Putting up a few signs to tell staff to recycle their rubbish and reminding them to turn off the lights is starting along the right path to getting them to go green. The reality is simple initiatives such as these provide no incentive for your workforce to embrace becoming eco-friendly. Setting a great example at work can easily filter down into the lives of many families when done right. It’s a question of how to encourage staff that going green is a worthwhile endeavour. Sitting down and lecturing them is unlikely to achieve anything, so you need to lead to by example. Show them tangible results as to how adapting their lifestyle can improve their wellbeing.

To show them, the most effective way is to become a role model yourself. A beacon for the positives of eco-efficiency. From riding your bike into work, cutting down drastically on your paper usage and bringing your own lunch in. You need to show the benefits through yourself. For the more reserved members of the office, watching your fitness gains and that appealing homemade lunch from a distance, is one way of showing the benefits of going green.

Many consider becoming eco-friendly to be an expensive chore, so to show them it is not is simple; put your money where your mouth is.

• Invest in installing proper insulation for the office
• Swap all the bulbs out for energy saving LEDs
• Provide enough recycling bins so that there is no excuse why staff cannot use them. 

While you are it, set targets for the office to incentivise the process. Provide an eco-friendly reward at the end which will offer something tangible for them to work towards. If the budget is available, then there is the added option of hiring a new member of staff or build duties into an existing position, specifically with the task of making your business more eco-efficient.

If this is not possible, then there are a variety of training courses and activities available to show why the company is adopting an eco-friendly policy. This will also educate them of the advantages of implementing such an approach. Helping the office as a collective group to understand the benefits of being eco-efficient will provide them with an understanding of the positive impact that it can have. As a result provide them with a basis to participate in the initiatives you are implementing.

Ideally, after following these steps, there will be a few who adopt this approach and can act as ‘champions’ for your cause. This top down method will help to seep enthusiasm through the office. Hopefully you’ll encourage more and more of your staff to become eco-friendly. By encouraging the workforce to be healthier provides long term benefits for your business. You gain a more motivated group who have more energy and enthusiasm to help to contribute to your business.