7 Employee Carbon Reduction Strategies
Just as there are many ways to skin a cat (apparently, we wouldn’t actually know), there are many different strategies when it comes to reducing carbon emissions. We have already covered customer carbon reduction strategies. In this article, we’re looking at the best employee strategies for reducing the carbon emissions of your business.
1. Cut down commuting emissions
No one likes commuting, so work with your colleagues on how they can spend less time and less money on their commute over the year. Typically the cheaper options will have a smaller footprint, from carpooling to commuting less. Alternatively, you could help them out by offering financial incentives to take public transport. Some companies are paying their employees a mileage allowance for every mile travelled on foot or by bike. Another option in the UK is the government cycle to work scheme.
Support employees by offering the UK’s ‘cycle to work’ scheme. Photo credit: Leonardo Zorzi
If your company decides to move offices, this is your opportunity to locate somewhere that is walkable and/or close to public transport. Another top tip is to reduce the number of available car parking spaces, make (electric) carpool cars available and facilitate lift sharing amongst members of your team who commute along the same route.
2. Reduce your ‘work from home’ footprint
Your company’s carbon footprint from home working generally comes from the heating and/or cooling and electricity consumed by your employees in their homes during work time. What you can do is educate employees about energy efficiency, help them switch to a renewable electricity provider and help them find ways to move from gas / oil heating to electric. Check out our article about working from home emissions and how to reduce and calculate them.
3. Offer Carbon Literacy training
Educating your team about carbon emissions is one of the most effective ways for your company to lower its carbon footprint in the long term. Teaching teams the effect of greenhouse gas emissions, where personal and company ‘hot spots’ lie and strategies for reduction equips and empowers them with the knowledge and skills needed to help you reach your Net Zero goal. We need every role in the business to be a climate role.
4. Introduce business travel carbon budgets
Much like a financial budget, you can set your employees or teams a business travel carbon budget. Each person has a maximum amount of carbon emissions they are ‘allowed’ to generate from business travel and must not exceed these. Tie this in with education about the lowest emitting forms of transport and watch their carbon footprint shrink as they turn to train travel, bus, car sharing and even cycling to get to client meetings. Find out how to set a business travel carbon budget in this article.
Introducing carbon budgets are a way to reduce employee business travel emissions. Photo credit: Ashraf Ali
5. Employ a sustainability manager / director
A sustainability manager or director is there to take control of the company’s sustainability strategy. They will ensure the development, implementation, promotion and tracking of environmental strategies and ensure they stay high on the company’s list of priorities. They are there to coordinate across departments and bring their specialist knowledge to the table. They will generally manage a budget and can be instrumental in identifying and eliminating waste and encouraging good energy saving practices which can also save the company money.
6. Create a ‘green team’
A green team is a cross-discipline group of people within a company whose members have a personal interest in the climate and sustainability. Creating a green team is a great way to generate ideas that can be implemented into your workplace. The green team brings energy and enthusiasm for green initiatives and can help campaign for new policies (like a meat-free Monday at the staff canteen) and embed new behaviours more broadly. Essentially, green teams are your climate cheerleaders, turning intent into action.
7. Encourage a little competitiveness
Most people have a competitive streak. That itch to want to do better than a colleague has been shown to lead to great sustainability outcomes. So why not introduce a bit of gamesmanship into achieving your organisation’s Net Zero or carbon reduction goals?
Here are some ideas:
Get your team to complete Global Footprint Network’s carbon footprint calculator to compare how many planets would be needed to support their lifestyle. It only takes a couple of minutes and gives a pretty good estimate.
Another similar tool is Giki Zero. This takes a few minutes longer but you could task your employees to reduce their carbon footprint and track their success using this platform.
Do Nation is an online platform on which work teams and individuals can make climate related pledges, hold themselves accountable and track their impact.
Hold a carbon jargon quiz to identify and plug gaps in your team’s knowledge. We have a handy glossary you can base it on.
You could even go beyond the platforms and pit people against each other in an impact league table in your office with your company goals and metrics. Get in touch for a template.
Conclusion
As you can see there are plenty of opportunities to reduce your organisation’s carbon footprint by employing some or all of these employee-based initiatives. Have you already tried one or more of these? What is working for you? We’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line by hitting the button below.
