Proponents of “green” have long advocated the establishment of “green teams” as the pathway to improved sustainability performance. But amid all the cheerleading, there is a dearth of discussion on returns. Now, a new report, issued by AltaTerra Research (Palo Alto, CA), indicates that green teams, while delivering direct and indirect ROI, can be a bit of a mixed bag.
In compiling “Green Teams and Value: Engaging Employees in Meeting Sustainability Goals,” AltaTerra drew upon a wealth of company reports and interviews. Among the companies interviewed and highlighted in the report are Lockheed Martin, Palm (recently acquired by HP), Genentec and eBay.
According to AltaTerra, green teams are employee groups formed to address issues of the environment and sustainability. Membership on the green teams is, largely, voluntary, and the self-organizing, synergistic and evolutionary nature of the teams is a dynamic that lays outside conventional corporate culture. As such, green teams are often view, says AltaTerra, as employee clubs.
Therein may lay the problem. Because along with self-organizing and constant evolution come struggles with identity and direction that can generate participant frustration and impede results.
Still, AltaTerra reports, there are six categories in which green teams operate rather successfully:
Environmental Awareness and Behaviors;
Infrastructure Improvements;
Infrastructure Use Programs;
Product and Service Ideation;
Product and Service Piloting; and
Stakeholder Engagement.
While these activities augment, but don’t replace daily business operations, they can add intrinsic and extrinsic value to the company. The existence of green teams can help companies enhance brand reputation, strengthen relationships with customers and stakeholders, improve efficiencies, and stimulate innovation, as well as helping to attract and retain employees. (The study notes that losing and replacing a good employee costs a company from 70 to 200 percent of the employee’s annual salary, so this last point cannot be dismissed lightly.)
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