Top five tips for a sustainable business culture which sticks

Going green is good for the budget and the brand. But how can you make the green intentions stick? Follow our five top tips and if you answer our survey about how sustainable your organisation is you could win an iPad.

1. Embrace the cloud. Allow some of your employees to work from home when they need or want to. Get the paperwork and IT sorted. This is a multiple winner: allowing greater flexibility is popular with employees who can cut their commute time and costs, and it reduces your carbon footprint too. Take advantage of teleconferencing, video training and webinars. Enabling home and distance working also means you’ll cope with extreme weather better too.
    
2. Ditch the water cooler. Tap water is a cheaper option and is the same as filtered water. You could install a filter to the water supply, included with an eco-tap which can also save time and energy.
    
3. Stop making it difficult to recycle. You have a duty to recycle, so make it as easy as possible for your employees to recycle everything from paper to batteries in house. It says ‘we care’ to your employees (many of whom probably care a lot too but currently find it hard to recycle everything at work). Kit your kitchen out with real plates and utensils so they aren’t forced to buy plastic and card/plastic cartons everyday.
    
4. Evaluate your energy and do your research. Green isn’t always as green as you think. You need to make sure it’s worth the manufacturing carbon and investment in buying newer or better equipment in the mid to long term. Of course if it makes business sense to replace something do so, but research first for value and efficiency. Power efficiency is also money efficiency.
    
5.  Relax the dress code. Ok, so not for meetings or client-facing activities perhaps but if it’s especially cold or hot it makes sense to allow some flexibility. If you have a uniform, ensure it is practical for the temperatures employees operate in. Give the air-con and heating a break when it’s not needed.

Going green is a cultural change and the tips above require actual long term changes rather than 'green weeks' or events, although these may also prove useful to your organisation. Do you have any extra tips you'd add to this list or have already put in place in your organisation?
 

Take our sustainability survey: our reasearch arm, K2, wants to know how important sustainability is to your business and how it manifests itself in what you do. It's quick to complete and you could win an iPad. Click here to take part.