Employers around the world are increasingly embracing the “green team” concept. By following some proven best practices, your green team can maximize its sustainability impact.
Sustainability has become a major priority for employers around the world, and directly involving employees with your sustainability programs is a great way to drive engagement and get results. This is exactly what a green team can help you accomplish.
A green team is a group of employees who work together to promote sustainability causes within an organization. Green teams usually focus on making the employer’s operations more sustainable, and on helping their colleagues live more sustainably both inside and outside the workplace.
Why green teams matter
In 2021, IBM’s Institute for Business Value polled more than 14,000 adults from nine countries about their sustainability perspectives. A striking 71% said they want to work for employers with a proven commitment to environmental sustainability.
Business leaders also understand the issue’s importance. In 2022, Gartner research found that 87% of polled executives expected to increase their sustainability investments in the near-term. The following year, a Futurum Group survey found that 75% of businesses counted sustainability among their top five organizational priorities.
Here’s why:
- Sustainability commitments resonate with modern consumers, aligning business values with those of the people who buy their products and services.
- Workplaces with sustainability programs tend to do a better job of engaging employees, leading to recruitment and retention advantages.
- Sustainability can give businesses a competitive edge, especially when it comes to attracting top job talent.
In short: adding a green team can improve your workplace culture while helping businesses boost their appeal to sustainability-conscious consumers.
Best practices for green teams
Green teams function best when they’re goal-oriented. Common goals include:
- Reducing the employer’s carbon footprint
- Cutting back on the organization’s resource consumption
- Building stronger internal support for sustainable lifestyle choices, like smart commuting
To give your green team the best chance of reaching its goals, follow these tips:
Let volunteers lead the way
Sustainability programs tend to generate better results when they’re voluntary. Ask employees to volunteer for the green team, since those people will already be motivated to get results.
If your team’s too small, or if certain departments or divisions aren’t represented on the team, follow up with targeted recruitment efforts to help get the whole organization on board.
Establish a data-driven goal
It’s easier to keep teams motivated when they see themselves making consistent progress toward a goal. Data is a great tool for displaying that progress, which is why green teams often start by performing a sustainability audit to help identify specific objectives to work towards.
After setting a goal, use quantitative tools for tracking the green team’s results. Here are some of the metrics green teams often focus on:
- Carbon emissions saved
- Reductions in energy consumption
- Circular economy indicators, like waste generation and recycling rates
Build camaraderie
Teamwork helps green teams shine. To that end, make sure all team members are on the same page about decision-making processes and who is responsible for what. It’s also important to make sure everyone on the team feels like they’re contributing something of value.
Also, make participating fun. Schedule social events and special team-building activities to help keep things cohesive, productive, and enjoyable.
Engage colleagues with activities
Have the green team build interest and drive engagement by connecting with colleagues through activities and learning sessions. Here are some ideas:
- Invite sustainability-focused guest speakers to give a talk while employees enjoy a special lunch on the company’s dime
- Create sustainability education sessions that human resources can integrate when onboarding new employees
- Launch a sustainable commuting challenge program, organizing employees into teams and offering fun prizes and valuable perks to the winners
- Organize community-focused cleanup efforts for Earth Day or other important events on the annual sustainability calendar
Why commuting should be a core focus of your organization's sustainability efforts
Focusing on the daily commute is a winning strategy for green teams. Commuting is a major source of Scope 3 emissions, which Deloitte has found to account for more than 70% of the typical organization’s entire carbon footprint.
Shifting commuters away from solo driving and toward smarter alternatives is an effective and easy way to make your organization more sustainable. It’s also a win-win solution, as it can make life easier for your commuters while connecting them with transportation modes that can boost their health and wellness.
The Pave Commute platform offers a rich lineup of features that connect commuters with smarter modes of transportation while providing green teams with deep, data-driven insights into program performance. Employers that have adopted the award-winning app have generated great results:
- 97% of Pave Commute users say they’re making positive contributions to their employer’s sustainability efforts
- 71% of users receive recognition that motivates them to continue making more sustainable transportation choices
- 63% of users say they’ve seen positive changes in their workplace culture since adopting Pave Commute
Sign up your team & try it today
Try Pave Commute with your team free for 30 days. No credit card required.
