Employee Education & Staff Training
Employee Education
Employee Engagement:
Implementing sustainable operations in your office space not only reduces the environmental footprint of your business, but it also shifts the workplace culture and can catalyze behavior change throughout your network of employees, staff, clients, and beyond. In addition to greening operations, education and awareness efforts can further motivate your community to align with the mission.
Empower your employees:
- Establish an internal, employee-led, ‘Green Team’ to create ongoing accountability, a support network, and offer leadership opportunities to employees.
- Integrate methods for collective decision-making to keep sustainability opportunities top of mind and include the full team.
- Can you introduce a sustainable employee toolkit? For example, providing employees with reusable canvas bags and/or water bottles can encourage use of reusables.
Staff Training:
Sustainability initiatives are only as successful as the teams behind them! Proper training is critical for long-term success and implementation of any program. Create the necessary materials, signage, and orientation curriculum, integrate it into your existing materials and develop reporting and evaluation frameworks to facilitate training.
Key components to include in training materials:
- Share WHY your business is taking this step towards responsible consumption to value the health of our communities and shared blue planet.
- Outline any specific action items employees need to perform including a review of a Sustainable Purchasing Policy and/or Paperless Organization Strategy where applicable.
- Include any relevant scripts or template language for communicating these initiatives to employees and guests.
Include relevant training materials in orientation programs. Adopt a train-the-trainer model to empower internal champions and team leads to step into a leadership role, and to pass down the knowledge to their teams and new hires for the longevity of the program.
Working with Vendors:
When searching for sustainable alternative products, start by asking your existing vendors and suppliers what options they have available including packaging. From a procurement perspective, it is often more streamlined to continue working with a consistent supplier rather than engaging with a separate supplier for each item.
Once alternative products are identified (this includes packaging), work with your vendors and suppliers to make sure that their sustainable options meet the Blue List requirements. Beware of ‘Greenwashing’ as defined in our Greenwashing Guide. If sustainable options are not available, engage with any vetted sustainable suppliers featured in Oceanic Global’s Blue List of solution providers.
INNOVATION Tip:
If your existing vendors do not have a suitable alternative, collaborate with them to create a new product or line that meets the Blue List requirements. Start the ripple effect: If your vendor creates new sustainable offerings, this will catalyze scalable behavior change and help shift the market towards responsible consumption. Any vendors that create suitable solutions have the opportunity to become Blue Verified through Oceanic Global’s Blue Product and Packaging Seals.