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Employee Education and Awareness Campaigns
Carbon tax legislation has become a burning issue of late amongst the global community. The arrival of carbon taxes in South Africa and their impact on businesses has been the catalyst to propel what for so long has been mostly a topic of conversation into an executive level priority. For those many businesses and people who are not aware of the variety of carbon management tools and services available, this transition has the potential to be slightly daunting. The truth is that this is an excellent progression, and one of the key areas to begin looking at is employee awareness.
GCX is constantly working on providing our clients with tools to aid in carbon and energy management. We like to encourage implementing simple, yet impactful, adaptation and one of the key areas that the GCX education department focuses on is employee education and awareness campaigns.
The National Environmental Education Foundation White paper 2010 states that the “business case” — that is, the quantification of opportunities and risks — for environmental and sustainability education might not yet be heavy on data. But anecdotes from around the world give clear indications that teaching employees to conserve, recycle, improve efficiency and reduce waste, among other actions, have benefits for employees, companies and communities. Sustainability is no longer just “nice to have” and employees are an important resource for addressing and benefiting from this shift.
Incorrect staff conduct can account for up to 15% of a company’s total carbon emissions. Every day, employees make decisions that hold significant environmental consequences. Decisions about habitual activities such as commuting to work; setting heating and cooling systems; purchasing paper or even kitchen equipment affect a company’s carbon footprint. It therefore makes sense, that a great place to start reducing emissions is through building an internal culture of ‘green’ behaviour.
Many companies have benefited from the immediate results of launching a carbon and energy awareness campaign in their organisations. Nokia Siemens Networks measure employee awareness of environmental responsibility through an annual employee engagement survey and continually aim for improvement by encouraging awareness through initiatives such as environmental E-learning modules and competitions.
In addition to interactive, internet based, presentations and competitions; a broad range of exciting materials are available that are suited to all staff levels, from office workers to labourers. Such as, pocketbooks for staff, lunchtime workshops, monthly story boards/comics, brochures and poster series, signs for your facilities/offices and case studies.
This is your toolkit to creating awareness and instilling efficient behavioural changes amongst your employees.Contact us to discuss how we can work together to create a campaign tailored perfectly to your staff and their working environment.
Carrie Freeman, a corporate sustainability strategist at Intel, noted in a Green Teams report, “When it comes to looking at ways to reduce our footprint, we very much see a direct correlation between reducing our costs and engaging our employees.”
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