News

Sustainability in the workplace reflects on employees’ personal choices, says study

Published

12 years ago

April 5, 2013

Blue & Green Tomorrow

Employees engaged in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in their jobs are likely to make sustainable choices at home, according to a US study.

Gibbs & Soell’s Sense & Sustainability report says that around 73% of adults that are involved in environmental and social responsibility programmes at the workplace tend to transfer these morals to their personal life.

In addition, 74% of people interviewed said they were interested in knowing what their company is doing to become greener, while 68% thought that employers should promote more sustainability initiatives.

“There is a lot of research around motivating consumers to make more sustainable purchases from the perspective of product marketing, so we decided to investigate the opportunity to influence them in the workplace”, said Ron Loch, Gibbs & Soell managing director.

“We found that the ripple effect of engaging employees in sustainability activities means they are more likely to practice sustainability at home and encourage neighbours to do the same.”

However, a significant number of employees still have doubts about the concept of corporate sustainability. Sixty-seven per cent of respondents said they didn’t know whether their company was committed to promote sustainable practices, while 19% thought their company was not sustainable at all.

“Too few employers seem to be taking advantage of this opportunity to create green consumer”, Loch added.

“Two-thirds of employees could not identify who at their workplace is responsible for sustainability, or said no one is responsible.”

On April 15, an event in London will question whether CSR has reached its sell-by date. Click here to find out how to pick up a free ticket.