World Environment Day: how can organisations demonstrate their eco-consciousness?
World Environment Day is on 5 June. It is the biggest international day for the environment and has been running since 1973. It acts as a platform to raise awareness globally on key environmental issues. The theme for 2025 is stopping plastic pollution.
Within organisations, strategies around environmental issues can also be labelled under other names such as ‘Sustainability’, ‘Environmental Social Governance’, ‘Climate Change’ or ‘Carbon Literacy’. These outline the environmental business practices organisations are committed to, as well as any ambitions around future targets, such as increasing renewable energy sourcing and waste management.
Eco-consciousness and sustainability have also become key factors in employer branding. A recent report by Deloitte highlighted that environmental consciousness has become an important factor in attracting job seekers, particularly amongst millennials and Gen Z professionals. Organisations should approach activities authentically. Both candidates and employees can be suspicious of organisational claims that may appear to be ‘greenwashing,’ so providing genuine information to demonstrate sustainability initiatives is key. Customers also have increased expectations to understand progress toward ambitions such as becoming carbon neutral.
What green initiatives might some employers already be doing?
In all likelihood, you are probably already taking some steps that support eco-consciousness on World Environment Day and beyond. These may not have started as a sustainable initiative, but they will have had impact. These might include:
- Increased remote working – one of the impacts of the pandemic was that its increased regular working from home, which has changed travel habits reducing car journeys.
- Online meetings – whereas before travelling to a meeting in person was not unusual, or attending interviews in person, now often these can be conducted online.
- Less reliance on paper – Reducing paper print outs and retaining files electronically.
- Improved waste management and recycling facilities – encouraging employees to recycle waste in office kitchens, replacing water coolers with drinking water taps.
What more can you do to demonstrate eco-consciousness within the workplace?
Many scientists outline how taking what may seem like small steps in making sustainable choices in daily life, which when many people do them collectively can make a big impact. Organisations can build on this in a number of ways:
- Source local ingredients – whether it’s supplying tasty treats in your workplaces or catering for an event, using local suppliers who provide locally sourced produce supports the green initiative.
- Encourage employees to participate in green volunteering initiatives such as planting more trees and seeds.
- Build on existing recycling schemes. Monitor how the current schemes are working and consider if something needs to change or be improved. There’s always more that workplaces can do to extend recycling at work, including clothes and food recycling to support local charities and foodbanks.
- Get your staff involved. Support and encourage employees to lead on working groups to get valuable feedback and ideas on eco-consciousness initiatives.
Taking actions to improve the environment is something that everyone can work together on, and the bonus is that it can help collaboration across teams and different generations. Recently some of the NQHR team signed up to a steps challenge – as well as encouraging some friendly competition amongst us, it’s made us think differently about the journeys we take, and whether to walk instead of using the car. In the first two weeks, the team has walked over a million steps …. and we’re still walking. Less pollution, improved health, team morale – everyone’s a winner!
