You’ve invested in smart waste solutions, you’ve read up on zero landfill initiatives, and you’ve outlined a plan for your business’s moving towards environmental sustainability. You’re feeling quite empowered—and you should be! All of the above are momentus steps towards adopting a more sustainable way of doing business, of creating a better world for current and future generations.
Take it from LJP Waste Solutions, a North Mankato provider of waste to energy services and an expert in sustainable waste solutions: Your sustainability efforts matter! Even if you only feel like your company is a drop in the bucket. When everyone does their part to help the planet, true sustainability is achieved, but the only way we can get there is if every business makes strides on their own.
However, part of making those strides is getting your entire business on board with and excited about sustainability efforts—and even if you and your peers are already there, your employees might be a different story. It can be hard to inspire an entire group of people to be outwardly passionate about something; you probably already know that firsthand. You’re a business owner after all! Promoting morale is of the utmost concern to you.
While we’ve talked about the importance of employee involvement in sustainability efforts on our blog before, involvement is a completely separate topic from passion, and both are equally necessary. Indeed, just as a company is nothing if it doesn’t have the enthusiasm of its workers on board, business-wide sustainability efforts are severely compromised if a vast majority of workers are indifferent to, or worse, opposed to, said efforts.
Though your company can preach its love for environmental sustainability from the top all it wants, it takes every soul doing their part to truly make a difference and to reap the benefits sustainable business practices bring to your company.
● When workers are on board, customers take note. Especially if you run a retail store, your workers spend a lot of time attending to customers, the latter of which probably know about your business’s sustainability campaign if you’ve already tried to take advantage of its PR-boosting qualities. When workers are as passionate about sustainability as you are, the image of company-wide caring endeavor is further enforced, promoting even more positive vibes about your business.
● As important as you are in your company, you are only one person. As we stated above, true sustainability relies on everyone taking responsibility. Your company is composed of multiple people. Even though you may be in charge of running things, your personal sustainability habits are equally as important as the next person’s in the grand scheme of things. Get your workers on board and maximize your company’s positive impact on the environment and the future.
● Inspire your workers to adopt sustainable practices outside of their working hours. Sustainability during the workday is great, but sustainability outside of it too is even better. When you truly inspire your workers and get them passionate about environmental sustainability, you’ll be making an even bigger difference than you would otherwise.
As you can see, getting your workers passionate about what your business is doing when it comes to sustainability is crucial to your maximizing the concept’s potential. It leads to a further boosted reputation as a company and a greater positive impact on the environment. All that aside, though like we said, inspiring passion can sometimes be easier said than done.
How Can I Inspire Company-Wide Passion About Sustainability?
Certainly not by force! While waste disposal policies are important, taking a hard-edged, disciplinary approach to sustainability is a great way to inspire resentment towards the concept and make it feel like the chore that it isn’t. You must inspire love for sustainability through community-building efforts that show it as the collective effort it must be.
● Show your employees the numbers. We at LJP Waste solutions like to say that sustainability is a numbers game—-why else would we stress the importance of waste reports as a part of your company’s waste solutions? Similarly, showing your employees concrete statistics about what difference their environmentally conscious efforts make is a great way to inspire an internal drive to do something. Everyone wants to be reminded that they can make a difference.
● Make sustainability easy. Provide easy access to recycling bins. Make it easy to sort waste into proper containers with informational posters. The easier sustainability is to practice, the more likely people are to get excited about it.
● Don’t be a hypocrite. Lead by example and use your position to continue to invest in sustainable waste solutions. On a personal level, be sure to do all in your ability to embrace sustainability. Few things deflate morale more than a leader who doesn’t follow their own supposed ideals.
Contact LJP for Innovative & Sustainable Waste Solutions
Our North Mankato company is ready and waiting to help show your workers the difference each one of them can make. Give us a call now at 507-625-1968.