5 Reasons Why You Need a Green Program

Here are some convincing reasons to help you pitch a green program at your company.

• It’s easy! Whether it’s a factory, plant, or general office space, opportunities to be green are in every workplace. You can easily train workers to save energy, recycle, and reduce waste at little cost to your company.
• Your workers want it. Most employees are interested in how their company is practicing corporate social responsibility. This is a great opportunity for you to shine in the eyes of your workers and be an employer of choice because most employees link positive environmental and social activities to brand reputation.
• Your competitors probably have one. If you want to stay competitive or gain an advantage, a green program will help you do that.
• It’ll save money. It’s simple, cutting energy costs and waste will save your company money. Simple tasks like printing on both sides of paper, turning off computers and lights during nonworking hours, and conducting water audits can add up to a huge savings for your company.
• It’ll keep you ahead of the regs. If you play in the global market you’ll have to follow several European directives like Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Restriction of Hazardous Substances, and Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals.

Best Practice: Energy-Saving Opportunities

You’ll be amazed at how easily you can cut your energy bill and protect the environment for little or even no cost. Evaluate the best opportunities that will be most effective for your company:

• Get management support. Your goal is to show the value of energy saving measures and the potential cost and productivity advantages of a more-aggressive energy-efficiency program.
• Create an energy team at your facility. The team will track and report energy uses, identify energy-saving opportunities, develop an energy plan, and implement cost-saving measures.

Yes, you do have the budget and time to train managers and supervisors with BLR’s^® 10-Minute HR Trainer. Try it at no cost or risk. Get details.

• Develop an ongoing strategy. You need a plan to be able  to sustain your efforts and to improve and maintain energy-efficient systems.
• Track your energy bills. You need to know how much you pay for electricity, natural gas, and fuel oil at your facility. Tip: Understand seasonal charges in your utility bill that can affect your energy-saving actions for heating and cooling.
• Pinpoint equipment using the most energy. A small portion of the equipment usually accounts for the greatest amount of energy consumption. Tip: Look for large pieces of equipment and equipment that run most of the time or that have periodic, but substantial, start-up energy requirements.
• Identify no- or low-cost projects. Employees often have good ideas
• Shut off any lights you are not using. Make it a habit
• Use compact fluorescent light bulbs. They use less than 25 percent of the electricity of standard bulbs and last 10 times longer.
• Seal against drafts. Seal drafty doors, windows, and holes around plumbing fixtures to keep out winter cold and summer heat.
• Use the energy-savings settings. Use the special energy-saving settings on all appliances, particularly air conditioners and refrigerators, as well as on office machines such as copiers.
• Unplug. Unplug computers, monitors, modems, cable boxes, and televisions when not in use. Better yet, plug them into power strips so it’s one easy switch to turn them all off and on.
• Unplug cell phone and PDA chargers when not in use. They use electricity even when they aren’t charging!

Train your line managers with BLR’s 10-Minute HR Trainer. There won’t be time for classroom boredom. Try it for free.

• Use green power. “Green power” is defined as electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable, renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro.
• Switch to paperless.  Go for paperless bank statements and bill paying to save millions of trees and billions of gallons of water—plus the cost of stamps.
• Drive less! Walk, bike, or take public transportation.