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Date
No, not that kind of engagement! I’ve been doing a lot of research for our next book. I came across several fascinating surveys from the National Environmental Education Foundation(NEEF). The organization itself is a great resource for environmental (extrapolate to sustainability) information. According to their website, “NEEF is the nation’s leading organization in lifelong environmental learning, connecting people to knowledge they use to improve the quality of their lives and the health of the planet. We achieve this by providing knowledge to trusted professionals and other leaders who, with their credibility, amplify messages to national audiences to solve everyday environmental problems.”
The surveys I am referring to are all about employee engagement starting with their study “Business Case for Environmental and Sustainability Employee Education” from 2009 continuing through the study “Toward Engagement 2.0: Creating a More Sustainable Company Through Employee Engagement.” I point out these studies because they may not appear to relevant to the project manager, but they are in fact relevant because they point out that engaging everyone in the organization helps that organization to “appreciate” the sustainable efforts. In that environment (excuse the pun), sustainability efforts by the project manager are not only recognized, but encouraged.
In our new book, one of the sections is about how the internal organization views sustainability efforts. We explore environmental management plans and ISO 14001 as examples. While those initiatives must be applauded, the surveys noted above emphasize the importance of employee engagement in the sustainability process by highlighting several major companies’ education implementation.
Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson and Johnson, as well as companies that we considered “top of their game” in sustainability form our previous book, Green Project Management, Stonyfield and Interface Global. All these companies approach sustainability education by providing “mixed-media” presentation and “multi-departmental leadership.” The commitment goes across departments and throughout the companies. From the “toward Engagement 2.0…” survey, NEEF found some “new and interesting results:
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“Sustainability” remains the established phrase to describe a company’s environmental sustainability initiatives. “Greening” for many years was the second-most-used term but is now almost the least used to describe these initiatives.
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Social and environmental activities converge. As companies begin to address more complex supply-chain issues, those surveyed see environmental and social issues becoming more connected.
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Has sustainability knowledge become less important or have we “arrived”? In large companies, those surveyed see less of an increase in the value placed on a job candidate’s sustainability knowledge than in years past, while mid-sized and small companies still see this as increasing.”
And from one of the business case studies (Interface Global) there are some key lessons learned is to:”
· Make E&S part of a shared vision and the company culture, not a “flavor of the month”
· Measures are critical, and the best teacher
· Storytelling is a powerful tool
· Include all employees
· Consider E&S motivation and knowledge in the hiring process”
Employee engagement in sustainability is critical to an organization. It leads to innovation resulting in creative ways for an organization to become more sustainable. That leads to bottom-line savings and more importantly a stronger connection to social responsibility. As change agents, project managers can assure that there is an effective method to engage all employees in the sustainability effort. If there isn’t an ongoing effort, perhaps that will make a good project!
This will be my last post for Projects-at-Work. I have enjoyed talking with you over the past couple of years, but it is time for me to move on. I am leaving you in the capable fingers of Rich Maltzman who will continue to provide posts for the 3P’s.
Posted
by
Dave Shirley
on: December 23, 2014 12:07 PM |
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