A Sustainable Workplace: 5 Easy Steps You Can Take Today
Find out what a sustainable workplace is and how you can create it within your company by taking 5 simple steps.
More and more companies that are specialized in different areas, start to consider sustainability in SME as they realize its importance for being competitive nowadays. Sustainability shows how a particular organization operates in the economic, social, and ecological environment and helps to create a strategy for fostering the company’s long life.
According to the Deloitte report, most chiefs feel they can be more efficient when taking an effort in organizing a sustainable workplace. Often, the stumbling block is the lack of understanding of a sustainable workplace really is or what it takes to create one. We try to answer these questions below.
What is a Sustainable Workplace?
The main goal of a sustainable workplace is achieving a balance between people, the planet, and a profit. If this balance is achieved, the company will operate successfully in the long-term. If the company doesn’t manage to protect the health, welfare, and safety of its customers, employees and a wider circle of stakeholders, it is regarded as unsustainable.
SME sustainability has a wide range of benefits, which include:
· Improvement of employee engagement
· Talent retention
· Job satisfaction
· Reducing sick days per employees
· Diminishing of sick leave costs
All these advantages prove the necessity of having a sustainable workplace. You should find out efficient steps to create such work conditions for the employees if you want to stay competitive, enhance brand reputation and decrease expenses.
How to Create a Sustainable Workplace?
If you understand the importance of creating a sustainable workplace and achieving sustainability for SME, you can start with these five steps; they are easy and do not require a large investment of time or money.
1. Alternative transportation
Encourage employees to go to work by public transport, bicycles or walk instead of driving their cars. Install bike racks or offer shuttles. Such an approach will positively impact the environment and the mood of the stuff. As a result, they will be full of energy and ready to share creative solutions for particular business issues.
2. Energy-efficient lighting
The traditional incandescent lightbulbs cost less than LED and compact fluorescent lightbulbs, but they consume more energy and work for a shorter period. More expensive alternatives are your long-term investment. Switching the bulbs do not require much knowledge, time or effort, but has a great impact on the bottom line, as energy expenses reduce due to the SME sustainability approach.
3. Green cleaning products
What chemicals do you use in the workplace? If they are toxic, they can harm both your employees and the environment. Do not wait until workers start to complain about suffering from headache or allergy; switch to green cleaning products as soon as possible. They will protect the health of the employees and the environment.
4. Workplace wellness
Think of incorporating exercises during the workday into the staff’s schedule. It will positively influence their health and productivity. A no-smoking program should be incorporated and followed by all employees even if it is not regulated by the government. Motivate staff to avoid using the elevator or escalator and challenge them to use stairs instead. Consider having some standing desks for creating an ergonomic workplace.
5. Virtual conferences
You can hold online meetings instead of traveling to distant places to meet your partners or customers face-to-face. Such an alternative will not only save time and money but will also decrease consuming non-renewable resources. Besides, you can use webinars if the location isn’t convenient and requires attendees to use transportation to come.
Conclusion
Overall, the organizations that consider SME business sustainability are one step ahead of competitors and have higher chances to operate successfully in the long term. Investing time and money into creating a sustainable workplace saves natural resources, boosts employee productivity, and decreases business costs.
If you are still hesitant about why or how to embark on this route, consider taking a course dedicated to a sustainable workplace that educates on the big shifts towards safe working conditions, living wages, transparency and diversity associated with it. Mind that it is not enough for a CEO to be aware of the relevance of sustainability; this is why SustainOnline offers affordable sustainability education for the whole team. Request a demo in just a few clicks.
