Survey results: Creating a green workplace

At Bright Green, we are passionate about creating behaviour change in organisations and supporting businesses to go green! The results of adopting green workplace practices are highly impactful and reach far beyond the important environmental aspects - which means that creating a green workplace makes good business sense too! However, it’s not always straightforward for businesses to go green. We looked at why…

Creating a green workplace makes good business sense! However, it’s not always straightforward for businesses to go green.

We looked at the challenges faced by business in embedding green initiatives.

Going green at work makes good business sense. Building sustainability into the foundations of your business can create significant benefits in areas such as employee attraction and hiring, retention and engagement, all the way through to consumer brand. More on the benefits here.

But making the change to become a green office isn’t always straightforward. To understand more about the types of challenges faced, werecently conducted a short survey.

We surveyed people working in corporate office environments to understand the support that businesses need in adopting green work practices, and any roadblocks they may face. Whilst we had a relatively limited sample size, we were able to gain some interesting insights. In particular, we were able to understand the areas that businesses are doing well, some areas for change, as well as understanding the challenges to adopting green work practices in an office environment.

Here are some highlights of what we heard.

What are businesses doing well in terms of sustainability?

Plastic reduction and recycling were listed as the two main focuses for organisations. Energy reduction and raising awareness amongst employees are also on the agenda. Whilst overall waste reduction was listed, it does not appear to be a high priority at this stage which certainly shows some room for improvement and the opportunity for change.

Where can businesses improve?

While Recycling was listed as one area some organisations are doing well, for others it was listed as a high priority area for change. Reviewing energy consumption and adopting a paperless office are also perceived as high priorities, both of which can make impactful change.

What are the challenges that businesses face in adopting more sustainable practices?

The most common response was "lack of motivation". The impression that it is “too difficult” to make these changes, as well as a perceived “lack of executive sponsorship” also featured highly. It appears that there is an opportunity to support leaders to understand the other benefits of having a greener workplace and, indeed, the risks of delaying these changes.

Download your free copy of the full report here .

If you would like to discuss simple ways to adopt greener workplace practices, contact us today!