Post: Top ten tips for raising environmental awareness within your organisation

The key to obtaining and retaining your ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System certification is ensuring that environmental awareness is communicated at all levels of the workforce, while evidencing the actions that have been taken to do this.

Communication should focus on creating ownership across the organisation for environmental measures and targets, and here are a few tips to support you in achieving this:

1. Create regular opportunities for your workforce to input into sustainability plans – use toolbox talks or staff meetings to consult with employees, capture their ideas and create understanding for why it is necessary, then use future talks to showcase how their input is helping the business;
2. Displaying information on sustainability goals across the organisation – either on notice boards or through your company intranet;
3. Remind staff of their commitments through targeted messages in key areas. i.e. placing signs in restrooms and kitchens to remind people for the need to conserve water, or stickers on light switches to remind them to switch lights off;
4. Send out regular emails to employees updating them with progress towards sustainability;
5. Conduct a waste audit by collecting, sorting out and weighing the refuse and promote the outcome to staff;
6. Provide staff with branded stationery made from recycled materials;
7. Implement a recognition programme for employees who achieve sustainability at work or come up with the most effective environmental programme for their area;
8. Implement car sharing to reduce the carbon footprint and celebrate the staff members who commit to it (it can also help them save money too!);
9. Collate annual sustainability data and include in your annual report, highlighting the contribution of individual departments and people in achieving your goals;
10. Promote the changes you are making and the impact it is having to external stakeholders through newsletters and the media – showcasing the contribution of individual team members and the impact it is having to your organisation.

Find out more about how ISO14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems certification can help your business and contact Peter Jones at Independent Advice for Business on peter@ia4b.co.uk for further information.