Going Green to Increase Your Bottom Line

"Going green".  "Sustainability".  The use of these buzzwords may seem to be over-saturated.  But consider this, with diligent commitment to adopting green action plans, businesses large and small can actually reduce costs and increase net profit.

It All Starts with Management

Depending on staff to individually adopt overall green activities is a risky exercise. Getting employees on the “green page” on their own might work. However, unless your people are already personally committed to a green lifestyle, it is unreasonable to assume that they will diligently pursue sustainability actions at the workplace.

The commitment to go green should always come from management. The first edict should originate with executive management. However, unless you’re responsible for a small business, all managers should jump on board to support environmentally-friendly activities at the workplace for their departments or teams.

The importance of management commitment cannot be over-emphasised. Dedicating the time to analyse energy consumption, paper waste, and all other anti-green activities is the first step. Making a detailed inventory of workplace operations, identifying energy use, wasteful activities, and practices that may damage, not sustain our environment should display potential savings that you could achieve.

After this evaluation, management can create a green strategy to reduce expenses while conducting environmentally-friendly operations. Formally adopting a green strategy, communicating it clearly, and implementing these action plans in a positive, non-threatening fashion, should encourage all employees to support the program.

Keep It Simple and Easy

Create a strategy that is simple and easy to implement. Experienced managers already understand that many employees abhor change. They also are aware that staff resistance is typically a psychological, not an operations issue. Eliciting positive response to change is always more effective if the new procedures are simple to understand and implement.

Going green is a perfect goal to permit management to use the “KIS” (Keep It Simple) theory, which always works. Simplicity of change offers multiple advantages to management.

• Less resistance to change.While the initial and natural resistance may initially occur, the simplicity of the first going green steps will engender much less resistance than intimidating changes to operating policies and procedures.  
  
  
• Greater understanding of expectations. Simple, straightforward changes, like saving trees or recycling material, allow managers to explain the new procedures in easy-to-understand details. All staff, regardless of IQ, education, or experience will understand the essence of the green changes.
  
  
• Easy-to-adopt habits. Changing habits can be challenging to staff and management. Implementing green habits, however, are generally easy to accomplish. No tedious education, difficult to comprehend theories, or major changes of workplace behaviour is necessary.  
  
  
• No buzzwords needed to communicate. While many of us might love buzzwords, most employees - in the midst of troubling procedure changes - do not. A new green strategy requires no buzzwords. The KIS theory works so well with green activities, in part, because of the non-necessity of using or defining buzzwords. This may sound too simple, but when discussing workplace changes, this ability to use simple, well-recognised language is a welcome advantage for managers.

Management will quickly recognise the operational benefits of adopting green actions at the workplace. Unlike many other changes, there really is no costly learning curve or down period before positive results occur. You could start implementing your green strategy tomorrow, without losing operational efficiency or revenue streams.

Sharing the benefits and results of sustainability actions with employees will further motivate them to continue supporting these new initiatives. Some monetary benefits may, at first, be a bit obtuse and cloudy. Employees can recognise, particularly if managers remind them, the ease and simplicity of becoming a green company.

Additional positive results involve the “feelings” of your employees. When you communicate the reasons, purposes, and expectations of creating a green workplace, your staff often feels uplifted in their purpose, desire, and commitment to high performance.

Invest in Energy Efficient Equipment

When possible replace resource wasting systems with energy conserving equipment. From major expenditures, ie, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning) systems, to less costly items, ie, office equipment, these investments often save the company money every month, improving net profit results.

Before making final commitments to purchase, investigate buying incentives, sales, rebates, and income tax credits that are often available. One or more of these will improve your return on investment, further improving your bottom line.

Depending on the complexity of your organisation, your monthly energy savings could be considerable. This alone should augment your profitability on team, department, and company levels.

Restructuring your organisation as a green company also improves your image and branding. Environmentally conscious businesses often get better press coverage and enjoy new marketing opportunities. Use these multiple benefits to make your environmentally-friendly company more profitable.

Source:  www.nytimes.com/

July 2011