How to Drive Employee Engagement in Sustainability Initiatives

A successful sustainability program requires buy-in from all stakeholders as everyone’s small actions combine to make a big, corporate-level difference. It’s important that all employees, from top executives to new hires, have a way to personally engage in corporate sustainability efforts. Here are two steps to boost employee engagement in sustainability initiatives.

1) Provide the Necessary Tools

The first step in ensuring the success of your sustainability program at the employee level is establishing clear processes and initiatives that allow employees to integrate sustainability into their workday. Employees need to be equipped with all the necessary tools to execute those processes and participate in initiatives. This helps bolster the “can do” attitude among employees while increasing the likelihood of engagement.

For example, if your company goal is to reduce your carbon footprint or reduce single-use waste, consider giving each employee a reusable bottle designed to inspire reuse, such as the Cupanion Bottle. This durable Tritan bottle comes with a tag that can be scanned to track the user’s impact. After each refill, employees can use their phone camera to scan the tag and record their reuse in the Fill it Forward app. This interactive technology calculates, in real-time, how much CO2 emissions, waste, electricity and ocean pollution were prevented by using the Cupanion Bottle. This report gives employees a visualization of how their single action can make a large impact. By gifting this bottle, you place the power to make a difference directly into employees’ hands.

2) Boost Engagement by Establishing Friendly Competition

Gamification is a great tool to utilize when trying to align individuals with company goals. Through the addition of gaming metrics, you can turn a mundane task into a fun experience that ignites interest and stimulates engagement. It all comes down to the human desire for status, achievement and competition; gamification leverages those desires to spur engagement. Many gamification models include points systems, badges, leaderboards, and challenges. In all models, participants are rewarded for accomplishing predetermined achievements. The key to successful gamification is to make sure the rewards are desirable. If employees don’t perceive the reward as valuable, the motivation to participate declines.

For example, companies can boost the impact of the Cupanion Bottle initiative by establishing a private group within the Fill it Forward app. This private group provides access to a company impact board that shows the group’s overarching environmental impact as well as a reuse leadership board. The leaderboard tracks employee reuse and visibly displays the top performers for all employees to see. Companies can reward employees for making it onto the leaderboard or set smaller reward milestones, such as 50 reuses, to increase initiative engagement. Your organization can also challenge employees to a reuse competition. Have your departments go head-to-head to see who can reuse the most within a certain period. Teams will grow stronger as they work together to win the challenge.

The benefits of the Cupanion Bottle program are twofold: you’ll cultivate employee engagement through fun and visible achievements while decreasing the organization’s corporate footprint. It’s a win-win!

Ready to help your employees become sustainability champions? Email projects@promoassets.com to learn more.