With so much attention being paid to combating global warming, many companies are looking at ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Jumping on the green scheme bandwagon is all well and good and can have many additional benefits for the company but, as Louise Druce finds out, it can only work if employees are fully engaged.

The furore surrounding Live Earth is proof that climate change is literally a hot topic for everyone. Many large firms are already championing ways to reduce their carbon footprint but it requires a change in attitude among employees as much as a change in company policy.

Businesses account for 40 per cent of the UK’s annual carbon emissions, with estimates putting the costs of poor energy efficiency at a whopping £2 billion. But, according to the Carbon Trust, employees remain a rich, largely untapped resource for cutting carbon emissions.

It’s not that they don’t want to get involved with climate schemes – more than two thirds are keen to go green. The survey by the trust revealed that many employees are still lacking direction on how they can help cut emissions, while less that a fifth are happy their company is doing enough to tackle climate change. Those in large organisations in particular are more than twice as likely to be unaware of their business’ approach to reducing carbon emissions than those in smaller organisations.

“The benefits to businesses in cutting carbon are clear,” says Carbon Trust chief executive Tom Delay. “Not only does it help an organisation’s bottom line and brand, it also has increasing value among customers, shareholders and now employees. These reputation gains become all the more valuable when you consider that 60 per cent of UK employees now say it’s important to work for a company that has an active policy to reduce its carbon emissions.”

This is reinforced by research by BT, which revealed that more than a third of employees surveyed said working for a caring and responsible employer was more important to them than salary, with 44 per cent claiming they would discount an employer if they didn’t have a good corporate social responsibility (CSR) reputation. Furthermore, over 25 per cent believed business had the most influence on the future of the planet, second only to government.

The heat is on

“We were picking up on a growing interest and demand from our clients, particularly our corporate clients,” says Nigel Pate, senior manager corporate responsibility at HSBC. “We know a number of them were making their own strides in this direction, particularly the big energy companies. It seemed like a good thing for us to be doing to be best placed to advise them by understanding the issue. At the same time, we were also exploring sustainability and it was clear to us that climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face.”

In 2005, HSBC became the first major bank to become carbon neutral and recently announced it would be spending £45 million on green initiatives over the next five years. This includes investing in renewable energy, investing in technology to become more energy efficient and developing a green task force amongst its worldwide employees through a climate partnership with Earthwatch.

After a previous partnership scheme with Earthwatch, HSBC found that 74 per cent of its HR professionals said their leadership and teamwork skills had been enhanced, while 96 per cent of staff felt increased motivation and loyalty to the bank after their experience.

The new scheme promises to be bigger and better, says Pate, with HR involved in tracking its success. HSBC is taking a multi-faceted approach. Among its goals are to provide more information to over 300,000 staff about the practical steps they can take to tackle global warming, such as recycling and turning off lights that aren’t being used. If they want to get their hands even dirtier, the company is targeting its top 20 largest sites to find volunteers willing to get involved in environmental community projects near to where they live.

Another key part of the programme is centred on turning around 1 per cent of its workforce into ‘climate champions’. These select few will spend two weeks working with Earthwatch scientists on an environmental field project with the aim of becoming inspirational leaders who can encourage other employees to get involved in green schemes and raise the profile of climate change.

Pate does admit, however, that tackling environmental issues should be a two-way street. “An employee isn’t going to do this if the culture doesn’t seem to be very supportive and they aren’t receiving the right messages, for example, if there are no posters or recycling facilities in the office,” he says.

“It is up to the company to kick-start the process and show they are interested, but it needs to empower the staff to take further steps. It could be a little thing like starting a campaign to get colleagues to stop using the colour printer if it’s not necessary for instance. Peer pressure is a very powerful force for good.”

Switch on, switch off

It’s just those little things that can be bunched together to make a more significant impact on climate change, argues Richard Ellis, head of corporate social responsibility at Boots. He points out that the company was introducing more environmentally-friendly measures way back at the beginning of the last century, long before other companies had even thought about the benefits of recycling.

It now has a raft of measures in place to reduce its carbon footprint. Among these are the use of dual-fuel fleet vehicles and coming up with more efficient ways to transport its goods that over the last year have reduced the number of road kilometres driven by 8.5 billion, reduced carbon emission by 5 per cent and led to fuel costs of around £1.4 million. The company has also addressed the amount and type of packaging it uses for its products and introduced better stock management to cut down on deliveries.

The schemes go all the way up to its head offices in Nottingham. There, you won’t find an employee with a wastepaper bin. Instead, employees are encouraged to segregate their waste into recycling hubs that have been placed at strategic points around the office, such as by the printer or the tea-making facilities.

“We’re only making a small impact on waste recycling but the message it sends to people is important,” says Ellis. “Rather than ramming [environmental issues] down everybody’s throats, we try to get them to do it for themselves. This is more successful and has more of an impact on the issues.”

He also highlights the fact that reducing the carbon footprint isn’t all about doing the right thing. “If you say carbon equals cost, reducing the carbon footprint means you are becoming more efficient,” he says. “That then engages the finance director.”

However, the idea is that CSR should be everybody’s responsibility. Ellis adds: “These little schemes are not going to change the world but it’s the little things that encourage people to adopt different behaviours that make the difference.”

For more information, please visit the Carbon Trust.