number of different challenges, it reduced carbon monoxide emissions by 712 tons, according to Carbonrally.com.
Another team, composed of 22 people who are part of a Massachusetts-based company that publishes curriculum-enhancing software for classrooms, reduced carbon monoxide emissions by 1,712 tons.
The company’s staff did this by completing challenges such as unplugging their computers every night for one month and replacing light bulbs in their homes with compact fluorescent light bulbs.
The site includes suggestions to reduce energy consumption such as bringing your own cup to work rather than using disposable cups and using Blackie.com as a screen saver, because its predominantly black background supposedly saves energy.
Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News. She can be reached at kgurchiek@shrm.org
