Step Six: Encouraging Participation

Keeping up momentum in the early days of the programme may prove difficult particularly if a lot of effort went into the launch. Participation and enthusiasm across all sectors is required to ensure the programme stays on track.

At the first sign of any wavering of commitment to the environmental program, the Green Team leader should work quickly to uncover the cause of the problem and then take immediate action to correct it. If people begin to return to their old habits, whatever the reason, the programme is at risk and may fail.

Promote the Programme

Continually reinforcing a new habit is extremely important. It takes continual education to change people’s behaviour. To keep everyone updated and excited about the accomplishments of the programme try:

• Posting frequent programme updates or general environmental tips on the intranet or the organisation's homepage, in newsletters, on central notice boards, and via email.
• Calculate the environmental impact of the programme.   Examples include:
  • reams of paper saved,
  • litres of water saved,
  • kg’s or tonnes of waste diverted from landfill,
  • €’s saved in waste disposal,
  • € saved in energy costs.
• Continue to brand the programme, use humour if appropriate,
• Reward suggestions from staff with simple prizes,

Offer Incentives

Every person will have a different motivation for participating in the programme.  The more approaches you try, the more people you will reach. Sometimes a certificate honouring or recognising a person’s actions is all that’s needed. Here are a few more examples:

• Give prizes to the divisions/floors/units with the highest participation for a time period (e.g., month, quarter, year)
• Donate any revenue to a local charitable organisation.
• Solicit suggestions from employees/tenants for new ideas for the programme; give awards for the best ideas or suggestions.
• Hold internal recognition events where awards are given.
• Set an office or building-wide goal and provide rewards when it is met (gift tokens).
• Display results in the canteen or reception area (Good examples include a timeline or thermometer showing how much further has been achieved and how much there is to go).

Avoid Conflicting Messages

Once your organisation has adopted a programme with environmental goals, it’s important not to send conflicting messages with your education and awareness events. Here are a few suggestions to help you avoid this:

• Plan events throughout the year.
• Give incentives and prizes that are in keeping with the overall goals of your programme; not disposable items that will end up in the waste stream.
• Give out items made from recycled and recyclable material to reinforce the idea of “buying recycled” and showcase these products.
• Give items that employees can use to save money at home — such as battery rechargers, reusable shopping bags, water hippos to encourage them to continue their environmental efforts at home.