Workers give the green light to sustainable offices

How do you feel about sustainability in your workplace? How do your co-workers feel? How does your boss feel? The Sustainability in the Workplace 2012 report, recently released by Sustainability at Work, reveals the attitudes of Australian workers towards sustainability, thus helping organisations understand what to consider when implementing their own sustainability strategies.

Melissa Houghton, director and co-owner of Sustainability at Work, gave an overview of her company’s report at the Australian Sustainability conference and exhibition. She explained that Sustainability at Work works with medium and large companies to develop sustainability strategies, noting that for such strategies to be successful, the company’s employees must be on board and engaged. Thus, their attitudes and behaviours towards sustainability need to be determined.

“To drive employee engagement, we believe that you really need to understand the organisational culture, and even the subcultures within that culture,” she said.

Sustainability at Work’s 2012 report provides this on a national scale. It is the result of an online survey with a total of 1051 participants from various age groups, areas, company types and sizes, all with one thing in common - they all work.

Since last year’s report, there has been a definite increase in sustainable attitudes, with 73% of those surveyed saying it was important or very important for their organisation to behave sustainably - 5% more than in 2011 - as well as a 3.6% decrease in those who said it was not important or not at all important. But despite this high rate of importance, this did not immediately translate to an increase in action. Only 57% of people (an increase from 48%) said that their organisation was somewhat sustainable or very sustainable, although 37% did feel that there had been an increase in attention to sustainability. And while 85% believed their environmental performance at home was good or very good (up from 77%), this number was only 67% when it came to their performance at work.

So why are people not performing as well at work as in the home? There are several barriers which respondents have identified, although the report notes that these have been disappearing over the last year - in fact, the second highest result was that 26% of people said there were actually no barriers for them. The highest result, however, was 28% saying the biggest barrier was a lack of facilities for recycling or re-using materials (up from 21%) - although many also indicated that they were not entirely sure if such facilities were provided. This lack of awareness further extends to any sustanability programs already being run by the company, with an average of 31% not knowing if such programs were in place. Thus, it is important for organisations to clearly inform employees about measures that are currently being taken.

The good news is that last year’s biggest barrier, ‘A lack of how-to information’, has gone from 21% down to 9%. However, it appears that some people are still not as well informed on green issues as they claim, particularly when it comes to recycling. The survey asked participants to identify whether certain items were recyclable, non-recyclable, or if they didn’t know. The report states that, “In almost all cases, more people incorrectly asserted they ‘knew’ if items could be recycled or composted than admitted to not knowing”, with a massive 70% of people incorrectly guessing the recyclability of drinking glasses; only 6% admitting to not knowing. Other high numbers included 64% incorrect for plastic takeaway containers, 60% for cheese and meat and 53% for plastic cutlery.

“So in terms of communicating to your workforce about what strategies you want to put in place, don’t assume because they say that they know that they actually do know,” noted Houghton.

Although many employees are willing to act sustainably regardless of their organisation’s overall attitude, many more require motivation. When asked what sort of actions would be effective in encouraging sustainable behaviour, results included training and education, acknowledgement and rewards, commitment from colleagues and management - and the number one spot was more visual signs and reminders (67%). This relatively simple measure shows that embedding sustainable behaviour is sometimes just a matter of reminding people what to do. Unsurprisingly, the highest rated actions which workers claim to ‘always’ do are those which require the least amount of effort, including turning off lights (76%) and computers (63%) at night and recycling paper (72%).

It must be noted that a sustainable working environment is not only good for the planet, it is also said to make employees feel physically healthier. Features of good workplaces were said to include fresh air, thermal comfort and natural light - things which are often prevalent in green buildings but not so much in artificially lit, highly air-conditioned ones. However, some green offices (as well as normal ones) tend to also be open plan, with flexible working arrangements, and this was said to be noisy and disruptive, as well as risking the spread of viruses if sick people don’t wipe down their desks after finishing with them. It is thus important to take this into consideration. On the whole though, almost all physical ailments were lower for those surveyed from green offices, except for asthma, which was higher by 1%.

It is therefore clear that a sustainable environment is important to many Australian workers - some just need a little assistance in complying. Houghton suggests that organisations interested in implementing a sustainability strategy do so with the report in mind, and for more tailored results, they can also come directly to Sustainability at Work.

The full report can be accessed at www.sustainabilityatwork.com.au/sustainability-in-the-workplace-report-2012/.