Making your employees greener might feel like it is something that is a long way off. After all, there are so many other pressures that startups face.
However, as this post makes clear, it is probably easier to do than you think. Here are some of the strategies you can use to reduce their CO2 emissions and overall impact on the environment.
Make Commuting Greener
One of the things you can do as their boss is to make their commuting greener. If you can find ways to incentivize the use of bicycles, carpools, and public transit, you can make an enormous difference at the enterprise level.
How you go about this depends on your strategy and approach. However, we’d argue that the best way to do it is to simply make these options less expensive. Little nudges like these can foster changes in habits that last a long time.
Make EV Ownership Convenient
If staff don’t want to give up their cars, you can also look into making EV ownership more convenient for them. Again, small changes like these can have a tremendous effect on their wellbeing and desire to drive an electric vehicle.
For example, you could invest in a commercial EV charging solution for your business premises. These are convenient for anyone in your organization thinking of owning a vehicle of their own.
Promote Remote Work Options
Promoting remote work options is also beneficial for the environment and can help employees work in a greener fashion. Work-from-home policies actually cut the amount of carbon emissions your company produces significantly since people don’t need to commute to work any longer.
Only a couple of days per week in the office can also work. These are opportunities for people to meet their colleagues. The rest of the time, they can get on with their jobs by themselves.
Use Digital Documentation
You can also reduce employees’ impact on the environment with digital documentation. Going paperless cuts down on the number of forests being destroyed and allows you to switch to non-physical media, reducing storage requirements.
Many businesses find it hard to go digital for cultural reasons. However, implementing these strategies is easy and something that you can do quickly if you put your best minds to it.
Support Local Vendors
Another tactic is to instruct employees to use local vendors. Again, relying on the local economy is often better than going to companies overseas. Of course, you won’t always be able to do this, since the suppliers you need might not be operating in your area. But if you can create a bias in this direction, it can have a profound impact on the amount of environmental harm your business generates.
Celebrate Being Green
Finally, you can incentivize your employees to be more sustainable by celebrating being green. Taking the time to recognize your efforts reinforces them and helps them become a part of the company culture. Even if you only use positive reinforcement, that’s often enough to generate real changes.