Just tell them why and how to adopt best practices, write William Young and Matthew Davi

Davis, Matthew

Young, William

LSE Research Online

5/18/2016Don’t try to convince your employees to becomeenvironmental advocatesblogs.lse.ac.uk /businessreview/2016/05/18/dont-try-to-convince-your-employees-to-become-environmental-advocates/Improving environmental performance remains a key concern for many organisations, with consumer and NGOexpectations regarding sustainability increasing. Whilst much attention has focussed upon adopting newtechnologies, supply chain innovations and production efficiencies, there has been a growing appreciation of therole that individual employees may play in reducing the environmental impact of an organisation’s activities.Organisations and academics have experimented with a wide array of different techniques (e.g., informationcampaigns, rewards, goal-setting) to interest and engage staff in sustainable activities and work practices (e.g., useof recycling bins, changes to how they use equipment, travel to work, purchasing decisions etc.). There has been agood number of studies published detailing the results of these individual interventions, but it has often been difficultto distinguish what the most effective techniques are for changing behaviour within the workplace. We, together withcolleagues, undertook a review of the available evidence, focussing on studies that measured actual changes inbehaviour or environmental impact, rather than relying on subjective self-reports.Our work suggests that the key approaches to encourage staff to act in more environmentally sustainable ways are:building environmental awareness (helping staff understand the issues and what they can do to help);providing performance feedback (connecting staff to the impact of their actions, e.g., providing real-timeenergy use);offering financial incentives (e.g., a share of cost savings from waste reduction, prizes for participation);environmental infrastructure management support and training (e.g., how to use equipment, devices andbuildings efficiently – often there can be a knowledge gap).Perhaps surprisingly, given the attention that changing staff attitudes has received (e.g., persuading people tochange their views on the environment), one of our key findings was that attitude change is not necessarily a pre-1/3requisite for behaviour change. In other words, it does not seem to be necessary to win, for example the climatechange argument in order to achieve changes in pro-environmental behaviour. We have found that pro-environmental behaviour change may be achieved when employees are aware of environmental issues/policies andare provided with the practical or procedural knowledge regarding sustainable actions, even in the absence oftechniques directed at attitude change. For example, once an employee knows why and how to switch off machinesat the end of shifts they may do so even without having pro-environmental attitudes because of the work structure,systems, culture and rewards for doing so.We have summarised our findings in the figure below. Our framework goes beyond similar efforts that have onlylooked at a single environmental behaviour (e.g., waste) and considered the conditions that may support pro-environmental behaviour in its broader sense. By concentrating our analysis on interventions and activities thatachieved measurable environmental change, practitioners can have increased confidence that the factors identifiedas efficacious have demonstrable practical impact. This will, in our view, create conditions for changes in behaviourand as a consequence, improvements in organisational environmental performance.Figure 1: e-PEB framework for changing employee environmental behaviour (Young et al,2014). Factors that have strong evidence are boxes and arrows shown with emphasis.Our review suggests four key learning points for managers and practitioners seeking to encourage moreenvironmentally sustainable behaviours within their organisations.1. Training and information should focus on building environmental awareness, rather than changing staffattitudes towards the environment. Furthermore a focus at the group-level as well as individual-level may bemore effective. Although this may be more resource intensive it has been shown to be effective in areas suchas quality and safety.2. Traditional financial and non-financial reward structures in the organisation should incorporate, and befocused towards, environmental issues, which will incentivize the majority of employees rather than thealready motivated minority.2/33. Environmental responsibilities should be incorporated into organisational management structures so thatemployees see that these are important to the organisation and to their own line-manager.4. The biggest task sustainability teams/consultants/managers should take responsibility for is the feedback ofenvironmental performance data to the group-level and the individual-level. These data should not be justgeneral organisational-level performance, but rather be focused on each group and if possible also to specificindividuals. The individual focus could be on managers, team leaders and staff in key roles, such as buildings’operational staff, operators of key equipment and HRM staff.It is clear to us that the likelihood of successful pro-environmental behaviour change is likely to come whereorganizations integrate sustainability or CSR programmes into core business functions such as Human ResourceManagement and organizational management structures. Making use of existing structures and processes tosupport staff and reinforce key messages seems key if we wish to engage the majority of the workforce rather thanjust speak to those individuals who are already commited to the environmental cause.♣♣♣Notes:This post is based on the authors’ paper Changing Behaviour: Successful Environmental Programmes in theWorkplace, co-authored with Ilona M. McNeil, Bindu Malhotra, Sally Russell, Kerrie Unsworth and Chris W.Clegg, in Business Strategy and the Environment, 24(8), 689-703. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bse.1836The post gives the views of its author, not the position of LSE Business Review or the London School ofEconomics.Featured image credit: Phil Whitehouse CC-BY-2.0Before commenting, please read our Comment PolicyWilliam Young is Professor of Sustainability and Business and Co-Director of the SustainabilityResearch Institute at the University of Leeds. His research is focused on consumer behaviouraround sustainability issues. He develops theoretical frameworks and applied tools thatunderstand and change consumer behaviour in purchasing and using products and services. Theframeworks and tools use indicators to show measurable reductions in environmental and socialimpacts. Professor Young co-organises the annual Corporate ResponsibilityResearch Conference along with Kedge Business School in France and is Co-Investigator of theESRC Consumer Data Research Centre .Matthew Davis is a Lecturer in Leeds University Business School’s Management Division. He is aChartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. His expertiselies in organizational and environmental psychology, particularly the design of the physicalenvironment and pro-environmental behaviour change. He has been working with clients such asRolls-Royce, Arup Consulting and British Gas. He was awarded the 2010 US Academy ofManagement “Making Connections” award recognising contributions that cross-disciplinary,international and practitioner – academic divides. Dr Davis is a member of the Editorial Boardfor Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, and an elected member ofthe US Academy of Management’s Greening Team. Copyright © 2015 London School of Economics3/3

Don’t try to convince your employees to become environmental advocates

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